Hurricane Florence this morning is bearing down on the Carolinas. Our Thoughts and prayers go out to the folks who may lose loved ones, their homes and businesses in the path of the storm. We'll continue to watch the situation.
Meantime, those of us in the rest of the country have good reason to consider whether we've done enough to prepare for the next major storm.
Over on a website called Construction Executive, Andrew Gilbert, Project Manager with CBRE Healthcare, writes that "Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recorded that the North Atlantic saw the third highest number of major hurricanes to date. North America alone saw three tropical storms and four hurricanes make landfall, the most since 2005.”
“As the 2018 hurricane season takes shape (running from June 1 to Nov. 30), it’s imperative to begin construction site hurricane planning efforts early and to be as prepared as possible prior to any storm,” Gilbert says. “Preparing for a storm can help ensure the safety of not only project and onsite teams, but also of the surrounding communities."
To that end, Gilbert says there are ten things managers can do now to better prepare for the next major storm:
- DEVELOP AND REVIEW A HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS AND SAFETY PLAN
- CREATE A CONSTRUCTION SITE RISK REGISTER
- ESTABLISH A RIDE-OUT TEAM
- EVALUATE TOWER CRANE RISKS
- PREPARE YOUR HOME FOR THE STORM AND COMPLETE A PERSONAL/FAMILY EVACUATION PLAN
- MONITOR REPORTS AND LOCAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
- DOCUMENT ALL WORK IN PROGRESS AND TAKE INVENTORY OF MATERIALS AND ONSITE TEAMS
- REQUEST ACCESS TO THE FACILITIES DISASTER COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
- ASSESS THE DAMAGE AFTER THE STORM
- DECIDE TO LEAVE OR RIDE OUT THE STORM
Check out Gilbert’s entire article by clicking here. And a hat tip to Mike Karlins over at Calvetti Ferguson in their Woodlands Office for the link to the information.
