Natural disasters over the last few years have tested preparedness and response plans of the chemical and petrochemical industries on or near the Gulf coast. Although responses were generally well managed and as efficient as conditions allowed, says the CCPS, there is always room for improvement.

In these cases, experience is often the best teacher, but everyone should not have to experience the same thing to learn from it. AIChE’s CCPS member companies believe that sharing experiences and learning from others are effective and efficient ways of improving performance and reducing risk.

With that goal in mind, Lessons learned from natural disasters, which is funded by the United Engineering Foundation, pulls together, analyses, and presents in a ‘how to use’ format the recent experiences and successes of various CCPS member companies. It includes their lessons learned, and advice on how to prepare for and recover from a natural disaster. Most of this information comes from workshops held last year.

This pamphlet merely suggests and in no way sets a standard or expectation for performance or actions. In the end, says the CCPS, it is the responsibility of each company and its employees to act on their beliefs and available information to secure their site, protect their employees, and protect the community.

The 34-page pamphlet has six sections and takes a risk-based approach in addressing the chronological phases of dealing with a natural disaster: introduction, preplanning, just before the disaster strikes, during the disaster, after the disaster, references and appendices.

Within preplanning are six

sub-sections covering: risk assessments; natural disaster plan; communications; logistics; security, identification and access permissions; drills and cumulative learnings.

An example from the ‘drills’ section starts: “Design your drills for the types of natural disasters you can reasonably expect depending on your facility’s location, natural disaster history, and emergency response agencies preparedness plans.” It tells companies to make drills as realistic and comprehensive as possible. Of particular importance to validate/test during the drill are:

• Communications – do they work as planned?
• Participants’ knowledge – does each participant know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and can they actually do it?
• Safety and security – do measures/actions taken to ensure the safety and security of personnel, the facility, the ecosystem, and the community, work as planned?
• Access – can those needing access to the site get through the maze of local, state and federal barriers?

“If a natural disaster has occurred in the past and/or if one has occurred at another facility similar to yours, use that as a model for your drill. If it is impossible or impractical to conduct a full involvement drill, start to finish, consider conducting staged or topic drills,” concludes this section.

The third stage, just before the disaster strikes, has three sections covering securing the facility, supplies and shelter, and backup systems.

Under ‘securing the facility’, the pamphlet says: “Securing the facility involves reducing the risks that the facility will impose on itself and others during the natural disaster. One risk reduction item to address is housekeeping. Any and all items that might become missiles in high winds must be removed, stored away, and/or tied down. Look for any chemicals stored in drums or buckets and store them in a secure location to prevent spillage. Remove unnecessary vehicles from roads, clean out truck beds of items that may fly off, pick up loose insulation and uninstalled piping materials, tools and signs. Look for anything that will impose a hazard in high winds or rising water. Bottom line – clean the house like your mother-in-law will be visiting!”

The fourth stage also has three subsections – safety, security and communications. Under security, for example, it says, “During the disaster, the facility may incur damages that adversely affect its security or security systems. Usually little, if anything, can be done during the disaster. Notification should be made to the offsite Emergency Command Center, and plans for immediate repairs should be scheduled as soon as circumstances allow it to be done safely. If complete repairs are not possible in the short term, consider temporary repairs and/or alternate systems.”

Fifth is ‘after the disaster’ and has seven sections: damage assessment and short-term emergency repairs; security; communications with the outside world; recovery; staffing; restart; and a critique.

It starts: “Immediately after the disaster there will be a strong desire to get outside to see the damage. Resist that urge until you are sure that the danger has passed and it is safe to venture outside of the command post. Do not forget to consider the possibility of chemical releases. Use the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when venturing outside until monitoring proves it is safe. Communicate your status to the offsite command post and let them know that you are going outside. Consider sending a small team out first to validate your assumption that it is safe. Then follow up with more people in small groups. Keep the small groups separate from each other so that each can function as a rescue team for any other team that needs help. Until you are absolutely sure that the hazards are recognised and the risk is acceptable, keep at least one person in the command post. All teams should carry portable communication equipment and stay in touch with the other teams and the command post.”

The sixth section, references, lists sources of useful other information. Finally, the appendices section has six example lists for companies to study and modify for their own use. These include an example list of major decisions to be made, an example checklist of communications equipment needed, and example risk analyses for both onsite and offsite consequences of concern.

The full pamphlet can be found at http://www.aiche.org/CCPS/index.aspx. In addition, the CCPS invites comments, saying: “We plan to make this a living document so the more information that is gathered, the better it becomes.” Feedback can be sent to ccps@aiche.org