NATE’s thoughts and prayers are with those citizens who are currently working or living in areas where Hurricane Matthew’s path is projected to cross. Keeping safety at the forefront is critical to ensure everyone makes it home safely and to aid in the success of our industry.
Protecting your property from high winds can involve a variety of actions, from inspecting and maintaining your building to installing protective devices. Most of these actions, especially those that affect the exterior shell of your building, should be carried out by qualified maintenance staff or professional contractors licensed to work in your state, county, or city.
Many of the hazards posed to workers will occur immediately after the storm has passed, such as cleanup and restoration work. Workers and volunteers involved with flood cleanup should be aware of the potential dangers involved and the proper safety precautions. Work-related hazards that could be encountered include: electrical hazards, carbon monoxide, musculoskeletal hazards, heat stress, motor vehicles, hazardous materials, fire, confined spaces and falls.
As part of NATE’s dedication to the health and safety of all NATE members and their employees, the Association wants you to be aware of this information highlighting hurricane preparedness and response from the OSHA website below. Remind everyone that their lives and the lives of their fellow workers depend on the decisions they make. The rush to fix a problem or deploy a site can seem overriding, but the cost of an accident is far more disruptive to a company than any service outage.
The Preparedness page outlines the warnings and watches used for hurricanes, including the five categories used to rate the strength of a hurricane. The page also contains information on creating evacuation plans and supply kits.
The Response/Recovery page features a link to OSHA’s Hurricane eMatrix, which features information on hazard exposures and risk assessments for hurricane response and recovery work. The information in the matrix is organized based on the types of activities performed so that it is easy for workers to identify the precautions they should take based on the tasks they will be performing.
Each employer is responsible for the safety and health of its workers and for providing a safe and healthful workplace for its workers. Employers are required to protect workers from the anticipated hazards associated with the response and recovery operations that workers are likely to conduct. For additional information on Workers’ Rights, Employer Responsibilities, and other services OSHA offers, visit www.osha.gov.
Additional hurricane safety and preparedness information can be found: on the CDC’s Hurricanes and Other Tropical Storms page, the Weather Channel’s Hurricane Safety and Preparedness page and the NOAA (Nat’l Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin.) Hurricane Preparedness page.
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