Weather-Related Events

We pointed out earlier that most emergency plans address fire, medical emergencies, and the accidental release or spills of hazardous materials. Note that the development of emergency response plans should also factor in other possible emergencies— natural disasters, floods, explosions, and/or weather-related events that could occur and certainly will occur. Now, emergency response to terrorist activity or threats must also be added to the list. 

Since earliest prehistory, much of human life, technology, and culture have been defined by our constant struggle against the forces of nature. Because weather-related events are ubiquitous and can occur without warning, humans have had little recourse but to prepare to respond to the wrath of the environment in which they live. Environmental devastation caused by natural hazards of terrestrial origin (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, hurricanes and other severe... 

A FIRM provides the user a number of important details relative to the potential for flooding in a given area, due to weather related events. Special Hazard Flood Areas (SHFA), the flood insurance zones, 100-year flood elevations (base flood elevations), 500-year flood elevations, and areas designated as a regulatory floodway are indicated on a FIRM. 

Since 2007, government data on extended mass job layoffs indicate that only a very tiny fraction of such job layoffs (about 0.3 percent of the 1.5 million such layoffs each year) were attributed by employers to government reg-ulations/intervention, the paper says. Similarly, a study that reviewed job layoffs due to environmental regulations in previous decades found that such regulations caused much less than one percent of extended mass layoffs. By comparison, extreme weather-related events have caused more extended mass job layoffs than government regulation, according to the data. 

The U.S. has sustained 62 weather related disasters ever the Iasi 24 years with overall damages/costs exceeding 1.0 billion for each event. 

Go to the National Traffic and Road Closure Information Web site at http //www.fhwa.dot.gov/ trafficinfo/index.htm. In the event of a natural disaster involving severe weather conditions, locate updated information on the status of roads in your state and locality. What other Web sites could you go to for current weather-related road conditions during a disaster What aspects of a disaster plan would this information change ... 

Consider supply chains that face significant short-term changes events that require rapid adjustment and adaptation of flows. In a book titled Orchestrating Supply Chain Opportunities, Iyer and Zelikovsky [63] focus on the information system as one tool to manage events that include weather-related disruptions (like Hurricane Katrina), product failures that require rapid redesign (Uke the Kryptonite bicycle lock), demand surges (such as those faced by Amazon.com), among others. 

Laboratory incidents can be small or large, and have either fairly trivial outcomes or disastrous, even fatal, outcomes. In almost all cases, incidents happen because someone took a brown risk or didn t know about a risk that they could and should have known about. If risk assessment and risk management procedures are thoughtfully addressed, virtually all lab incidents are preventable. The exceptions to these circumstances are episodes caused by weather-related tragedies (such as a lightning strike that takes out a power system, causing an unexpected hazard) or acts of terrorism where someone intentionally creates a hazardous situation. In our culture we take some steps to prevent and proactively prepare for such events but there are limits in these strategies. Most lab incidents do not involve these circumstances. 

Warehouse Emergency Procedures for Fire, Chemical Spill, Medical, and Weather. A good emergency plan covers all of the possible events that could occur in a warehouse. It is very important that new employees understand the basic procedures to follow if a fire of any size breaks out, if a chemical spill occurs in a work area, if a medical emergency arises, and if a tornado, earthquake, or any other serious weather-related emergency arises. 

These changes may be related to the two warm winters that occurred in 1998 and 1999, which could affect the balance between input of freshwater from the rivers and saline water from the Bosporus and the winter formation of the oxygen-rich CIL. These years are remarkable for the increase of the Sea surface temperature (Fig. 8), increase of temperature in the core of the CIL [82,85-87], and shoaling of the CIL in the density field [48]. All these events can be connected with the weather condition oscillations, as follows from North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) index behavior (Fig. 8). 

Preparedness/Risk Assessment Evaluate the facility s vulnerabilities or propensity for disasters. Issues to consider include weather patterns geographic location expectations related to public events and gatherings age, condition, and location of the facility and industries in close proximity to the hospital (e.g., nuclear power plant or chemical factory). 

Warm weather events Increase the likelihood of heat-related problems, especially among athletes, but also among the spectators. 

Weather conditions are a major factor in the types of illnesses and injuries that the nurse will need to respond to. Papal visits to San Antonio and Denver resulted in many persons with heat-related illnesses (Gordon, 1988 Paul, 1993). Rapid changes in weather patterns during a mass event are associated with an increased number of individuals seeking care (Walsh, 1994). Insect stings occur primarily in warm weather. Warm weather events increase the likelihood of heat-related problems. 

Daily pollen and spore counts provide a snapshot of the atmosphere in a given area and typically represent the average daily concentration from a single air sampler. However, a great deal of variability exists within the atmosphere and physicians should be aware of the clinical implications of this variability. Major causes of variability relate to the diurnal rhythms of spore discharge, discharge related to weather events, seasonal effects, and spatial effects. Also contributing to variability are the ways that different spore types respond to environmental conditions. 

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