Mother Nature Gone Wild

Floods in Texas. Wildfires in Florida. Tornadoes in California. Lightning strikes anywhere. Sinkholes in Louisiana. Hurricanes in Houston. Ice storms in Atlanta. Landslides in Oregon. Droughts in the Northeast. Heat emergencies in Minnesota. Blizzards in Alabama.

It is sometimes said that when “Man plans, Mother Nature laughs”, which is a modern paraphrase of the old Yiddish proverb: “Man plans, and God laughs.”
The original saying means that human beings make plans. Still, fate, or forces beyond our control, often have other ideas, and have appeared in various articles, commentaries, and social media posts about climate and disaster resilience.

Over the past year, every one of these natural disasters has struck American communities, often where no one expected them. The pattern is unmistakable: extreme weather no longer respects geography, season, or precedent.

Whether you blame climate change, bad luck, or simply weather gone wild, the cause is irrelevant when you’re responsible for people’s safety. As an employer, you have a clear duty of care to anticipate these threats, prepare response procedures, and train every employee because when disaster hits, preparation is the only thing that isn’t left to chance.

Perhaps your current workplace emergency plan calls for fire and active shooter. But “Mother Nature Gone Wild: has put your workplace at higher risk than traditional risk planning. 

Is it required that every employer prepare for Mother Nature's worst-case scenarios?  Yes. 

First, your duty of care is defined by federal statute. “Each employer shall furnish…a place of employment…free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.” {29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1)}. 
 
Second, the standard to which you will be held at court is NFPA 1660. It mandates All-Hazards planning and training, identifying all of the above disasters. 

Third, training is everything.  If you don’t get the words off your paper and into
your employees’ heads, operationally and legally, you will fail. Training is defined by federal law: 

• OSHA requires that everyone, from the CEO to the newly hired administrative assistant, be trained, not just your emergency team.
• OSHA requires that every workplace in the United States, without exception, shall train all employees in emergency response annually. 
• The regulations require training upon hire. OSHA’s position: “Your first day on the job should not be your last day on earth.” 
• OSHA requires that training shall be in a classroom with a “qualified” trainer, who has bona fide training, experience, or certification. 
• The law requires that planning and training be site-specific. 
• On-screen training can supplement. However, it can never fully substitute for annual classroom training. On-screen training does not comply operationally or legally. 

Given that Mother Nature Gone Wild will impact employees working remotely
simultaneous to the impact of your facility, your responses will have to be complex to cover all employees working everywhere.  Your command, control, and communications must be robust, utilizing multiple messaging platforms to function effectively during a city-wide or region-wide natural disaster. This may involve working for extended periods, potentially spanning multiple days, if the communications infrastructure is compromised.  
 
Most employers’ current plans for Mother Nature Gone Wild involve asking employees to refer to the employer’s website, call an 800 number for updates, or use their best judgment about commuting. At court, all these will be deemed negligent. The jury, armed with commas and zeros, will then award millions to any employee, contractor or visitor who is injured or killed. 

The courts have ruled for 50 years that your duty of care is non-delegable. You can’t outsource risk. Your CEO is the party responsible under federal law. There is nothing easy here. Plan, train, drill and exercise to meet your duty of care to ensure Mother Nature Gone Wild is not a lethal surprise to you and your employees.