Management Planning
Opportunity in Disaster
With a little planning, networking and involvement you can be better prepared to guide your employees and keep them safe, use your resources most efficiently during peak demands, work with governmental organizations and make more profit.
Al Blencoe
Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Preparation for chopping down a tree and planning for a disaster have a lot in common as you will see in this article providing guidance on how to profit handsomely from disaster, if you are prepared.
Just because your community is in the middle of a major disaster does not mean there are not any opportunities for your waste removal business, in fact, quite the contrary. Unexpected events that destroy property and threaten public safety are viewed by most as something to simply be survived. As a member of the industry that handles your community’s normal waste and debris a little preparation may position you to profit financially and collect goodwill in times of disaster, if you are prepared.
Preparedness isn’t just for the Government
Has your company considered the most likely disasters in your area and then proactively developed a plan? You should be prepared to handle the additional load that waste and debris from a disaster will create. You should be certain that you have the manpower and possibly access to additional hauling capacity as well as a plan for where to haul the debris—it may not be destined for your local landfill. Do you understand any special restrictions or temporary changes in ordinance for disaster debris? You should also understand what circumstances will trigger State and Federal financial assistance, who administers the assistance and how it is administered. You must understand any documentation that is required and any approvals of certification that are required in advance and have reasonable expectations of your role in the incident. You should also consider how the equipment you have might be re-purposed in a specific disaster. Few Gulf Coast waste haulers, for instance, had considered how their personnel, specialized clothing and containers could be re-purposed to scoop up Gulf crude and dollars from BP.
You do not have to become an expert in all hazards because the technical intricacies of a disaster rarely change the fact that there is debris left when the disaster is over. Your planning can be as simple as knowing that some things change because of a declared disaster and having a clear understanding of what you need to do or who you need to talk with to get the answers you need. Still, planning beyond the minimum will save you trouble later because the people you want to talk with have a tendency to be a little busy when disaster strikes.
Be Involved in Community Planning
Every year there are hundreds, even thousands of disaster planning meetings throughout the country. Local government bodies, often lead by an Emergency Management Director, ask for local government agencies and private businesses to be part of the planning discussions. Be a part of the planning. Offer your expertise, learn the process and develop the relationships with the people you will need to know in a disaster. Developing relationships during a challenging, disastrous event is like meeting your new stepchildren for the first time at the wedding. You will survive the event. But, you may also appreciate how valuable a little planning might have been! One important point: avoid volunteering your for-profit assets such as equipment and people regardless of how strong the urge. Your equipment and people will be doing their part and someone will pay you to do so—the job is that important, and specialized.
Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)
As disasters of all kinds continue to make headlines, it has become clear that the services provided by government in a disaster will always be challenged by the next larger event. There is an ongoing effort to encourage local citizens and businesses to start and support CERT teams (www.citizencorps.gov/cert/). The simple explanation for why this is important is that disasters require larger numbers of people to participate in the various phases of an event. The better informed and trained the people become, the more efficient and successful the response is likely to be. As an employer sponsoring and encouraging CERT for your team, the rewards appear on several levels. For example, positive PR is always welcome and the employees that have been trained how to respond to the needs of the community will be better prepared to respond to the needs of the company should there be a disrupting event. This also has the potential to be a company morale booster providing employees with a purpose greater than themselves in association with the company. But, be certain not to commit personnel to CERT who will be required in your debris removal efforts as this would be financially counter-productive.
Many corporations include something called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their business plans. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, summarized the reasons for encouraging programs like CERT in your business planning: “CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision making that is the core business of the company or firm, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit.” It is a concept consistent with the management of any socially aware company and worthy of strong consideration.
FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides guidelines for disposing of debris and handling hazardous waste that you need to know if you are going to be prepared to serve your community in a disaster and position yourself for additional profit. Someone is going to get the nod when there is a need and the expectation is to ensure removal is done quickly with minimal risk to people and the environment. Will it be you?
General Debris Management
While there are numerous Federal rules and guidelines, General Debris Management is often guided by your State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) who will help you understand requirements and methods from Federal regulations. This includes handling of asbestos and similar hazardous materials, as well as, disposal by burning which is generally banned, but might be recognized as a best option in certain situations.
Becoming familiar with the federal guidelines for debris management in the event of an emergency will allow you and your company to be better positioned to respond to an event more efficiently and to know the documentation requirements placed on your governmental agencies in order to be eligible for reimbursement.
Items Requiring Special Disposal
FEMA has a list of household items that are expected to be handled differently. However, in the event of a disaster, the possibility of these items being part of general debris is increased. Workers will benefit by knowing what these items are and if they are expected to handle them differently when discovered in the standard debris of a disaster.
Federal disaster guidelines define nearly every kind of debris that may occur, providing procedures for how to best handle and dispose of each. The following is the Foreword to the Debris Management Planning Concepts portion of the FEMA Debris Management Guide:
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) encourages State and local governments, tribal authorities, and private non-profit organizations to take a proactive approach to coordinating and managing debris removal operations as part of their overall emergency management plan. Communities with a debris management plan are better prepared to restore public services and ensure the public health and safety in the aftermath of a disaster, and they are better positioned to receive the full level of assistance available to them from FEMA and other participating entities.” Does your company have a plan? Is your company part of the municipal plan?
Be Better Prepared
If you are a waste hauler, you know your company will be part of any disaster cleanup. With a little planning, networking and involvement you can be better prepared for the next event: better prepared to guide your employees and keep them safe, better prepared to use your resources most efficiently during peak demands, better prepared to work with governmental organizations and, with proper planning, better prepared to make more profit.
Al Blencoe has 27 years of Public Safety experience in Emergency Services and is the Publication Coordinator for LEAPS.TV. He can be reached at (404) 424-9172 or [email protected].
Sidebar
FEMA Debris Management Guide
The FEMA 325 Debris Management Guide states that over a five-year period, debris removal operations accounted for 27 percent of disaster recovery costs. In the case of Hurricane Katrina the cleanup cost for St. Ann Parish, LA alone was $2,900,000. To be clear, this only references those costs qualifying for reimbursement subsequent to a Federal disaster declaration. Being prepared will better position you to acquire the work of disaster and near disaster debris cleanup that is shouldered financially by local government as well.
For more information, visit www.fema.gov/government/grant/pa/demagde.shtm.
Sidebar
Congressional Research Service Disaster Debris Removal After Hurricane Katrina: Status and Associated Issues Report
This US Government report, prepared for Congress (www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33477.pdf) is a must-read for waste company management. The report summarizes the debris results of Hurricane Katrina, “When the demolition of damaged property in the New Orleans metropolitan area is complete, Hurricane Katrina will have generated more than 100 million CY of disaster debris. Before the Gulf Coast region can rebuild, particularly in the New Orleans area, much debris generated by the storm must be removed and properly managed (i.e., landfilled, recycled, or burned). The types of debris generated include vegetation (e.g., trees, limbs, shrubs), municipal solid waste (e.g., common household garbage and personal belongings), construction and demolition debris (in some instances, entire residential structures and all their contents), vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, and boats), food waste, white goods (e.g., refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners), and household hazardous waste (e.g., cleaning agents, pesticides, pool chemicals). Each type of waste may contain or be contaminated with certain toxic or hazardous constituents. In the short term, removal of debris is necessary to facilitate the recovery of the region. In the long term, the methods in which these wastes are to be managed require proper consideration to ensure that their management (e.g., landfilling) would not pose a future threat to human health or the environment.”