Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Site: Worker Safety Training

Disaster Site Worker Safety

Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Site: Worker Safety Training

Gary Kukal, HMTRI - Chip Hughes, NIEHS - Dan Snyder, HMTRI

Disaster Preparedness Training: Making an Impact in the Gulf Region

In the heart of New York City the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) recently recognized two local Safety Professionals with medals for their extraordinary work during recovery and cleanup operations following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Mississippi and Louisiana. The awards ceremony took place during the NIEHS annual Fall Awardee Meeting. Dan and Gary lead discussions during break out sessions at the technical workshops on their experiences with disaster site worker training program development. The event was the capstone of successful ten month mission of training disaster site workers.

NIEHS awarded funding to the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute (HMTRI) for deploying a Katrina-Response training team which was lead by two accomplished local Springfield Safety Professionals; Dan Snyder and Gary Kukal of Performance Based Safety LLC. [Picture 2] During the year long training mission, October "05-"06, Dan and Gary's hand picked team delivered over 700 hrs of instruction to more than 12,000 federal Katrina-Rita response workers.

Dust Flies Over Katrina's Debris

Hurricane Katrina, a category 4 event, made landfall with 140 mph winds and a 30+ foot storm surge on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle on August 29, 2005. Katrina hit the Louisiana/Mississippi area the hardest, with the Eye wall making landfall in between Slidel Louisiana, and Diamondhead, Mississippi. The storm surge in Hancock county Mississippi, Bay St Louis and Waveland, was 30+ feet. The surge dropped to 25 feet in Harrison County, Biloxi and Gulfport. However, because the storm was so large, high and damaging winds and storm surges smashed the entire Mississippi coast, extending from Bay St Louis, through Gulfport, Biloxi, and east to Pascagoula. In these and other coastal towns such as Waveland, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Ocean Springs, and Gautier, often the only remnants of entire neighborhoods are concrete foundation slabs. New Orleans was affected differently by the event when the levee system protecting the City experienced multiple failures resulting in 3-16 foot flood waters for lasting for weeks. "Regardless of the circumstances, the reality is that 90,000 square miles were declared a federal disaster site and it would take a lot of people working in hazardous conditions to recover and rebuild the Gulf Coast," says Dan.

Dan and Gary adopted what is known as the Systematic Approach to Training (SAT) as the model for training government assets and prime contractors and in developing instruction that meets the training needs of disaster site workers. As comprehensive yet flexible system SAT is designed to:

Identifying behaviors performed on the job
Selecting those critical behaviors for which instruction is necessary
Developing and conducting the best objective-based instruction to teach those behaviors in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and economy
Evaluating not only worker performance of the objectives, but also the ability of the curriculum to meet the stated objectives
Revising content that fails to meet those objectives.

The goal of disaster-site safety training and education is to develop effective and efficient instruction that promotes transfer of learning from the instructional setting to safety performance on the job.

Katrina response and recovery operations are long-term. When rescue activities were concluded in early September, a much longer period of sustained recovery operations began. FEMA assigned the USACE the mission of removing debris and structural demolition from public rights-of-way and private property in areas designated by county or city governments. Current estimates range as high as 100 million cubic yards of debris to be removed from Mississippi and Louisiana. USACE works with the private contractors to remove debris from public rights-of-way and perform other critical work such as installing "blue roofs" to protect dwellings that remained standing but lost roofing during the storm. Prime contractors for USACE are required to conduct safety training and supervise worker safety much of which was provided by Dan and Gary. OSHA until recently was not in a compliance enforcement mode, but served as technical experts. OSHA along with USACE Safety managers and Dan and Gary's Team intervened with workers and supervisors though safety briefings, training, on-site observations/feedback techniques Both Dan and Gary agree that working with the people down there was inspiring and helping to rebuild their lives following Katrina is one of the most significant events in their lives, both personally and professionally. "We participated in the weekly Interagency Safety Committee meetings and had the privilege of working with the best safety and health professionals in the government." states Dan Snyder.

Dan Snyder snyder@safetyconsultants.org
Gary Kukal gkukal@safetyconsultants.org

The National Institute of Health Sciences (NIEHS) awards grant to The Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute (HMTRI) to implement Katrina-Response training team.

Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Preparedness Training

Katrina Disaster Relief Consultants

The safety consultant professionals involved in the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Preparedness Training include Dan Snyder as the Team Lead/Training Manager, Gary Kukal as the Curriculum Designer/Trainer, and Carol Hanson as the Logistical Coordinator leading several part-time trainers. Dan and Gary work closely with FEMA, OSHA, and U.S. Corps of Engineers (USACE) officials at the Biloxi and Jackson Joint Field Offices (JFO) to identify the training needs of federal agencies and deliver training to federally-deployed contractors in Mississippi and Louisiana. The curriculum and power points are available on the NIEHS Clearinghouse website www.wetp.org. The mission is to protect the health and safety of federal employees and federally-deployed contractors (federal assets) who are engaged in Gulf clean-up by (1) continuing to provide NIEHS-sponsored Katrina-response training that meets needs identified in OSHA's Worker Safety and Health Support Annex to the National Response Plan, and (2) by serving as the Coordinator for all NIEHS-supported training occurring in Mississippi.

The major hazards included: Work zones/Flagging, chain saw, falls, electrical power lines, dust, traffic, heart attack/stress, cuts/abrasions, infections, heavy equipment roll over, struck by, mosquitoes and nasty biting sand fleas. We are working with the Regulatory Agencies and contractors to deliver tail-gate/tool-box style safety and disaster preparedness training presentations along with some more traditional classroom style training sessions. Current operations involve tree and loose debris removal, waterway debris removal, vehicle and vessel salvage, hazardous materials clean-ups, demolition activities and rebuilding.

Dan Snyder, CSP
katrina@safetyconsultants.org