Hurricane Preparedness: Staging Sites

As we prepare for the 2021 hurricane season, over the previous six days we have highlighted SAFETY (always #1), STAFFING COVERAGE, PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS, EMERGNECY OPERATIONS PLANS, BUSINESS CONTINUTY PLANS, and the SUPPLY CHAIN. 

Today, we will focus on STAGING SITES. When hurricanes target the U.S. coastline, thousands of utility workers begin to deploy to the area forecasted to be impacted. They do this to support their fellow utilities, but also as a means to help communities recover from these devastating storms.

When it comes to housing these deployed personnel, it is important to consider staging sites (aka base camps) where equipment and personnel responding from across the country can be housed.  Although many EOP’s list hotels, motels and private condos to house these individuals, many times these facilities are commonly damaged and made uninhabitable by hurricanes.

Many organizations and agencies have identified staging sites in their plans and have contracts with vendors that can be initiated with a phone call.  These staging site / base camp vendors can deploy mobile sleeper bunk-trailers, shower facility trailers, and portable kitchen facilities to support the deployment activities. These vendors can also bring with them freezer trailers, dining tents, portable lighting, parking area signage, wash stations, laundry services and even first-aid stations.

It is essential to select the sites and properties that these staging sites will be erected in advance, with consideration given to access to highways, property condition, ensuring they are not in a floodplain, and to make sure that they are large enough to accommodate the necessary volume of trucks and equipment, material and vendors that may be needed to house, feed and support hundreds of out-of-town personnel.  

A best practice is to have these staging sites scattered through the service territory, preselected and predesigned, and under contract, so that these staging site vendors can follow the plans and construct these sites quickly after a hurricane impacts a community. Another option could be a facility within the community that can be used to house deployed workers and equipment. For example, a county fairground populated with buildings in which to place camp-beds, and equipped with a kitchen area and showers, is definitely something to identify in the plan for staging sites. It is also worth considering what can be done increase the productivity of personnel and decrease idle time.

One recommendation is to also design your material area the same for all of your staging site locations. Make sure that there is a safe and well-marked traffic flow throughout the material yard, and that you make it easy on the crews. For instance, have the environmental bins for oil-filled equipment near the entrance, along with the wood pole bins and trash bins. That way the crew can get that used and damaged material off their trucks upon arrival into the yard. Then they can move towards the rows upon rows of material, so that the crews can grab what is needed for the next day.     

By designing each material area the same, when a crew is working at one staging site and are relocated to another, they know that the material bin with 12” bolts is in the same place within the yard, right next to the wooden crossarms. It will make material loading much more streamlined. From a reliability perspective, host utilities want the visiting crews to use their material, since a lot of time and effort went into creating material standards and purchasing recommendations.    

Another productivity activity is to ensure that vehicles are parked in rows according to their fuel type (i.e., gas vs, diesel), with an alley going between them, so that fuel vendors can refuel vehicles at night while crews are resting, saving them time at the start of their next shift. We also had some of our travelling mechanics working at afterhours, so that they could make repairs overnight, ensuring that our vehicles and equipment were operational the next day. 

Tomorrow, we will highlight GENERATORS.