Loss Prevention Hot Topics: Inclement Weather

Not too many places in the Lone Star State witness extreme cold, however cold related injuries and problems can still happen. We are nearing the months or should I say month that we generally have an ice storm occurrence. Unlike our extreme Northern neighbors in the panhandle of Texas, Central and Southern Texas usually only have one or two ice storms a year and they mostly occur in January to mid February. 

Preparation is key

Prepare for colder weather by winterizing your buildings. Here are some tips to adhere to:

• Make sure exposed pipes are wrapped properly. Wrapping exposed pipes will help eliminate the possibility that the pipes may burst. This often causes water damage to property, costs the district money to replace the pipes, and there is always a possibility of injuries to employees.
• Have a good supply of rock salt, sand or a similar substance available. Distributing these materials along sidewalks and pathways assists in eliminating the slip and fall hazard associated with ice.
• Locate any areas of the building or surrounding area that is susceptible for problems during inclement weather. Areas of interest during inclement winter weather could be the furnace area, nearby bodies of water, roadways, tree limbs. Check the working condition of your furnace to make sure that it will function properly during harsher conditions. Nearby frozen bodies of water could create an area of interest to the students and should be blocked off or guarded if possible. Roadways should be observed to make sure they would be safe for travel by busses, parents, students, faculty and staff. Tree limbs can become very dangerous during an ice storm. Ice can cause the limbs to break creating danger for anyone in the pathway of the tree or by creating property damage.
• Make sure you communicate their inclement weather policies to faculty, staff, and parents should an ice storm occur. Your communication system can also be vulnerable during an ice storm. If the storm causes the electricity to fail then the communication system will fail unless you have a back-up generator.

Cold related injuries

Cold related injuries to people will also increase during an ice storm. Our Texas weather has us familiar to extreme hot conditions and we sometimes forget how easy it is to get frostbit or hypothermia when the temperature is just a few degrees below freezing. With this in mind, familiarize yourself with the signs and symptoms of cold related injuries and how to treat them.

Questions? Comments?

If you need assistance with finding these methods you can log onto myTASB with your password and user id to check out the cold related safety kit or contact your loss prevention consultant.