When Hurricane Harvey thundered ashore August 2017 and swamped the Houston area, it temporarily knocked out a quarter of the area’s refining capacity and affected numerous sites. Once flooding subsided and operations were able to return to normal, many in the industry evaluated what their facilities could have done differently to better prepare or recover from the storm.
At the Covestro Baytown facility, Site Manager and Vice President Rod Herrick saw Hurricane Harvey as an opportunity to make improvements not only at his facility but throughout the region. Using his role as chairman of the Baytown Plant Managers Network and his board position for the East Harris County Manufacturers Association (EHCMA), he pulled together guides and learnings from companies throughout the area into one best practices document for severe weather planning — specifically for hurricanes.
“We may be competitors in one sense, but when it comes to safety, we all work together to make sure we secure the safety of our people and communities, the facilities and the environment,” Herrick said. “It only takes one good idea that another site implements that could make a major difference in our responses — it could save a life.”
The information gathered was wide-ranging, from the manufacturing technical aspects of coordinating shutdowns and start-ups to managing essential items for employees and their families. But other examples involve the human side of a storm: employees and the communities in which the industry operates in.
“Our most important asset is our people, and we want to make sure we take care of them,” Herrick said. “Whether it means making sure employees at the facility have food and critical supplies or their families are taken care of by helping them personally recover from devastation, we want to make sure we can help them. The faster you can help employees take care of their personal items, the quicker they can focus on their daily lives and help our recovery efforts at our site.”
While Herrick hopes another Harveytype storm never returns to this area, he feels assured the facility has strengthened its response and will continue to improve should the waters rise again.
For LyondellBasell, each of its Gulf Coast sites has a specific preparedness plan that includes strategies to help mitigate the impact of severe weather, including flooding.
“We regularly evaluate these plans and, as appropriate, incorporate lessons learned,” said LyondellBasell Vice President of Health, Safety, Environment and Security Dale Friedrichs. “We, along with a broad coalition of our industry peers, are advocating for federal officials to build a ‘coastal spine,’ a protective barrier that would help protect our communities and our facilities from a storm surge.”
Applied learnings from prior storms certainly shape ongoing preparedness, and Phillips 66 also strives for continuous improvement.
“Hurricane Harvey reiterated the importance of utilizing current advancements in technology for improved crisis communications and impact assessments,” said Phillips 66 General Manager of Strategy and Planning for Refining David Erfert. “For example, since Harvey, employees have been encouraged to update their mobile phone numbers in our internal company phone book to ensure they can receive safety and security text alerts if needed. When preparedness plans are activated, text alerts can provide employees and contractors with critical information. Text alerts, as learned last year, can provide a supplemental source of information to our existing facility hotlines, local media and law enforcement warnings.”
Additionally, Erfert emphasized that advanced technologies like drones allow for quick evaluation and faster response so operations can resume as quickly and as safely as possible.
“Phillips 66 is committed to revisiting and strengthening hurricane preparedness plans and procedures as technology and best practices continue to evolve,” he said.
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