Representatives from OSHA’s Region VI Regional Office and
Area Offices in Louisiana and Texas responded quickly to protect workers and
others after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike hit the Gulf Coast in September 2008.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Area Office
Soon after the hurricanes struck, the Baton Rouge Area Office worked with Region
VI’s Regional Response Team to conduct interventions and staff the Emergency
Operations Center (EOC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s)
Joint Field Office (JFO).
OSHA participated in many interventions to ensure safe work practices were used
in hurricane recovery activities, including successful interventions that
resulted from OSHA’s relationships with its cooperative program participants.
For example, OSHA used its relationship with Entergy Corporation, a power
company and Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) participant, to resolve a
potentially hazardous situation. On September 6, 2008, Entergy linemen who were
repairing utility lines observed U.S. Army Corps of Engineer contractors
installing generators in an unsafe manner and informed OSHA. OSHA’s liaison at
FEMA’s JFO informed the Corps of Engineers’ representative at the JFO about this
hazard. The Corps of Engineers corrected this hazard by informing its
contractors to use proper procedures for installing generators. The Corps of
Engineers also arranged for representatives from Entergy and the contractors to
be located together at the Corps’ designated area in the JFO so that the parties
could communicate more effectively on safety issues during hurricane response
activities.
In another example of OSHA using its relationship with cooperative program
participants during the hurricane recovery, OSHA worked with Entergy and Shell
Pipeline’s Houma, Louisiana Station (also a VPP participant) to address the
potential hazards associated with striking Shell’s pipeline during Entergy’s
installation of new power poles after the hurricane. On September 18, 2008,
Bruce Stark, OSHA’s VPP Coordinator in the Baton Rouge Area Office, met with
representatives from the two companies to address this issue. Mr. Stark was able
to broker an agreement under which the two companies agreed on procedures to
ensure that the pipeline would not be struck during installation of the poles.
In addition, OSHA worked with the Corps of Engineers and its contractor to
provide fall protection training for subcontractors installing temporary blue
plastic roof sheeting (blue roofs) on homes and buildings damaged by the
hurricanes. Alex Novas and Will Hebert, OSHA Compliance Assistance Specialists
(CASs) with the Baton Rouge Area Office, worked with the Corps of Engineers’
contractor assigned to East Baton Rouge Parish. The contractor conducted
mandatory fall protection training for its subcontractors and provided for
Spanish translation when needed. As part of the training, the contractor
constructed mock roofs at its temporary facility to help demonstrate the proper
use of ladders and personal fall arrest systems. During the initial weeks of the
recovery efforts, several hundred subcontractor employees received this training
and OSHA outreach materials. The OSHA CASs monitored the training and
accompanied Corps of Engineers safety representatives on site inspections. The
CASs also distributed OSHA publications, including QuickCards and fact sheets,
to the contractors and informed them how to access tools on OSHA’s Web site,
including the
Hurricane Recovery
page and the Hurricane eMatrix.
OSHA also worked with the Corps of Engineers to address fall protection measures
used by the contractor assigned to install blue roofs in Terrebonne and
Lafourche Parishes in southeast Louisiana. After discovering a fall incident at
one of the work sites and conducting several interventions at sites where no
fall protection was being used, OSHA expressed its concerns about this
contractor to the Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers met with the
contractor to re-emphasize its contractual obligation to comply with OSHA
standards. OSHA CAS Alex Novas also attended this meeting at the Corps of
Engineers’ request. After this meeting, the contractor’s project manager wrote a
letter to the Corps of Engineers confirming that it would implement additional
fall protection measures for their employees and their subcontractors and comply
with applicable OSHA standards.
Texas Area Offices |
OSHA QuickCard Helped Save Life in Hurricane Katrina Response
OSHA also conducted a massive outreach effort to protect workers in recovery
activities after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Among the
many successes resulting from OSHA’s efforts, one example involved an OSHA
QuickCard. Large quantities of the QuickCards were distributed throughout the
Gulf Coast area to provide safety and health guidance for employees engaged in
hurricane recovery activities.
In this example, a truck driver was delivering debris from the hurricane
cleanup to a landfill in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Personnel at the facility
noticed that the driver’s speech was slurred and that he was sweating
profusely. They later observed that the driver had stopped sweating and that
his skim was clammy. Recognizing the symptoms of heat stroke, the facility
personnel started first aid procedures and called 911. The driver was taken to
the hospital and treated for the early stages of heat stroke. He was released
from the hospital that evening and made a full recovery. Hospital attendants
said that the truck driver likely would have died if the facility personnel
had waited another 15 minutes to call 911.
Facility personnel had received emergency medical training from the Corps of
Engineers and other organizations. In addition, the OSHA Heat Stress QuickCard
was stapled to a wall at the facility as a constant reminder of heat stress
symptoms and appropriate treatment. The reinforcement of their emergency
medical training provided by the QuickCard helped facility personnel quickly
recognize the symptoms of heat stroke and take appropriate action. |
Baton Rouge Area Office CAS Wil Hebert (in "OSHA" shirt) monitors
contractor "blue roof" fall protection training.
OSHA representative from the Corpus Christi, Texas Area Office deliver PPE
to a business owner and workers performing debris removal in Galveston,
Texas.
|
In response to Hurricane Ike, OSHA’s Houston North, Houston South, and Corpus
Christi Area Offices also conducted outreach to protect employees performing
hurricane recovery work. Representatives from these Area Offices contacted the
Incident Command Centers in affected counties and provided them with OSHA fact
sheets and QuickCards related to hurricane recovery. OSHA personnel also
provided technical assistance and OSHA publications at numerous sites where
recovery operations were being performed, including demolition, tree trimming,
roofing, and debris removal.
During their outreach activities, OSHA personnel observed many workers
performing recovery work without the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE).
Upon hearing about this potentially hazardous situation, Cindy Lewis, president
of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Gulf Coast Chapter, offered
to request PPE donations from ASSE members and provide the PPE to OSHA for
distribution to workers. The ASSE Gulf Coast Chapter had a longstanding
relationship with OSHA’s Houston Area Offices, including an Alliance signed in
April 2003 that concluded in May 2007.
The ASSE Gulf Coast Chapter received PPE donations from 28 members and passed
the PPE to OSHA. The OSHA Area Offices distributed approximately 4,000 items of
PPE to workers conducting Hurricane Ike recovery operations. The PPE included
hard hats, Class II reflective vests, safety glasses, and leather gloves. OSHA
staff reported that employers and workers who received the PPE were generally
very thankful.
For more information, contact
Alex Novas,
Region VI CAS, Baton Rouge Area Office, or
Mark Hernandez, Region VI CAS,
Houston South Area Office.
As of December 2008 (updated May 2009).
|
Back to Top
Printing Instructions