A significant tornado outbreak has, once again, destroyed the lives of hundreds of families in the blink of an eye. For those of you in the Heartland of America, tornadoes and severe thunderstorm damage are nothing new. This outbreak has stomped its way into the record books as an unprecedented event — but at least two of the heartbreaking stories of destruction should have you thinking about your safety plan for your processing business.
First, around 8:30 p.m. local time, Dec. 10, an EF3 tornado ripped through an Amazon distribution warehouse in Edwardsville, Ill., killing six people in the building and cutting through approximately half of what looks like a typical “tilt up” facility, similar to those that have been springing up all over the nation’s landscape in recent years. At the time of this writing, it has been reported that many of the casualties were third-party delivery drivers who, in the face of the storm bearing down on the community, were instructed to park their vans outside, enter the facility and head into the nearest bathroom. The building collapsed in on them under the tremendous strain of the tornado winds.
My initial reaction to the numerous complaints and articles about worker safety at Amazon, admittedly, was that complaints ignored the randomness factor of a tornado — as though anything less than a direct hit would have caused the same type of damage.
For all those complaints, Amazon’s employees at the facility appear to have gone to the appropriate shelter and had time to do so. Thus, the unfortunate issue here is that Amazon may not have thought two steps ahead to its delivery drivers who might scramble to the distribution center for safety rather than go home or find shelter elsewhere.
The second catastrophic direct hit in this outbreak that should also have you assessing your severe weather policies and the communication around them is the tornado that leveled the Mayfield Consumer Products candle processing facility in Mayfield, Ky. Eight people died in this facility, and there are already lawsuits and accusations flying around the actions (and inaction) of management at the company and facility.
For you, the processor, this should serve as a gut-check for you. In the meat industry, we’ve all been in that “busy season” just as Amazon and Mayfield Consumer Products was when the tornadoes hit. Many of you have facilities built in similar fashion to these buildings.
Now is the time to make sure everyone who is affiliated with your facility knows your severe weather policies clearly and thoroughly. They need to know that “seasonal” throughput doesn’t outweigh employee safety. After that is clear, they must know where to go when there are only seconds to spare to ensure their safety.
When was the last time you explained these things to your management teams and your workers? When was the last time you truthfully ran your plant personnel through a tornado drill? Do third-party vendors know what to do when severe weather hits? Are there in-plant champions and leaders who can direct visitors to the proper areas quickly and efficiently?
When you receive tornado warnings on your phone, what’s your first inclination or move? As a society, we often become desensitized to the warnings, believing it couldn’t happen here, or that the tornado could just skip right by or over us.
Certainly, had these tornadoes made a slight wobble left or right, we might not be lamenting the loss of so many workers in either of these facilities. But you cannot roll the dice that a tornado will do anything predictable. And you shouldn’t roll the dice with your employees’ lives either.
Be prepared, make sure your people are prepared, and then hope for the best.
— Andy Hanacek, vice president of Communications, andyh@werfoodsafety.com
