According to the United Nations Environment Program (unep.org) the past decade was the hottest on record resulting in record breaking fires, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Contributing to the overall rising temperatures was the continual increase of heat trapping emissions (predominantly methane and carbon dioxide), which have risen 62% since 1990. Confirming that, NASA says that “If warming reaches 2 degrees Celsius, more than 70 percent of Earth’s coastlines will see sea-level rise greater than 0.66 feet (0.2 meters), resulting in increased coastal flooding, beach erosion, salinization of water supplies and other impacts on humans and ecological systems.” Without drastic changes, this is the projected path we are on. Is your building prepared?
Other than changing building methods to reduce emissions and negate the effects of extreme heat and severe weather, what can be done to prepare and protect against climate change?
The main thing relative to preparation is understanding the environmental threats to your building and how they can change. It’s very possible that when built, your building was not in a flood zone. That may not be the case anymore. To prepare for future events, you need to understand the current threat exposure to your location. As we have seen over the past few years, storms, fires, and floods are all getting more severe and are affecting a broader range of locations than previously seen. Hurricanes are coming in off the coast strong enough to affect the weather patterns several states away and deep inland. Fires in the western half of the US have produced enough smoke to affect air quality for eastern cities on the opposite side of the continent. If you are a property owner or manager, you need to be aware of what is happening not just in your city or state, but of any large weather event across the country.
One of the most prominent aspects of climate change is the stunning rainfall amounts that are occurring in concentrated areas, obliterating precipitation records. You don’t have to be close to a coastline or waterway to experience catastrophic flooding, as is evidenced with great frequency these days. Drainage systems were never built to manage the amount of water we’re seeing. As temperatures rise, the atmosphere releases greater and greater amounts of rainfall.
Being aware of your threat matrix allows you to prepare effectively to safeguard not just your property but your tenants. Having the Massey System helps to facilitate that preparation. In the case of a severe weather emergency, the Massey System, comprising of a building pre-plan and mobile app, provides easy accessible information on your building’s infrastructure, as well as vital procedural “event articles”. These expert written prepare/react/recover guides allow your staff to effectively manage these threats, including links to a multitude of associated articles (power outage, flooding, gas leak, power lines down, chemical release, window loss, etc). The core objective is to minimize property loss, threat to human life and building/tenant downtime. You must prepare for the inability of first responders coming to you to save the day, so self-sufficiency is important. Even planning for the inability to replenish generator fuel supplies due to road closures/flooding/debris filled streets must be taken into account.
Massey Flood Plans evaluate your property and create an all-encompassing game plan to mitigate floodwater damage and related problems. The Massey Tenant Training Portal and Virtual Evacuation Drill programs also provide a highly advanced mechanism for tenant and asset protection needs that far exceeds the norm. Train your tenants virtually on how to react to an event and how to safely evacuate if needed.
Our 400 years of first responder expertise is truly unparalleled in the life safety industry, as well as our deep relationships with the first responder community that involve classroom training, large-scale field exercises and the acceptance of the Massey System into their response protocols. No other life safety firm can match what we’ve been able to achieve.