Recovery is the plan
Disaster preparation leads the agenda as 4,000 facility managers gather with hurricanes and wildfires on their minds
B ERTHA Neal-Eley was the facility manager for a Houston insurance company when Hurricane Ike hit nearly a decade ago.
The storm damaged the roof of her company’s six-story office building in Upper Kirby, flooding the firm. That’s when Neal-Eley, now president of the International Facility Management Association’s Houston chapter, realized the importance of preparing for natural disasters.
“You’ve got to have a contingency plan,” Neal-Eley said Thursday as more than 4,000 facility managers from around the world attended the management group’s annual convention in Houston.
After a trio of major hurri-
canes this year — Harvey in Texas, Irma in Florida and Maria in Puerto Rico — many attendees were interested in how they could keep buildings secure and businesses running, organizers said.
Some 40 percent of small businesses never reopen after a major disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That’s why it’s important for businesses to get back to work quickly.
“If you don’t get back up and running after 30 days, your employees go to other places or your customers go away,” said Jim Wills, managing director of ServiceMaster, an international restoration company.
Facility managers oversee the maintenance and operation of commercial buildings, such as hospitals, hotels, condos, convention centers, concert halls and airports. Historically, facility managers had more of a cleaning and caring role over their buildings.
However, as natural disasters have become more destructive and costly, facility managers are playing an increasing role in preparing companies and their buildings for hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and tornadoes.
That shift was evident at this year’s convention. On the trade show floor, vendors hawked sit-stand office desks, state-of-the-art towel dispensers and electric car-charging stations. But several also showcased disaster-preparedness tools, like evacuation stair chairs, mobile security camera systems and backup generators.
“This is a very apropos topic right now,” said Laurie Gilmer, vice president of Facility Engineering Associates.
Gilmer works in Santa Rosa, Calif., where wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. Her office was spared, but two hotels across the street and a nearby winery burned down. Gilmer and her colleagues have worked remotely for the past two weeks, she said.
“Some of these disasters have been so unusual in the extent and breadth of their impact,” Gilmer said. “People are now thinking it could happen at their doorstep.”
During Harvey, facility managers were instrumental in getting businesses back up and running, Neal-Eley said.
One facility manager for a Houston energy company had to transfer more than 500 employees to another building when their office building in the Energy Corridor flooded. Another had to figure out how 130 employees could work from home when their three-story office building downtown burned to the ground.
“We stepped up and did our job,” Neal-Eley said of her 360 members in Houston.
Even the International Facility Management Association, whose headquarters are in Memorial City, had to mobilize disaster plans. Its 60 local employees worked from home and maintained their operations through Harvey. During recent hurricanes, the association’s online forums lit up with advice from facility managers in Houston and Florida.
The group held several seminars this year, encouraging facility managers to formulate plans before the next big disaster. Companies should determine a chain of command and how they will communicate with employees. Businesses should also figure out ways employees can work remotely if they can’t get back into their office building.
Diane Levine, president of Long Beach, Calif.based Workplace Management Solutions, conducted a simulation with attendees during her seminar. Facility managers had to cope with power outages and structural damage to their office building after a mock earthquake.
In addition to physical threats to buildings, facility managers must also be vigilant of increasing cybersecurity threats, which have affected companies like Target and Equifax, Levine said.
“Business resilience is going to be more and more important,” she said.