Rethinking Dunes (and Codes) after Sandy

(Note: Scroll to the bottom of the post for hurricane-related courses from RedVector.)

Hurricanes Sandy and Andrew were very different storms more than 20 years apart, but they will have an impact on the way local governments build for decades to come. Andrew spurred major wind mitigation rethinking. Early indications point to flooding and storm surges as being the thrust of Sandy’s legacy.

To that end, seaside communities from Fire Island to Atlantic Beach are reevaluating their dunes strategies. In the recent past, not every community was willing to pony up several million dollars for mounds of sand that would disrupt views and ruin the fun for surfers. But Sandy changed a lot of that thinking.

Long Beach, NY, turned down dunes six years ago. Myriad local opinions drove the city council to vote it down unanimously. Neighboring beach communities to the north and the south swallowed the cost and voted it in. The Army Corps of Engineers designed and built the 15-foot-tall dunes where approved.

The result?

After the storm blew through, Long Beach (with a population of 30,000 people) suffered more than $200 million in damages. Nearby towns with dunes saw a fraction of those damages. Even where the dunes were breached, scientists and community leaders say the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Damage estimates and comparisons between the towns are still being calculated, but the wheels of emergency federal funds are already moving forward with dunes projects. Local government is ready to approve the measures. There is a good chance this won’t be the only policy revisited after Sandy.

When Andrew rolled through South Florida, strict building codes were enacted that reverberated throughout the state. Those in high-risk counties strapped down their roofs and purchased specially-designed doors and windows. Even builders hundreds of miles away from the affected area were impacted by revised codes. And the state’s property insurance landscape has forever changed since the storm.

RedVector training helped architects, engineers and construction companies in Florida adjust to the new restrictions. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on any changes in the Northeast as well. In the meantime, we have a variety of courses designed to keep your customers safe, including:

Coastal Engineering: Hurricanes - The Basics

Coastal Engineering: Storm Surge

Costs and Benefits of Natural Hazard Mitigation 

Earth Dynamics: Tornadoes 

Emergency Management Guide 

Hurricane Damage: Wind vs. Water Determination 

Hurricane Mitigation: Design and Construction Lessons 

And our package:

15 Hour Coastal Engineering and Hurricane Design Package with Ethics 

  

Source: New York Times

LMS and Change Management

You know the eye rolls. The restlessness. They come just after you announce a training class. It’s training malaise! And it isn't welcome in a training-intensive medical environment.

Developing a corporate attitude that welcomes training is just another type of change management. We've all had to learn new policies and procedures and eventually they become second nature.  Training will follow a similar course in an anti-training environment. There will be resistance. People will say they don’t have time. Eyes will roll. Management needs to take action. How?

1)      Is your staff tech-savvy?  Unless your office is tech-savvy, your change management could meet with fear and frustration. Make sure you get over that hump before dragging an LMS in the mix (Pssst! www.smartteam.com can help).

2)      Hold managers accountable. You know what? If my manager thinks a program is a joke, I’m not wasting my time on it. Period. Tackle your managers first, get them on board and the rest will follow.

3)      Meet on it. Taking courses in solitary confinement can make for drudgery and less learning. While the act of sitting through an online course might seem independent and self-contained (headphones, a quiet study area), people don’t often learn like that. Hold offline meetings before or after lessons to review key takeaways. The social interaction will encourage teambuilding and make the lessons more meaningful.

4)      Certificates! I love certificates. I want to reach milestones, get documentation and check items off my to-do list. I’m not alone. Track what training everyone takes and reward good behavior. Our LMS makes it so easy and quite powerful.

5)      Communicate. Even the most training-centric corporate culture will forget about the LMS if you do. We have a million other things to get done, how are you going to hold my attention long enough for me to train after that first month?  Remind me. Email me. Leave posters in   the break room. Post reminders on the intranet. Create contests. Update me in the newsletter. Add a bill-stuffer to my paycheck. If   you continue to be on board with the program, so will I.

Purchasing, creating and perfecting your LMS takes so much time.  But it doesn't end after the programmers send it over. You’ll need to manage it on an ongoing basis like anything else. RedVector will take care of the courses, but you need to take care of your employees.

Holiday Trees: Live or Artificial?

Many people eschew them for the real thing. But if the rush and madness at a local home center’s Black Friday sale is any indication, they are here to stay. Artificial Holiday trees. The $50 doorbuster sold out within nine minutes of the early store opening.

No, thank goodness I wasn't there at the sale. I bought my artificial tree earlier that week. But I've been having environmental guilt.

Artificial Tree?

Is the tree in my living room the best I could have done for the environment? I use reusable bottles, reusable coffee mugs, reusable plates, forks and knives. Is a reusable tree the same?

A Google search shows why my environmental Spider Sense is tingling. Many people don’t think artificial trees are helpful to the earth. Made in China. Shipped stateside. Contains dubious chemicals. Never degrade in landfills. The list goes on.

Live Tree?

So a live tree? Purchased at the same home center? Those trees get trucked in. Then a fire hazard. Then you hope your town will mulch them and not dump them in a landfill. On the upside, less pesticides than I expected. But it helps if you know your grower, which leads me to...

Cut it Yourself?

Home centers aren’t the only places for live trees. You can cut one down like my uncle’s family.  They get an ultra-fresh tree with less fire hazard. Personally, I worry about squirrels coming home with you. But they haven’t had issues and have decades of holiday chopping under their belts.

 Bulb Tree?

Lastly, the Internet greenies point to bulb trees. These are live trees that the nursery digs up, wrapping their roots in burlap. Then you bring the whole thing home. But there is a lot to think about when you buy a tree and make it a houseplant for a week. How to keep the roots wet? How to plant it in the frozen soil outside on December 26? How long can it stay inside the house (wow, you really should read this article: http://cin.ci/TxwpIV)? Also note that balled trees are really heavy. Like a 6” tree can be 200lbs. Check it out:  http://bit.ly/QCenbg

So my environmental guilt is well founded. But my cats can climb this tree as well as any other one, so at least they are happy. If you are in a Tree Quandary of your own, check out these articles for a little research:

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/christmas-trees-picking-greenest-options-synd2?click=pp

http://environment.about.com/od/greenchristmas/a/christmas_trees.htm

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121201/LIFE08/312010014/Get-your-tree-real-fake-or-freshly-cut

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/a-fake-vs-a-real-tree/