Assessing the Risks When Developing an Institutional Disaster Plan

When developing this type of plan, the following stages need to be implemented:

Considerations in Institutional Risk Assessment

Plume Effect Prediction and Risk Assessment

Plume effect is the progression or movement away from a relatively unitary point source that expands as it moves away from that point source to spread over a logarithmically larger area as distance from the source increases. Common examples include smoke from a single fire in the wind, distribution of contaminated water over a delta, or possibly the expansion of a disease pathogen from an infection reservoir. Plume effects can be unidirectional as with the prevailing wind or watershed, or may expand circumferentially such as volcanic ash without prevailing wind distortion.

Some disasters allow preparation because they are predictable or delayed, but may have a severe onset and subsequent calculable geographic distribution. The plume effect can affect vast areas, but direction and speed may be determined by local meteorologists. Plume effects can be involved in nuclear radiation dispersal, chemical release, smoke, and liquid contaminants such as petroleum products. Plume effects can be airborne or waterborne.

A chlorine transport train wreck in northern West Virginia may plume into the National Zoo on prevailing winds, or a western Gulf of Mexico oil spill may plume into large areas of the western Floridian coast and affect facilities such as Mote Marine Laboratories. Coastal aquatic animal facilities such as Mote Marine Laboratory are often dependent upon open ocean water circulation, rather than closed systems of water filtration and recirculation. This places them at significantly increased risk if oceanic contaminants exist. Wildfires and smoke contamination are difficult to foresee, but plume expansion prediction is important to risk assessment pre-event. The plume effect can expand the devastation, or may mitigate the contamination by dilution as it spreads.

Naturally occurring epizootics, epidemics, or zoonotic outbreaks can follow similar expansion patterns based on vector dispersal, reservoir ranges, or environmental conditions. When prediction is possible, advanced preparations may also be possible.

Facility Infrastructure

Although veterinary staff are seldom responsible for the comprehensive institutional plan, their role as advisor and contributor is critical to any plan. Water and power are highly vulnerable systems and frequently compromised. Often, human potable water uses under normal circumstances can range from human consumption to animal consumption to cage cleaning. However, when potable water is limited or lost, planned nonpotable water collection may be possible for uses other than human consumption.

Power loss will disable infrastructure at many levels. Potable wells and water recirculation systems may be affected. Veterinary facilities are critical infrastructures and may best be served by redundant disaster resources. Separate dedicated veterinary facility generators and fuel reserves are prudent. Individual building water treatment and filtration systems are readily available and of moderate cost. Sanitation for limited volumes of human potable water may even be achieved for a small veterinary staff with inexpensive travel or camping filters. Iodine or chlorine disinfection costs pennies per gallon and may be the final backup solution to ensure that the veterinary staff have sufficient water reserves.

Key power-dependent systems include lighting, medical supply refrigeration, carcass storage, and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. CWF veterinarians should mitigate each vulnerable system within an inclusive veterinary facility disaster plan. Stockpiled medical supplies should be selected for minimally labile products and expiration dates rotated. Heat-stable antibiotics and anesthetics should be selected for disaster storage. However, some critical medical supplies may still require refrigeration. Vaccines such as tetanus, disease-specific inoculations, and some pharmaceuticals require refrigeration.

A small, emergency, low-wattage electric refrigerator may suffice for critical labile items when electricity is limited or generated intermittently. Refrigeration units may be cooled when power is available and then kept tightly closed when power is offline. This applies to necropsy freezers and food refrigeration as well. Top-loading chest-type units retain cold air even when open briefly; upright units immediately lose the cold air when the door is opened or not securely closed or sealed.

Most sport coolers are only effective when ice (or a frozen alternative) is available. Regional infrastructure failure may eliminate ice availability. Some sport coolers may use 12-V automobile cigarette lighters for refrigeration, but vehicular power may be limited as well. Recreational vehicle (RV) refrigerators may use propane or other fuel sources. Acquiring a privately owned RV on temporary loan may provide refrigeration, a restroom, and overnight housing.

Veterinary Facility Design Considerations

The veterinary hospital and quarantine design must consider disaster mitigation. Specific considerations based on risk assessment will vary with every locality and building code. However, a few common concerns exist for many scenarios. Critical systems locations are often based solely on ergonomics or design convenience. Basements are frequently used for electrical boxes, necropsy freezers, refrigerators, generators, and water system controls. Flooding immediately inactivates basement service equipment and system controls, just as a hurricane storm surge did in a coastal Mississippi aquarium in hurricane Katrina. Alternative locations should be considered for any vulnerable systems in construction or remodeling.

Outdoor compressed gas tanks and other weatherproof items avoid loss of valuable indoor hospital space. However, severe environmental conditions may place these at risk. Buoyant compressed gas tanks may float and avulse critical connections. They must be physically anchored, beyond reliance on their own gravity.

Light fixture selection is often based on efficiency and variable construction codes. Additional criteria considered for veterinary hospital disaster preparation might include waterproof designs, backup photovoltaic power sources, and low-voltage lighting. Some emergency lighting fixtures are detachable and rechargeable.

Fuel

Fuel of any type becomes an immediate concern in many disasters. Preparation for a predictable event other than fire, such as weather, plume dispersal (dispersal of effluent in water or aerosolized emissions), or flooding may include filling every veterinary vehicle, every compressed gas cylinder, and every fuel storage container. Some large facilities may use on-site vehicle fuel reserve tanks. Although tanks are frequently buried they should be located on the highest ground to mitigate fuel contamination with water and ground water contamination with fuel.

Fire may uniquely require the opposite preparations. Fire may damage service breakers or result in an explosive situation with outdoor gas or liquid fuel containers unless placed safely behind a nonflammable insulating wall, such as hollow block. Safe fuel removal from outdoor tanks well in advance of an inevitable fire will greatly diminish explosive risk. Some fuels such as propane may be simply and safely exhausted under fire department instructions.

Fuel is one of the most likely resources to be stolen or commandeered. Regional infrastructure recovery may not occur until long after a disaster strikes. Immediate restrictions on fuel consumption may be prudent, even if a rapid recovery is expected. Facility vehicular use, HVAC settings, and consumptive activities such as personal hygiene, and redundant lighting, should be very conservative until regional infrastructure recovery is complete. High-output electrical generators consume fuel reserves quickly. In Houston, TX, pursuant to a major coastal hurricane, several weeks were required before electricity was uniformly available. Generating electricity 24 hours/day, every day, depletes fuel reserves rapidly. Few facilities have sufficient fuel storage to meet an extended recovery. Intermittent power generation may extend fuel reserves.

Refrigeration units retain “cold” best if filled with thermally dense items, even if the items do not require refrigeration. For example, a nearly empty (air filled) refrigerator loses all the cold air immediately when opened; a refrigerator filled with full water bottles retains almost all the thermal reserves within the bottles when opened.

Hazardous Materials

Hazardous materials from supply storage must be clearly identified for responders. Many hazardous substances are required to placard hazard identification codes, risk-type symbols (e.g., corrosive, caustic, flammable) and color codes.⁵ However, the placard may not be immediately obvious to responders. A posted list should be available for staff and responders near the building entry. Even low-risk materials such as fertilizer, ammonia, bleach, film developer, or cleaning supplies may become dangerous when dispersed or combined.