ES2 Pre-Planning and Post-Disaster Building Health Science Response for Portfolio Property Owners and Managers

With 14 named storms in 2022, to include the destructive Hurricane Ian, and predictions of increasing number of storm events into the future, owners and managers of property portfolios need to be prepared to respond to post-disaster building health science concerns. This 1.5-hour workshop presents strategies and considerations when preparing and deploying response teams brought in to address post-disaster building environmental condition, such as, indoor air quality, drinking water, water damage, mold, ACMs, lead paint, PCBs, and legionella. Response teams may be brought in to address insurance claims or determine building conditions for safe re-occupancy. In either case, responses present planning, operation, and technical challenges for the teams, such as, licensing, training, management, staffing, scaling, mobilization, logistics, health and safety, and security. Experts will present practical advice and lessons learned from previous disaster responses in an interactive format. We will present perspectives from client representatives responsible preparing for a response and deploying teams to effected sites; field managers balancing licensing requirements with staffing, and logistical needs, as well as, reporting and quality control; and field staff working in potentially dangerous conditions immediately after a storm to collect data and samples so clients can resume operations as soon as possible.