075 - Hurricane Recommendations

Host Erik Bjornstad outlines seven critical recommendations for hurricane season preparation, focusing on emergency backup fuel systems.

Key areas include testing fuel quality every 3-6 months, conducting full generator load tests, securing adequate fuel inventory (96 hours for healthcare facilities), hardening infrastructure against storm damage, coordinating vendor deliveries through priority systems like DIRS and TSP for telecom, training staff through tabletop drills, and maintaining comprehensive documentation for compliance.

The episode targets healthcare and telecom sectors specifically, emphasizing that preparation must happen now during the calm period before hurricane season intensifies, using real-world examples like Hurricane Maria's impact on Puerto Rico's telecommunications infrastructure.

What You'll Learn:

• Emergency Fuel System Fundamentals - How to establish proper fuel quality testing protocols and understand the critical importance of testing emergency backup diesel fuel every 3-6 months for water contamination, microbial growth, and fuel degradation.
• Generator Load Testing Best Practices - The difference between simple startup checks and comprehensive full-load testing, including healthcare industry requirements for monthly 30% load tests and annual 4-hour full load tests.
• Industry-Specific Compliance Requirements - Healthcare facilities' obligations under NFPA 99 and NFPA 110 standards, including the mandatory 96-hour fuel supply requirement and CMS documentation standards for emergency preparedness.
• Telecom Infrastructure Protection Strategies - How to implement proper testing for battery backup depletion scenarios and ensure seamless switchover from UPS to generator systems without service interruption.
• Priority Registration Systems for Emergency Response - The critical importance of DIRS and TSP registration for telecom operators and how these systems provide government-backed priority for fuel deliveries and infrastructure repair during disasters.
• Infrastructure Security and Theft Prevention - Post-storm security considerations and the reality of equipment theft from telecom sites, with over 4,000 reported incidents in just three months of 2024.
  Effective Emergency Planning Through Tabletop Drills
• How to design and conduct scenario-based training exercises that expose hidden vulnerabilities in emergency response plans before real disasters strike.
• Comprehensive Documentation Strategies - Essential record-keeping requirements for both healthcare and telecom sectors, including automated monitoring systems and NOC-level reporting tools for regulatory compliance and operational optimization.

Ideas Worth Sharing:

Here are three notable quotes from the podcast episode:

• "You have got time to prepare, but the time to prepare is right now, you do not want to let that get away from you as much as the temptation might be for that to happen."

• "This kind of thing or these kinds of things like whether your entire power redundancy chain works as opposed to just the generator, that can really only be confirmed under this kind of full load test scenario, and this is the time for you to make it happen. This is the calm before the upcoming storms."

• "Tabletop drill is a really useful tool that exposes the hidden points, the hidden choke points where a hurricane can take your system offline and then gives you a chance to fix them ahead of time when it still costs nothing but time."

Resources Mentioned:

• NFPA 110: Standard for Emergency and Standby Power Systems
• NFPA 99: Health Care Facilities Code (96-hour fuel requirement)
• Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) - Organization providing hurricane forecasts
• NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) - Reference for average hurricane season data
• Bellicide
• Erik Bjornstad: LinkedIn

Show Notes:

[00:00:00 - 00:05:00] Introduction and Context Setting
- Welcome and host introduction
- Recap of previous episode's 2025 Atlantic hurricane season predictions
- Discussion of ACE Index differences between prediction groups
- Transition from "how bad will it be" to "how to prepare"

[00:05:00 - 00:08:00] Recommendation #1: Fuel Quality Testing
- Emergency backup fuel quality requirements
- Testing frequency: every 3-6 months for water, microbial contamination, and degradation
- Healthcare sector: NFPA 110 compliance requirements
- Telecom sector: Increased testing frequency due to smaller storage tanks

[00:08:00 - 00:14:00] Recommendation #2: Full Generator Load Testing
- Healthcare requirements: CMS and Joint Commission standards (30 minutes at 30% load monthly, 4-hour annual test)
- Telecom testing protocols: Simulating full site failure including battery depletion
- Power redundancy layers: Grid → UPS → Diesel generator
- Load testing procedures for telecom facilities

[00:14:00 - 00:18:00] Recommendation #3: Secure Sufficient Fuel Inventory
- Multi-day outage planning
- Healthcare sector: NFPA 99 requirement for 96-hour fuel supply
- Netflix "Pulse" series example of fuel shortage scenario
- Telecom priorities: Keeping tier one hubs online

[00:18:00 - 00:21:00] Recommendation #4: Infrastructure Hardening
- Protection against flooding, wind, and debris damage
- Healthcare: Elevating day tanks and transfer pumps
- Telecom security concerns: Post-storm theft prevention
- 2024 statistics: Over 4,000 theft reports from telecom sites in three months

[00:21:00 - 00:27:00] Recommendation #5: Vendor Coordination and Priority Systems
- Multiple fuel vendor contracts
- Healthcare coalitions and mutual aid agreements
- Telecom registration systems: DIRS (Disaster Information Reporting System) and TSP (Telecommunications Service Priority)
- Hurricane Maria 2017 case study: Major vs. smaller carriers' recovery experiences

[00:27:00 - 00:35:00] Recommendation #6: Training and Tabletop Drills
- Scenario-based training for system failures
- Tabletop drill methodology and participants
- Step-by-step emergency response planning
- Challenging assumptions and documenting findings

[00:35:00 - 00:43:00] Recommendation #7: Documentation Requirements
- Comprehensive record-keeping for audits and reviews
- Healthcare: CMS documentation requirements for fuel testing, generator logs, inventory monitoring
- Telecom: NOC (Network Operations Center) level reporting tools
- Automated alerts and monitoring systems

[00:43:00 - 00:45:00] Episode Conclusion and Summary
- Recap of seven key recommendations
- Call to action for preparation
- Podcast subscription and rating request
- Closing remarks