(8c) Managing the Risk Associated with Severe Wind and Flood Events in the Chemical Processing Industries

Natural hazards can present severe exposures to industrial facilities. This is particularly true in the Chemical Processing Industries, where facilities are often sited in coastal areas prone to hurricanes or rivers susceptible to flood. The exposures these hazards present are often under recognized and underappreciated. During our loss investigations, there is a common perception that these events are considered “Acts of God” in which limited to no control can be offered and adequate insurance coverage is often considered to be the only viable protection strategy. In addition, due to the wide spread and life changing nature of these events, lessons learned are not always well captured or mitigated in future events.

This work explores the history of these events with illustrative case studies in the chemical manufacturing industry and considers the ability to reduce the risk by adopting key Process Safety elements into the management of these hazards. This includes observations from the 2017 hurricane seasons, including hurricanes Harvey and Maria.

One recent example of hurricane damage illustrates the effect of flying debris. In this event, roof mounted equipment was dislodged due to high winds and subsequently skidded along a robust roof system, puncturing holes within the roof covering. These holes allowed wind driven rain to wet critical control cabinets of a production unit, reducing the site’s ability to monitor unstable materials and eliminating the delivery of key inhibitors to maintain control. Subsequently, this led to a catastrophic release of material.

Process Safety programs have been developed to reduce catastrophic releases. In the example above, secondary levels of protection, including the task of covering key control cabinets with plastic wrapping or inventory reductions, can reduce the risk. As with any other hazard analysis, risk reducing alternatives may also be devised to address specific hazards associated with hurricanes or floods.

This paper will focus on evaluating the frequency of the exposure, mitigation, and risk management techniques that can be integrated into the facilities Process Safety program to deal with natural hazard exposures.