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With temperatures well below freezing, the boiler in the laboratory HVAC system failed, as did not one, but two notification systems to alert authorities to the failure. By the time the incident was discovered, the laboratory interior was colder than the outdoors.“ I had to find pencils to write with, because pens were frozen solid,” said Bean.

Even worse, once the building was slowly reheated, emergency personnel warned that overhead sprinkler heads would explode.“ And boy did they blow,” Bean said. Although all equipment and desktops were covered in advance, the water turned to ice on the cold laboratory floors, leaving the building uninhabitable.

After a specific incident, Bean said, it is easy to spot the gaps in COOP plans written for a generic emergency.

“ Staff communication plans needed to be improved. We did not have an inventory list or map of all the nitrogen and CO 2 canisters in our laboratory. The fire department wanted to know where they were. Another example: We’ ve known there are areas in the laboratory where cell phone coverage is not good. We decided we needed portable radio phones on each floor.”

Finally, staff discovered that many equipment service contracts had no coverage for natural disasters, necessitating extra insurance“ just for floods,” even though the laboratory is not in a flood zone.

Reflecting on her experiences since Hurricane Harvey, Phillips said,“ What you have to understand is that this will happen. Floods will happen.... It’ s hard

A maintenance worker at the New Hampshire Public Health Laboratory inspects water damage from frozen pipes. Photo: NH PHL

for me to convey how hard everyone was— and still is— working to get back to some kind of normalcy; it was such a daunting task. We just did our part. Every single time we learn how to do it a little bit better [ for ] next time.” Phillips’ biggest piece of advice for fellow laboratorians?“ Be prepared.” n