[Infowarrior] - New snow policy for feds: Shelter in place

[Richard Forno]

New snow policy for feds: Shelter in place

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-snow-policy-for-feds-shelter-in-place/2011/11/01/gIQAfnvwfM_print.html

By Lisa Rein, Wednesday, November 2, 1:11 PM

The new marching orders for federal workers during snowstorms this winter:

Leave the office by the time we tell you to go home—or stay put until we say the roads are safe.

In the first overhaul in 14 years to its bad-weather policy, the government is vowing to avoid the chaos that unfolded on Jan. 26 when thousands of commuters were trapped in their cars in gridlock for up to 12 hours. Most left the office just as a fast-moving snowstorm struck at rush hour. The government took the heat for dismissing people too late and not telling transportation officials.

The Office of Personnel Management now says it will make the call much earlier to either close the government or allow unscheduled leave or telework—and play it safe at the risk of overreacting should just a few flakes fall.

“The best way for us to get people out of the city is to not bring them in in the first place,” said Dean Hunter, the personnel agency’s emergency management chief. The government is scheduled to approve the new policy next week. The Post obtained details in advance.

If the weather turns bad once they’re at the office, the 300,000 federal employees in the Washington area who don’t leave by a deadline will be told to shelter in place, a policy that’s sure to evoke images of Cold War fallout shelters and biological attacks.

“Our basic point is, it’s a recommendation we strongly suggest,” Hunter said, acknowledging that parents who need to pick up their children would not be penalized.

“You’re not going to have security guards go through the building and tell people, ‘You’re going to have to leave now.’”

Even workers who commute by Metro would be urged to stay put, Hunter said, to limit the load on the transit system. When the storm subsides, personnel officials will distribute a message “ indicating it’s safe and proper to use these methods of transportation,” he said.

The new strategy is a linchpin in an emergency plan just crafted by regional officials who met for seven months to devise a way to avoid traffic paralysis during winter storms.

The group has tentatively approved a plan to assign emergency management experts to provide better and faster updates about weather, road and transit conditions— and have governments speed up their communication.

The policy is expected to get the go-ahead on Nov. 9.

The plan since 1997 has been to dismiss workers two hours early or have them come in two hours late in a weather emergency, with the government’s staggered schedules allowing a gradual flow of commuters. Many companies and nonprofit groups take their cues from the government whether to stay open.

In recent years, the growth of telework has allowed modifications: The government stays open but the work gets done from home.

But the region’s already bad traffic seems to turn to gridlock in bad weather. Weathering the storm in the office —and no, working will not be required — could ease the crunch.

“If you have a massive snowstorm and the roads are not passable, it could make a major difference in the success of keeping people safe,” said Montgomery County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gathersburg-Rockville), who leads committee.

But others say it’s not enforceable.

“Unless you chain someone to their desk, it’s not going to happen,” said Tim Firestine, Montgomery’s chief administrative officer. “How do you deal with the human nature of it? If I have a four-wheel drive, I’m going to jump in it.”

The government doesn’t make weather-related decisions lightly: The federal payroll comes to more than $50 million a day in the Washington area. Personnel officials get second-guessed a lot.

When the government permits unscheduled leave, as many as half of the area’s federal workers take a vacation day, which also costs millions of dollars in lost productivity.

During one storm in 2000, for example, the call was not made until 7 a.m. and most workers didn’t get the word until a half hour later as they hiked to the Metro through the snow or were stuck in their cars on dangerous roads.

OPM now makes its weather calls by 4 a.m., following a 3 a.m. consultations with local governments, to get the word out to early commuters. That time is likely to be pushed up, officials said.


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