00:00On March 10th, an EF-3 tornado was part of a powerful outbreak across Illinois and the Midwest,
00:05leaving behind widespread damage.
00:07At Nucor Steel in Kankakee County, Illinois, a facility that recycles scrap metal using extreme heat and high-speed processes,
00:15safety became the top priority before tornado sirens ever sounded.
00:19So joining us now is Aaron Rowland, Environmental Manager at Nucor Steel,
00:23who helped lead efforts to shut down operations and get workers to safety.
00:27Aaron, you took action at a really critical time there.
00:30So tell us a little bit about your facility and what you and your team do.
00:35Yeah, so at Nucor Kankakee, we are a part of Nucor Corporation.
00:39That is America's largest steel producer, as well as the largest recycler in North America.
00:44We take scrap steel, we melt it and roll it into brand new products.
00:48Specifically here at Nucor Kankakee, we make merchant bar and rebar.
00:53Across Nucor Corporation, our mission is to become the world's safest steel company,
00:57and that ties into protecting our team when it comes to severe weather events like we're talking about today.
01:03All right, so the day of the tornado, I'm sure you'll never forget it.
01:05How did your day start and what were you expecting that day?
01:08Were you anticipating severe weather?
01:11Yeah, so we had plenty of heads up that tornadoes were possible.
01:14Several days in advance became very apparent when we started seeing a lot of the high-profile storm chasers.
01:20They were congregating here in Illinois.
01:22So starting off the day, we refreshed our team on our tornado procedures and a lot of our safety toolbox
01:29meetings.
01:29And then throughout the day, just continued to go over the procedures and make sure we were prepared when the
01:34storms came.
01:35So as the storm approached and conditions began to change, what did you and your team have to do in
01:40that moment?
01:42Yeah, so we have a relatively new procedure utilizing SkyGuard with AccuWeather.
01:48As the storms came in, typically in the past, we would rely on our on-site tornado sirens when they
01:55would go off to shelter in place.
01:57Now that we're using SkyGuard, we were able to get a significant heads up that we were under threat of
02:03tornado warning.
02:04So we got the notification from AccuWeather that our facility was in threat of tornado and we need to shelter
02:11in place.
02:11We got that warning 10 full minutes before our on-site tornado sirens went off.
02:16So our team immediately began following protocols to get the facility in a safe state so that way our team
02:21could shelter.
02:23We achieved that safe state two minutes before the tornado sirens went off.
02:27So that extra heads up from AccuWeather, very significant to make sure our team could get to shelters,
02:34especially if it was the case that our facility was in the line of fire, which fortunately we were not.
02:40All right, well, we love to hear that.
02:41And that's what we're all about in you in the world of environmental health and safety, critically important for your
02:47focus as well.
02:48So after the storm moved through, what was the situation like?
02:51And were all of your team members safe at work and at home?
02:56Yeah, so fortunately our team was safe.
02:59We did have several teammates and their families that experienced damage to homes and vehicles.
03:04Several teammates that had totaled vehicles from the potentially record-breaking hail that fell that day.
03:10But fortunately our team was safe.
03:12We were able to donate supplies such as water and other safety supplies to people that were assisting the cleanup
03:19down in the village of Aroma Park.
03:21As it was hit pretty hard.
03:22Huge thanks to AccuWeather and the team there for watching over us.
03:26Again, can't say enough how important that additional heads up was to ensuring our team could get to safety.
03:33Definitely praise the product and thank you all for watching over us.
03:36Aaron Rowland, Environmental Manager at Nucor Steel.
03:39Thanks so much, Aaron, for joining us today.
03:41We'll see you next time.
03:41Bye.
Comments