Full transcript
00:05.0]
Hey everybody, my name is Adam Deluc. I’m the Director of Risk Intelligence here at Everbridge. It’s nice to be with you today. Although, as I’m sure you guys already know, you know what I’m going to talk about. And it’s the first major winter storm of 2026. There have already been winter advisories and warnings going out to millions of people across the United States, mostly in the Southern Plains and throughout the mid Atlantic for, the storm that’s expected to develop later in the week on Friday.
[00:31.7]
It looks like the storm’s being fed by a lot Arctic air and combining with the moisture in the Gulf. It’s going to produce snow, it’s going to produce sleet, freeze and rain, and maybe most importantly, ice throughout the southern region of the United States. When it comes to timing, you know, Friday, the snow, the sleet, the ice are expected to start around the Southern Plains in the Mississippi Valley, moving east on Saturday as the storm kind of intensifies.
[00:55.3]
And then really the wintry, precipitation, and the snow in the mid Atlantic and the worst impacts are expected there, you know, throughout the day on, on Sunday. So it’s very early in the forecast, right? Like it’s only Wednesday. So, you know, snowfall totals are still kind of, varying based off, what models you’re following.
[01:15.5]
They’re talking about maybe 14 inches in a place like Nashville, or even 20 in Washington D.C. so we can see some major snowfall. But I think like we saw in 2021 with the, power outages, throughout Texas. You know, this can be very serious without the snow, with just ice, with aging infrastructure in a lot of areas in this country that aren’t used to hand, these kind of events, anytime there’s been ice and somewhere like Atlanta, you know, the emergency services, they’re just not prepared to handle these winter events like some places up north.
[01:48.4]
So, you know, we can expect major power outages and supply chain impacts maybe even lasting into next week. Obviously, human safety is going to be a major issue. It is going to be very cold. So there’s a lot of combinations going into this storm that are going to make it unsafe.
[02:03.8]
And the size of it, it’s just going to affect a lot of people and a lot of organizations. So organizations consider tightening their travel policy, obviously exploring redundancies and power and supply chain. And like I said, your people are your most important asset. What are you doing to keep them safe?
[02:20.1]
What kind of wellness checks and emergency communication plans do you have in place? For a storm like this. And then what messaging are you kind of telling your people before the storm? Make sure they’re monitoring the National Weather Service for advisories, stocked up on essential goods, their prescriptions, food, you know, generators.
[02:37.5]
If you have outdoor power, above ground power lines, you know, prepare for these power outages, maybe provide locations for them, alternative, locations. If they do lose power, where can they go to stay warm during the storm? You know, stay off the roads. Visibility and travel is going to be a nightmare.
[02:54.9]
Continue to monitor for these emergency management declarations and what they should do to stay safe during the storm. Then obviously after the storm they’re going to be cascading impacts. We talked about supply chain and power outages and infrastructure issues, but closers to transit, to schools, snow removal can be extremely unsafe.
[03:15.1]
So for God’s sake do that safely. You know, the impacts are expected to go into next week on this one, but you know, here at Everbridge we’re doing everything we can to take this very seriously. We have live layers, KML layers, updating constantly with new information, unexpected snow totals, warnings, live power outage numbers, emergency, management, road closures.
[03:36.2]
So all that’s updating live on our, on our site right now. Not to mention the strategic analysis that we’ll put into kind of some of the risk and vulnerabilities that might be exposed a storm like this and kind of what are the impacts moving forward and some potential mitigation strategies there. So we have you covered end to end from an intelligence standpoint, with this storm.
[03:55.9]
And we’ll continue to monitor and provide updates. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns or any safety issues with your organization too. I’m Abdelucca. I hope you guys have a great rest of the week and stay safe during this storm.
