Inspections after a catastrophic event 5 items that kick them up to a high level, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, read this.

High winds are predicted to begin tonight and come to a conclusion in two days. 

Elevations above 1,000 feet (305 meters approx.) are expected to experience the brunt of them. We have had no rain yet in Northern California, Oregon and Washington State have their risk is lower. High winds, dry underbrush, and 80-degree weather are reasons for the electrical utility (PG&E) to shut down the service, which they will most likely do tonight. 50 mph winds, (80.5 kph) are capable of whipping up some horrendous wind/firestorms. Our small Island is not at risk but the map shows just across the slough is, that's only 500 feet away from us. Sometimes predictions are just a tad technical, those maps are hard to produce, but to include this side would involve coloring it red. I sometimes question if the warnings being broadcast are a good practice, the predictions are accurate but I wonder if they inspire arsonists. The forecasters walk a thin tightrope, they perform a great service for us, but still, it conjures up my curiosity.

After waking this morning my thoughts were on investigations of the wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and everything involved in them. I have conducted investigations but in the whole scheme of things they didn't have much impact on anything except what happened to a failed machine. (How to conduct an Investigation Link) That was my job for many years, I was a welding inspector (in-house) for a while, but my bread and butter was machinery inspections and testing through vibration analysis, heat profiles and ultra-sonic readings. It was pretty straightforward, the analytical vibration monitor I used was possible only through a very large algorithm, the complex math calculations performed for even one reading would take days if not weeks to complete. The inspections I performed almost came up with their own results, all I had to do is read the printouts and graphs, I did have to know how inches per second and hertz related to one another and how they both related to machinery components. But that was math, it's actually fairly straightforward, just time-consuming. I would classify that activity as a low-level type of investigation, it aided my knowledge, the company's budget and the crew's direction in repairs.

It's hard and demanding work, as in this photo of a school fire
it is extremely important to investigate for answers.

The curiosity of How, What, When and Why of the high-level investigations that are ongoing now, mostly in various levels of government is interesting. The congressional hearings and the special prosecutor are such high-level inquiries it would take me a long time to understand all of the particulars involved.

I am more interested in the investigations of lower governmental level incidents, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and the like. In particular, I am curious about how they are structured, what the first question is of the first person interviewed, and how the direction of questioning is determined. In a disaster scenario, I suspect the first item would be to determine the original failure that occurred. In the case of a wildfire, it may be "where did it originate?" A dam failure may very well be a question such as "what failed first?" A hurricane may be addressed with an inquiry of "what can we do to prevent flooding from happening again?" Every inquiry must start with an initial question, choosing that question is key to a successful discovery.

For a while in a heavy industry there was (and may still be) a catchphrase "root cause", what is the "root cause?" The root cause is the one failure or event that started the chain of events causing the problem, everything with machines does not culminate in a "catastrophic failure", one reason I call them low-level investigations. So what makes a "high level" investigation? In my opinion, there are certain events that take place moving it into a higher level.

1)  Large infrastructure failure such as a dam failure, bridge collapse, or an event causing the destruction of property.

Oroville Dam is nearing completion of repairs for this year.
As I understand it this is phase 1, next spring phase 2 begins.

2)  Loss of human life, one life lost is worth every penny of an investigation. I had a friend who was working on top of a tin roof of an outbuilding near a plant we were employed in. It wasn't a really tall building, about 40 feet high, falling through a skylight that was covered with dust he apparently did not see it. He fell to his death. The investigation involved many entities, Cal-OSHA, insurance company's, police and fire as well. One life lost is worth all of the effort made to prevent it from happening again.

The University of Florida discusses fall procedures and prevention Link.

3)  House, business and vehicle fires, the investigation is performed for the purpose of insurance fraud mostly, most of these fires are started for monetary reasons, to collect the insurance payments.

4)  Wildfires are investigated due to the great loss of property and lives, the most important reason to investigate is a reported 80% to 90% are arson started.

5)  Withheld information, an investigation may begin after it is determined public officials attempt to cover up an illegal event of that may have led up to creating a catastrophic ending.

These five instigators of investigations have at least one thing in common, all of the remedies are extremely expensive, some causing the perpetrators to spend a little alone time in jail. The first two, infrastructure failure and loss of life may or may not be human-caused, the remaining three the majority of times are caused by humans.

#1 may be due to design flaws, or the structure merely failing from being worn out.

#2 is possibly caused by human negligence, the industry has a saying "all deaths by falls are preventable." That is what the investigation centers around, saving lives.

#3 These fires are approximately 45% -50% arson, for monetary reasons. I saw on the  "American Greed" TV program, a man and woman decided to burn down their home. They disconnected a 1/2 inch diameter gas line that fed their fireplace, then turned it on filling the house with very explosive natural gas. In the microwave, they placed an item that would burst into flames, (the investigation never determined what that was). The timer was set on the microwave oven, and they left home, after several hours the house exploded. The explosion killed a neighbor lady instantly, her husband laid under the wrecked home while a fire raged toward him, he also expired. It destroyed two other houses and blasted windows out of many others. Greed was the driving factor in that incident, stupidity was the vehicle.

Ready.gov has a paper on structure fires, interesting to read Link.

#4 An estimated 90% of wildfires are started by arsonist, very few of them are caught, making profiling extremely difficult.

#5 Commonly theft of funds or equipment is uncovered, again Greed is a motivating factor, generally only stopped due to the criminal being caught. It's pretty common, it seems every week another incident of this type of crime is reported on. I worked with a man who was the manager of a division of a company I worked for, he was caught stealing over $100,000.00 worth of equipment. He was directing his employees to load tractor trailers with equipment from a feedlot down the road from our plant. The truck driver was arrested in Wyoming on his way to Nebraska to sell the stuff, he didn't know what it was all about. To shorten a long story, the manager was arrested and made to pay restitution or go to prison. He made the decision to pay restitution.

If you make the bed you gotta sleep in it.

What are the steps involved in an investigation?

1)  Definition of the problem, if an idea of where the investigation is headed isn't determined, the first question will be meaningless.

2)  A determination by a Research Company or Governmental policy, determining if the incident is illegal or against protocol?

3)  Development of a plan, and sticking to it, a framework of the investigation must be created and followed.

4)  Interviews of everyone involved, any witnesses with knowledge of the incident will create more questions and further investigation.

The last steps consist of:

5)  At some point, a conclusion must be made and recommendations for further investigations or legal action.

6)  A determination for corrective action if it is nefarious activities are uncovered.

7)  Compilation of notes and the creation of a formal report, every detail must be noted.

The spirit behind an investigation is to determine what can be done to improve the outcome when faced with similar situations, the noble side of the equation. Most investigations succeed in accomplishing that, on the long winding road fault is normally assigned and remedial action is taken.

There are however many times there is no blame, some things just happen for a variety of reasons. Other times there is blame, and in those cases, an action may be taken that is seen as being "unfair" or not reasonable, due to the perpetrators being "crafty" or really good at covering their tracks making proof difficult to achieve. In many of those cases, the coverup is so immense once it is discovered the fall is swift and far, the coverup is, in fact, more evidence of wrongdoing than the events leading up to the crime.

This is an interesting list of "Confidence" schemes people have been duped into Link.

Investigations inspire good things to happen most of the time. After major Hurricanes Florida and Louisiana improved their building codes and infrastructure requirements to minimize the destruction experienced during them. The results were;

Florida all new homes are required to be built to withstand a Catagory 3 Hurricane, that's why the residents kept saying we don't leave unless it's greater than a Cat. 3. I was really curious why I kept hearing that on cable news and weather, it makes sense to me now. Personally, I would still head north at the first indication of one of those monsters heading towards me.

New Orleans built up the levees and installed huge water pumps capable of evacuating water from the flooded city.

In the early 1900's Corpus Christi built a wall encompassing a large portion of their endangered island since then it has saved countless lives.

The seawall on Corpus Christi was constructed after a major
Hurricane killed thousands of residents at the beginning of
the 19th century.

If it were not for surveys, inquiries, and investigations it's hard to imagine positive steps being enacted. If a catastrophic event was not the cause of the investigation inspiring a public works project, investigative work must still be performed to determine if the improvement is worth the cost and the desired result will be realized. It's just another type of investigation which ends up being the cause of building code upgrades and equipment like breakwaters and pumps being installed.

Thank you for reading and sharing, there is nothing wrong with "taking a look at things", which is in itself an investigation, or asking the initial question which I see as being "what in the heck happened here?"

 jacqueslebec  emergencykitsplus.com