| TO: | DDS Regional Directors, STS Director, CTH Coordinators, Private Providers, CO Quality Management Personnel |
| FROM: | Peter H. O'Meara, Commissioner |
| DATE: | February 3, 2011 |
| RE: | Snow and Ice Accumulation Advisory |
Seasonal Advisory
This is an advisory and may help you as you consider your physical plant management priorities. In light of current snow and ice accumulations and the forecast for more snow and ice in the coming days and weeks, the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) has advised its Facility Management staff to address the following snow and ice management concerns:
- Keep external natural gas utility meters and propane gas regulators and propane tanks clear of snow and ice. Consider flagging these utilities to prevent damage from snow removal and for easy location by service contractors. Clear snow around any vents, fresh air intakes, or exhausts (clothes dryer vents, boilers, furnaces, oil or gas fired hot water heaters, generators, oil tank fill pipe vents…). Continue to anticipate power outages; you may have to rely on your emergency generators. Confirm generators start. Test CO and smoke detectors. Clear snow and ice from flat roof drains.
- Do your best to remove some snow load from the roof of any occupied building with a low slope or flat roof, which has significant snow build-up. Prioritize on roofs with 2.5+ ft. of snow. In anticipation of additional snow, consider removing the snow from a roof with 2.5+ ft. of snow to be a higher priority than removing the snow from a roof which has a minor roof leak due to flashing or ice damming. Remember after shoveling the snow off a roof…..ensure that snow did not again block the clothes dryer vents, boiler & furnace combustion air intakes…..).
Please find the attached web links as a guide to identify where the heavily loaded roofs (as well as blocked vents, intakes….) are located. The snow on some roofs however may have absorbed more rain water and have greater ice build-up…as such, possibly equal or more load than a roof with more snow.
Press Release dated February 3, 2011 from Governor Malloy: Recent Building Collapses Reinforce Need to Clear Roofs Before Saturday's Storm
Thank you.