Severe Winter Weather Headed Our Way: Plan Now for How You’ll Respond
Dear Cook Children’s Leadership,
A strong blast of winter weather is headed for North Texas, and now is the time to prepare.
The National Weather Service is calling for a wintery mix of snow and freezing rain Wednesday night into Thursday across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Dangerously cold wind chills are also expected, with below zero and single digits possible Thursday and Friday.
We know many of you are already making plans for the inclement weather that is expected later this week. Thank you!
If you have not started preparing yet, we encourage you to do so right away.
Here are a few things to know:
Hotel Cook
Incident Command is working on finalizing plans for in-house accommodations for staff, in addition to other details. If you have staff members who are critical to operations that will need accommodations, please email Hotel.Cook@cookchildrens.org and include the following information:
Subject line: Your department name
Body of email:
- Name of employee(s)
- Dates and shifts the accommodations are needed (Day or Night OR hours when they need sleeping quarters)
- Best contact number for each person
Example of an email:
Subject line: 5 North Tower
Body of email:
Jane Smith, Feb. 2 and 3, Nights (9 PM to 6 AM), 817-000-0000
Jack Smith, Feb. 3, 214-000-0000
Cots and Air Mattresses
We have cots and air mattresses available for loan to use in your area for staff who will be staying over. If you have space in your department that is safe and secure that does not impact or interfere patient care, please email Hotel.Cook@cookchildrens.org to reserve cots and air mattresses. Please type your department name in the Subject line and list the number of cots/mattresses that are needed.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To minimize the number of emails and requests for accommodations,
Incident Command is requesting that leaders make all of the accommodations requests ON BEHALF OF their department and employees.
Thank you for understanding!
A Few Resources For You:
Throughout the week, we will be posting the latest information for you and your employees on our Connect Newsroom (access it anywhere) and the CookNet scroll (must be connected to the network to access.)
Other helpful information is below:
- System-wide policy: Inclement Weather Staff Coverage HR 528.pdf
- Article and resources: Parents' Guide to Winter Storm Prep and Safety (checkupnewsroom.com)
- Website: National Weather Service
- Alert page for parents on CookChildrens.org: Cook Children’s office closures, delayed openings, etc.
- Our social channels will be posting the latest information for families and the community as well.
We know an impending severe winter storm is the last thing you want to deal with in the face of COVID-19, but please know you are appreciated and we will get through this together.
Prepare now, be safe and stay warm.