Facility managers spend countless hours preparing for emergencies. But what happens when a disaster exposes the gaps you didn’t know you had?
In the season premiere of Facilities in Focus, host Mackenna Moralez sits down with Nico Viola, director of facilities at Holden Forests and Gardens to discuss the aftermath of a devastating tornado that tore through the organization’s Cleveland-area campus in August 2024. The storm caused millions of dollars in damage, knocked out power for almost a week and forced a campus closure.
Viola shares the hard-earned lessons that emerged when the tornado exposed vulnerabilities that the team didn’t know existed. From losing access to technology and discovering communication dead zones across a 4,000-acre campus, the experience forced the facilities team to truly rethink what preparedness looks like. His perspective offers a reminder that recovery isn’t necessarily always about restoring things as they were, but how to make space for something new to grow.
“You have to look at it, you have to train on it, you have to constantly be updating it and re-evaluating it,” Nico says during the podcast.
Whether you're responsible for a facility, lead a team or simply want to understand what happens behind the scenes when a community faces a disaster, this episode offers a compelling look at preparedness, resilience, leadership and the ability to find opportunity in unexpected change.
The Facilities in Focus podcast publishes bi-weekly. The sixth season will cover high performers in the facilities management industry.
For comments or to be a guest on the Facilities in Focus podcast, please email Mackenna at fnpodcast@tradepress.com.
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