Risk Management Magazine

It was New Year’s Day and I’d spent the previous night celebrating by downing beers with my buddies. Crawling out of the rack about 8 o’clock the following morning, I planned to hit the road for my girlfriend’s house. I’d gotten about seven hours of sleep, but I was still dragging. I washed down a bite to eat with a glass of water and was out the door.

There is nothing wrong with using a portable generator during an emergency, but it must be used wisely and in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications. When used in a confined space, generators can produce high levels of carbon monoxide within minutes.

Sometimes, we make decisions contrary to our training. When we leave the military environment at the end of a work day, a lot of us leave our risk management training at the door. I speak from experience. Even though I had quickly thought through some aspects of risk management, I did not necessarily implement all of the steps one winter day a couple of years ago.