Safety task force assembled after deadly Edwardsville tornado nears final recommendations

The Illinois task force studying recommendations to make warehouses safer following the 2021 tornado in Edwardsville that killed six Amazon employees has entered its final phase of work — and will now focus on producing its report.

The group of state lawmakers, representatives from industry and trade groups and the Illinois Department of Labor met Wednesday for its final scheduled meeting ahead of the end-of-the-year deadline to make recommendations to the General Assembly.

“I hope that Illinois kind of becomes a standard setter for the safety we want in buildings where people go to work each and every day,” said Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, who’s on the task force.

As the 16-member group reviews expert testimony and public comment from the family of an Amazon employee killed over the past year, the group would also like the public to weigh in.

“If you have an opinion to share, please do it,” said Sen. Erica Harriss, R-Glen Carbon, another task force member. “Those will all be looked at and sorted through and will only help us make better decisions.”

The task force will evaluate recommendations grouped into three areas: structural, disaster plans and emergency response.

Among the most controversial and costly would be structural changes — like requiring the construction of a designated storm shelter in warehouses or upping the standards required for the massive buildings to be on par with schools and group homes.

Currently, storm shelters are not required by federal law for warehouses, and they can be built with heavy walls relying on the roof for stability. Illinois lawmakers could craft more stringent legislation. Requiring those changes in the final report makes sense, Stuart said.

“We’re talking about hundreds of people’s lives,” she said. “To me, that’s just kind of not OK to cut those corners.”

Some skeptics of those changes have expressed concern that they’d be overly burdensome on businesses, which could consider moving to a state with fewer requirements.

Striking a balance between the priorities of safety and what’s good for a local economy will be a challenge for the group, Harriss said.

“Some of that might be realistic. Some of it might not be,” she said. “That’s where we’ll have to really sit down and kind of figure out where the rubber meets the road.”

Other potential structural changes include having municipalities collaborating to make regional pools of building code inspectors or creating state funding to help smaller localities better enforce code. The state could also require a licensure process for code enforcement employees.

For disaster plans, the task force will consider requirements for emergency action plans by warehouses, mandating the businesses regularly perform drills and clarifying where safety responsibilities lie in facilities with multiple employers.

The group will also consider recommendations to help local fire departments and emergency responders better address extreme weather via more state support and requiring they review and approve a warehouse’s emergency action plan.

State Sen. Chris Belt and Edwardsville Mayor Art Risavy also serve on the task force.

The final report will be due to the state legislature by Jan. 1, 2025. The task force, chaired by Jane Flanagan, director of the state Department of Labor, has tentatively planned to submit final recommendations by early December.