Author: Jim

Last week I had the great opportunity, thanks to our local regional Task Force, to take part in the two-day FEMA Basic Public Information Officer training course. I’ve described my experience thusly: it was a typical FEMA training; the course materials left a lot to be desired (for anyone with any experience), but the experience was amazing. Not educational but definitely useful, if that makes any sense.

For those of you that haven’t taken the class, each section is punctuated by a group activity. Because of the regional set up of our training, my group had representatives from public health (me), fire, utilities, airport, school district and emergency services. It was like our own little JIC. We developed press releases, talking points, organized and delivered a press briefing, and—most importantly—shared business cards. Some of us at the table had little real experience, and others had years and years of near constant experience. I was able to offer information on social media use in emergencies, and others were able to talk us throughout writing a press release, while others guided us through the pitfalls of a press briefing when presented with a hostile press.

I had two big takeaways from my time with these great folks. First, how important is it to meet them, establish a relationship and have them understand that I’m not some young punk (and conversely, that they’re not dinosaurs unwilling to embrace public information best practices). If we do all get called to a JIC, I know what to expect and how to approach them and can start our shift with a warm handshake instead of an initial desire to “protect my turf.” I’m lucky to have a Task Force that understands that, and is willing to support a public information committee that wants to work towards that goal.

The second takeaway is a bit more selfish and affects the blog. On of the coolest parts of the training is the opportunity to present in front of a camera. What a great way to learn what you look like while presenting sober information. Do you have tics, do you grip the podium, do you sway. Only one way to learn, right? My instructor said I did pretty good.

This opportunity peaked an interest I’ve had for a bit: to incorporate video into this blog.

When I first started blogging 4+ years ago, my goal was two-fold: to learn about public health preparedness and to learn to write better. When I felt that I had gained some understanding of public health preparedness, I quit the other blog. I continue to feel good about my writing, and well, I’d like to get better in front of a camera, so maybe this is a good time to expand my repertoire.

That said, I’m going to commit to making and publishing a dozen video blog posts. They’ll be short—no more than a couple of minutes and will probably be kind of meandering, a chance to discuss topics that I haven’t totally settled on. To you, the reader, there won’t be much of a difference. The posts will show up inline here and all you’ve got to do is press the play button. The only thing I ask is your help. Comment on my video posts, let me know if this is something you’d like to see. Let me know if I could do something better, both in the delivery and content.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by and I can’t wait for you all to actually see me.

I’ve been meaning to post on the topic of experts for a while now. Unfortunately, I’ve been given the opportunity once again, thanks to the events in Japan and all of what I like to call the “pop-up experts.” You know the type. Even though you’ve worked in the field for years, something big pops off (let’s say a radiologic disaster post-earthquake) and some talking head gets prime placement on CNN spouting off the worst-case scenario.

Sound familiar? It should, and if it doesn’t yet, it will.

The amazing Maggie Koerth-Baker of Boingboing.net posted on the amazing story of the MIT corporate risk management scientist who wrote like a nuclear physicist. While he was well-intentioned, and helped a lot of people understand what was happening in Japan, and the problem was quickly rectified by MIT, the point made is larger than that.

There are folks out there—hired guns?—that are willing to say what needs to be said to get on cable news. And since we’ve now established that cable news is willing to amp up disaster for ratings sake, we should be anticipating these pop-up experts. Consider anyone in your field that holds an unusual view of the work you do, or maybe a former employee with some incomplete knowledge of your plans, or a colleague from afar that disagrees with you. Or, really, anyone that wants to get on cable news.

This argues even more for the need to be first (while still being credible and right) in an emergency communication situation. The sooner you are established as the expert with on the ground knowledge of what’s happening, the less likely these “pop-up experts” will be to stand in your place.

I’m sure I’m going to have to post on this issue again, but I wanted to get the idea out there and see what you all think.

Last month, Gerald Baron had an extremely interesting post on his Crisis Comm blog about leadership (usually political) and its integration into emergency response, especially in the situation where a response plan is already in place. The most damning quote in the post comes from Admiral Thad Allen (USGS-Retired) concerning the role of leadership during the Deepwater Horizon response:

I’m concerned with the findings of the Commission and the national Incident Commander that officials at all levels of government were unfamiliar with the national Contingency Plan, our nation’s 42 year old blueprint for how to respond to oil spills. But I am particularly alarmed that the senior leaders of the Department of Homeland Security were either unaware or simply misunderstood how the plan functions. I am troubled that the failure of the Department’s leadership to recognize, accept and follow the plans slowed up the command and control in the days after the spill, undermined public confidence in government, and may have impeded the response.

While Gerald is a much more appropriate person to discuss national responses, I think I can offer some insight into what this means for local response.

I believe that, by and large, leadership at the local level is unfamiliar with the emergency response plans developed, written, approved, tested and implemented in their jurisdiction. They’ve simply got too much going on to get into the details, so I certainly don’t begrudge them that. I also think that political leadership at the local level usually respects the choices that emergency mangers make day-to-day. From their perspective, so long as plans exist, they have political cover. And so long as they have that, the emergency managers can do whatever they want.

The problem comes when one needs to activate those plans. Admiral Allen bemoans the lack of understanding of federal plans, but what about celebrated local leaders who circumvent established emergency plans (some would argue for political gain)? Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani showed how advantageous it is to successfully respond to a disaster career-wise (Though admittedly, I don’t think that anyone would begrudge his response that day. The political posturing came later.). And I would argue that with a bit of social media savvy, current Newark mayor Cory Booker has shown a willingness to insert himself into emergency scenarios.

Take, for example, his widely praised efforts to respond to citizen complaints via Twitter during the snowstorms earlier this year. I even posted on it, and argued that other local officials could be expected to follow his lead in citizen-directed response via social media. At the time, many emergency managers quietly grumbled about Mayor Booker’s perceived end-run around the city’s established snow emergency plan. Now, to be completely fair, I can’t say that there was an end-run—maybe the Mayor worked out beforehand that he would have access to direct one or more snowplows as he saw fit. But if he didn’t… You think not knowing ICS was a problem, what about intentionally redirecting limited resources during an emergency?

Like I said before, I don’t know if Mayor Booker did that, so I won’t dwell on it. But even if he didn’t, there is nothing to stop your Mayor from doing the same thing in an effort to emulate Mayor Booker’s media success.

So, like all good emergency planners, I believe this is the state of things. It is what it is, as they say. So, what do we do about it? Well, first, acknowledge within your planning that this might happen. Say explicitly that you’ll work with your County Executive to establish priorities and respond accordingly. To not do so would only serve to neuter your response from the start. Then, raise the issue with the Executive. Couch it in terms that you want to protect life and property in your jurisdiction, and to preserve people’s faith in the helpfulness of the county. If your Executive says, “You write the plans, and I’ll duly support them,” you’re golden. If not, well, maybe you can assign him or her a snowplow.