If you work in U.S. emergency management, particularly at the local, county or state level, you are probably already aware of the fine courses provided at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute – both the brick-and-mortar schoolhouse in the Maryland panhandle, and via their online presence. I’ve taken several courses at the school over the years, have […]
Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and U.S. National Hurricane Preparedness Week is May 25-31. If you live and work near the U.S. east or gulf coasts, or in the Caribbean, preparedness week is a good time not only to make sure that you’re prepared in general, but also that you’re prepared to conduct crisis communications in […]
Public opinion has often driven operations during disaster incident response. Successfully establishing and operating a joint information center can make your incident management organization part of the conversation with a well-informed public; not doing so can put you “behind the story,” playing catch-up to rumors and misinformation. When multiple organizations are in the same fight to […]
I live in one of the Rockefeller Foundation’s “100 Resilient Cities,” which is a program funding innovative thinking and action to overcome issues that challenge preparedness, response and recovery during crisis. Norfolk for instance, where I make my home, faces issues of serious coastal flooding problems and the inadequacy of its infrastructure to support mass evacuations. Resiliency is easy […]
It’s a busy week for us here as I prepare for my U.S. Coast Guard retirement ceremony, Friday, and brandon wraps up his final exams so he can drive to D.C. to be the keynote speaker at my retirement ceremony. A couple weeks ago brandon wrote a career advice piece about embracing your apprenticeship. What […]
The Crisis Communicator 