Complete EM Podcast

Small businesses play an enormous role in U.S. success and we know that disasters threaten the already fragile existence of many. In this episode, I speak with Lucien Canton, a long-time leader and author in emergency management about the effects of disaster on business and how continuity planning can better ensure business survival.

How important is what you wear as an Emergency Manager and how do you know when to wear what? In this episode of the Complete EM Podcast, contributor Jeb Lacey of RS Network Consulting, and George Whitney, founder of Complete EM, have a little fun and get serious with this important topic.

Do you drive a government or company vehicle in the course of your duty as an Emergency Manager? Do you take it home? Is it equipped with emergency lights and sirens? In this episode of the Complete EM Podcast, contributor Jeb Lacey of RS Network Consulting, and George Whitney, founder of Complete EM, have a little fun and get serious about the importance of knowing the responsibility and risk associated with take-home vehicle use.

The tougher part of natural disasters and the better part of human nature will mean we will probably always have unaffiliated volunteer organizations helping emergency managers with disaster response and recovery. In this episode, we explore what Humanity Road has been doing for almost 10 years to help when disasters strike, and how partnerships with emergency management agencies can make response and recovery a little easier.

What could you do if you had 5-seconds notice of a large, impending earthquake? A new technology called ShakeAlert now makes some advance warning of earthquakes possible. So, as emergency managers, we have to ask a few questions. What responsibility do we have to help a community leverage such a technology? What can we expect our community members to accomplish with some advance warning? What's the best way to communicate potentially life-saving messages?

Most emergency managers think of drought as a slow-onset, slow-burn type of disaster that jurisdictions simply need to ride-out with conservation. Some jurisdictions haven't been so lucky. In this episode, an emergency manager who directed critical response operations for several consecutive years walks us through the process he used from official recognition of the emergency to maintaining long-term response and recovery operations, something he calls "responsicovery."

Public alert and warning has again become an area of priority for emergency managers. Getting advance notice of imminent danger and valuable instructions to the public when they need it most - before a disaster can do irreparable harm - is arguably one of the most important things an emergency manager can accomplish. In this episode, we speak with one of the people at FEMA charged with engineering adequate capability for local, state and federal government officials to do just that. Photo credit/FEMA

What does emergency messaging have to do with Y2K, social science, communications interoperability and a free market economy? In this second of two episodes with a pioneer in emergency messaging, we drive closer to defining the current problem with emergency messaging and some probable solutions.

In light of recent emergency messaging failures, it's time to ask...what's happening? Do local and state jurisdictions indeed have a duty to warn the public of emergency? If so, how are emergency managers impacted or otherwise bound to this duty? What can they do to make alert and warning more effective? In this and a subsequent episode, we explore these and other questions with a world-renowned expert in emergency messaging.

Emergency managers have a lot to think about and, fortunately, have a large network of partners with which to consider risk, disaster needs and effective means of service delivery. One of those partners is the local food bank and their associated food pantries. Each day they're working to reduce hunger and food insecurity in communities across the US. In this episode, we speak with the director of disaster services for a nationwide network of food banks to hear more about what they do and how emergency managers can foster better partnerships in response and recovery.

Many emergency managers agree programs need to invest more in public preparedness, but deciding how to make the best investments is tough. Designing a program that takes into account large, almost infinitely diverse populations seems impossible using a traditional approach. In this episode, we hear from an emergency manager and enthusiastic researcher who wants to change the way we engage the public to better prepare for disaster.

If someone were to survey emergency managers and ask "what do emergency managers do?", chances are the answers would still vary quite a bit, but that's been changing. Since 2003, the Emergency Management Accreditation Program has been very explicit about what emergency management programs must complete to be accredited. In this episode, Barb Graff, Director of Seattle's Office of Emergency Management and EMAP Commissioner explains the standard, the process of accreditation and how the program is changing the profession.

Most emergency managers understand that disaster recovery involves a lot more than SBA and FEMA assistance, yet few local programs have developed a recovery plan. Indeed, planning for recovery requires a lot of consideration, but there's tools and an approach that can greatly simplify the overall effort. In this episode, we talk about recovery with a former FEMA Associate Administrator charged with developing a national strategy for disaster recovery.

Anyone remember the 2000 energy crisis in California? Like too many unexpected events that created great impacts, the lessons learned and passed along to emergency managers have been few and far between. In this episode, a person at the center of a multi-billion-dollar response helps us recall how the event happened and how a very small group of emergency managers made a huge difference in peoples' lives.

Few organizations know more about operational dependency than utilities. Electricity is needed to operate water, wastewater, communication, transportation and other criticial infrastructure. In turn, electricity is dependent on natural gas, coal, solar, wind or hydro electric plants. When utilities suffer interruptions, outages can affect manufacturing, the food supply, hospital surgery rooms and the overall quality of life in a community. Public safety agencies depend on close ties with utilities. In truth, both depend on each other a great deal during emergencies. In this episode, we speak with the Executive Director of the California Utilities Emergency Association (CUEA) to learn more about utility coordination before, during and after emergency.

It's difficult to dispute that Team Rubicon (TR) has joined the disaster relief stage with surprising success and momentum. Then again, employing veterans and others who share a desire to serve in places where people desperately need help, well, that is a good idea. In just seven years, the organization has grown from just a few volunteers to over 70,000. When I caught up with Corey Eide, the Deputy Director for Capabilities at TR, the timing was perfect to hear about the pivot the organization is currently making to help more people and engage more volunteers and stakeholders.

Utilities maintain some of the most critical infrastructure on the planet and a lot of work goes into making utilities stable, secure and resilient. In this epsiode, we speak with the manager of Southern California Edison's Emergency Operations Center to learn more about what one of the largest utilties in the U.S. does to achieve emergency management success.

If there's anything worse than seeing serious, unmet needs following disaster, it's seeing people and resources that can meet those needs, but having no efficient way to employ them. In this episode, we speak with the Volunteer Network Program Director at North Coast Opportunities, a very active community-based organization in Northern California that works, in part, with counties and cities to ensure the needs of disaster victims are matched to all practical offers of assistance.

With all that emergency managers must do to get their organizations ready for disaster, how much time can and should be invested in training?  Yuri Graves, the emergency manager for the City of Henderson, NV, explains how much training plays a role in his program and how use of a learning management system makes for easier, more effective investments in training.

In September 2017, the National Flood Insurance Program received a 10-week reprieve from a $25 billion loan payment. The program is, quite literally, under water. In this episode, we speak with the CEO of another large, public, catastrophic loss insurer - the California Earthquake Authority - to hear how actuarial-based rates, only policy-holder financing and effective messaging is preparing millions of California homeowners for the next big earthquake.

"Lobbying" may have become a dirty word, but legislative advocacy is nothing less than essential for emergency managers who rely on federal grants to operate local and state emergency management programs. In this episode, the Director of Government Relations for IAEM breaks down the business of legislative advocacy.

In January 2017, Lake Oroville operated like thousands of other flood control and water storage facilities in the US. Surrounding public safety agencies enjoyed good relations.  A county EOP and dam EAP existed. Telephone trees were regularly tested. Occasional table-tops took place. All seemed good... then the atypical happened. In this episode of the Complete EM Podcast, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea walks us through the Lake Oroville Spillway Crisis and how mission focus, teamwork, careful listening, good divisions of labor and, at times, assertiveness all played a part in response. He also makes an important reference to one of our favorite concepts: incident playbooks!

What allows an EM program to enjoy good public relations? Joe Dougherty, the Public Information Officer for Utah's Division of Emergency Management says it has a lot to do with finding a relatable and trustworthy PIO, and earnestly integrating that person in program assessment and improvement, long before information needs to be shared with the public.

Do we have gender equality in the emergency management profession? If not, what is a practical definition of equal, how are we measuring it and are we making good progress? How does gender equality affect our program outcomes? In this episode, Selina Hayes, a former emergency management consultant who now leads cutting-edge intelligence and security work across several continents, shares her experience, suggestions and hopes for gender equality.

For this second of two episodes focused on Federal emergency management and homeland security funding, we hear from another veteran of such matters. Josh Filler was a legislative affairs director and office chief of staff in the NYC Mayor Giuliani administration before becoming the Director of State and Local Programs at the brand new Department of Homeland Security under President Bush. He continues to monitor and assess federal fiscal policy changes and their programatic impacts as he works with a number of states and UASIs. For us, he shares his assessment of the FY17 and FY18 budgets.

"Traditional normal" and "the new up is flat" are examples of terms and sayings used to express what's been happening to the U.S. Federal Government budget... stuff that's been far from normal for some time. With so much local and state success in emergency management riding on grants like EMPG, HSGP, PDM and others, we brought back old friend and former FEMA Deputy Administrator to discuss federal funding vehicles, processes and outcomes.

Patrol officers putting on turn-outs, SCBAs and performing hose lays? Firefighters being held-over to secure perimeters and look for suspects? Qualifying at the range behind the fire apparatus bay? It's all part of consolidated fire and law operations at the Sunnyvale, California, Public Safety Department. In this episode, we learn how this happened and why it remains 60 years later.

The phrase "drinking from a fire hose" is often used to describe the tasks of establishing and maintaining situational awareness and common operating picture (SA/COP). In this episode, we dive deep into what work, processes, tools and people are needed to achieve this important and inherently complex operational objective.

Tommy Lee Jones's character in the movie Men in Black said "There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet..."  Be that as it may, in this episode, we discuss vector control with an important local partner we need to see more of in our planning, training, exercising and EOCs - your friendly neighborhood mosquito and vector control district.

If there was an award to give to the person who has done more to share information each week with emergency managers, that award would probably go to Steve Detwiler. For over 17 years, he's been collecting, organizing and sharing a wide range of information and publishing it as the EM Weekly Report at http://bit.ly/2pBYF6Q. In this episode, we find out what drives Steve to do this each week, how he determines what is newsworthy and how the presentation and consumption of news has changed in emergency management over the last two decades.

How does a previous career leading U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers (Green Berets) prepare one for the job of county emergency manager? You'll be surprised to hear the similarities one such officer sees in strategy, tactics, tools and day-to-day work after having served in both roles.

Or should we have introduced them as Pete and Suzanne? The answer is: it just depends on the cultural context. In this episode we explore the power of culture, its ability to make or break outcomes, and what emergency managers can do to, well, better manage it.

Preparing to support people with access and functional needs (AFN) during disaster does not necessarily require hiring specialists or developing elaborate plans and procedures. In this episode, Los Angeles County's DAFN program manager describes how fostering inclusion during all phases of emerency management efforts can not only enhance traditional preparedness programs, but also create opportunities for many new and valuable partnerships in the AFN community.

Many kids grow up wanting to be cops, firefighters and medics. And now that the profession is becoming established, some are even looking forward to careers as emergency managers. Careers within public safety, however, are still full of both risk and reward. In this episode we explore how the two factors interact and sometimes dramatically change the lives of both rescuees and rescuers.

Has your emergency management program seriously considered the use of social media, drones, tablets and other tempting new technologies? In this episode, we discuss the responsibility of emergency managers to accomplish basic work before adopting new technologies and then to do so carefully by thinking about useful life, total cost of ownership, opportunity cost, return on investment and other important considerations.

Tim Manning worked the last eight years as a FEMA Deputy Adminstrator in charge of Protection and National Preparedness. Emergency management and homeland security have dramatically changed since he took office in 2009. In this episode, we revisit what he saw going into Washington DC, what he and FEMA were able to accomplish and what he sees for the future of our profession.

How do emergency management programs differ across the U.S. and in jurisdictions of different size? In this episode we went east to the nation's largest city - New York City - to discuss their unique duty officer program and EOC organization, as well as the city's use of technology, relationship building and public engagement. Perhaps most important, we again found evidence that emergency management programs across the country improve in much the same way: one thoughtful, deliberate step at a time.

Emergency managers who don't develop and maintain a recovery plan leave that work for someone else. When a community is "lucky" enough to be declared a disaster area by the POTUS or head of a Federal agency, then a some assistance may be available to individuals, families, community-based organizations and government, but huge gaps often remain. Filling that gap in recovery assistance - between what the government and insurance complanies provide - are volunteer agencies.

What does it take to "move the needle" when it comes to community disaster preparedness? In this episode, Mona Curry shares how the City of Los Angeles is partnering across departments and with existing neighborhood councils to engage more residents and businesses in disaster preparedness activities.

Emergency managment and homeland security programs would be vastly different and in many jurisdictions, may not exist at all, without grants. In this episode, we speak with someone who administers several grant programs within a state. He outlines the primary emergency management grants, what makes local grant programs effective and how applicants can achieve better outcomes.

In this second of two episodes we devote to policing and active shooter incidents, recently-retired, police LT. Fred Leland describes the differences between management and leadership; mistakes and gross negligence; success and failure during response. He talks about the role of leaders and how written policies and procedures shouldn't be used as a substitute for good judgement or as simply a shield against risk because in both cases, they seldom work.

What might Jack Nicholson's Col. Jessep, law enforcement and emergency management have in common? Good reason to conduct routine, honest, self-evaluation. In this episode of the Complete EM Podcast, we discuss the current state of policing given recent active shooter events, what's now affecting policing outcomes, and where we go from here. And while we talk a lot about law enforcement, emergency managers will quickly hear (and feel) the program simularities and walk away with some great insights with which to improve their programs.

Severe weather forecasters often feel the heat when it comes to getting forecasts correct and communicating clear, useful information to all members of the public. They know understated, overstated or just plain incorrect forecasts can cause people to tune-out, so they're always looking for ways to better communicate forecast uncertainty. In this second of two episodes on emergency weather, Rob Dale explains the practice of forecasting, what part of that work is easy, and what part involves nuance and finesse that computers cannot yet provide.

Many emergency managers understand the vital role that meteorologists play in emergency management, but for one reason or another, the two disciplines seldom get a chance to discuss collaboration. Fortunately, technology is changing that by making it easier for weather experts and emergency managers to communicate before, during and after weather disasters. In this episode, we speak with someone who has unique insights into the WX/EM relationship, having worked both sides of it for several years.

How are emergency management training topics selected? What makes for a good course outcome? What makes for a great instructor? We explore each of these questions and more with a former director of course development and delivery at the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC).

Remember those five mission areas that FEMA developed: prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery? Few disciplines have more work across ALL five mission areas than transportation agencies. In this episode, we speak with a long-time emergency manager, now a professor teaching emergency management to the next generation of transportation agency officials. She shares some surprising facts about the US and world reliance on seemingly mundane transportation systems and what it's like to view emergency management through the eyes of a transportation official.

All-Hazard Incident Management Teams (AH-IMTs) have become more common but not necessarily better understood. With 200 or so teams now organized in the U.S., we thought we should spend a little time exploring the topic of team creation and maintenance. In this episode, we speak with someone who helped form some the earliest teams and who continues to play a large role in AH-IMT development.

What factors distinguish risk and crisis communications? Does each form of communication require the same tools, timing and techniques to achieve success? What role do social media play in inciting and calming fear? In this second part of our interview with Dr. Peter Sandman, he helps us answer each of these important questions.

Is fear a superfluous or counter-productive part of risk communication… or is it an essential element? Emergency managers work every day to increase disaster awareness and inspire preparedness. Many wonder if responsibly scaring people is a necessary part of that work. In this episode, we ask a world-renowned expert in risk communication if fear works, when it doesn’t and what makes for effective risk communication. We also discuss how little, in some respects, risk communication has changed over the past 2500 years.

Where a government places their emergency management program on a city or county organization chart makes a difference. Placement naturally transfers operational, administrative, community engagement or other aspects of program culture that greatly influence newly integrated programs. In this episode, we explore one of the few placements of an emergency management program within a planning and environmental department, and how the placement affects emergency management work, including resiliency.

Emergency managers need good data to administer their programs. Surveys offer a great way to collect some of that data. Unfortunately, surveys are subject to a number of biases, any one of which can dramatically affect survey outcomes, even ruin them. In this episode we speak with an accomplished researcher and professor to learn more about research bias, how it can ruin even the simplest survey and how emergency managers can develop better information.