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Hello Lucien,
Welcome to the August edition of Emergency Management Solutions.
You may recall my friend and colleague, George Whitney, who has been kind enough to contribute several articles to my newsletter over the years. Several days ago George was stung by a swarm of wasps and suffered a severe anaphylactic reaction and cardiac arrest that resulted in anoxic brain injury. George is now in a vegetative state in an intensive care unit with little chance of recovery.
George has been a thought leader in our profession for many years and anyone who knows him will tell you he is one of the nicest guys you've ever met. We've been friends for more years than I can count and I will miss his laughter and wise counsel.
If you would like to make a contribution to assist George and his family in this difficult time, they have set up a GoFundMe campaign at https://gofund.me/e418a7ac.
In this month's featured articles, Tim Riecker discusses how our biases have made much of our incident command training ineffective. Erik Bernstein's father, Johnathan Bernstein, offers some ideas on how to deal with reporters who violate journalistic ethics. My article looks at some approaches to mediating conflict among emergency planners.
Be well!
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Canton on Emergency Management
By Lucien G. Canton, CEM
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The Emergency Manager as Mediator
One of the main functions of an emergency manager is to help stakeholders with competing agendas agree to a common goal and the best approach to achieving that goal. The problem is that often those competing agendas and organizational biases can lead to conflict. Consequently, emergency managers may find themselves serving as mediators for the opposing groups.
Here are just a few examples of the types of conflicts that can create the need for mediation between opposing demands:
- Two city departments who have traditionally battled for dominance, distrust each other’s motivations, and compete for resources must now agree on how best to spend federal grant funds. The underlying cause of the conflict is that each wants an equal share of the funds regardless of overall operational needs.
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A homeless advocacy group and the city social services department who distrust each other need to help craft a plan for dealing with victims displace by residential hotel fires. The advocates want more benefits and services than the victims had available before the fire while social services department has budget and policy limitations on what they can provide.
- A shelter working group does not want a police presence in emergency shelters, despite a clear need for some measure of security. The lack trust in the police department’s ability to deal with a population largely consisting of homeless people and foreign nationals.
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© 2024 - Lucien G. Canton
Lucien Canton is a management consultant specializing in helping managers lead better in a crisis. He is the former Director of Emergency Services for San Francisco and the author of the best-selling Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs used as a textbook in many higher education courses.
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The Contrarian Emergency Manager
By Timothy "Tim" Riecker
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ICS Training Sucks – Progress Inhibited by Bias
It’s been a while since I’ve written directly toward my years-long rally against our current approach to Incident Command System (ICS) training. Some of these themes I’ve touched on in the past, but recent discussions on this and other topics have gotten the concept of our biases interfering with progress stuck in my head.
It is difficult for us, as humans, to move forward, to be truly progressive and innovative, when we are in a way contaminated by what we know about the current system which we wish to improve. This knowledge brings with it an inherent bias – good, bad, or otherwise – which influences our vision, reasoning, and decisions. Though on the other hand, knowledge of the existing system gives us a foundation from which we can work, often having awareness of what does and does not work.
I’m sure there have been some type of psychological studies done on such things. I’ve certainly thought about, in my continued rally against our current approach to ICS training, what that training could look like if we set individuals to develop something new if they’ve never seen the current training. Sure, the current training has a lot of valuable components, but overall, it’s poorly designed, with changes and updates through decades still based upon curriculum that was poorly developed, though with good intentions, so long ago.
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© 2024 - Timothy Riecker, CEDP
Used with Permission
Tim Riecker is a founding member, partner and principal consultant with Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC, a private consulting firm serving government, businesses, and not for profit organizations in various aspects of emergency and disaster preparedness.
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Bernstein Crisis Management
by Erik Bernstein
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Crisis Management For When the Media Goes Too Far
by Johnathan Bernstein
Everyone expects journalists to be pushy, to report facts less-than-accurately at times and to insist on a level of access to information that makes both attorneys and PR professionals cringe. To a significant extent, that’s their job and those of us who respond to the media “dance the dance” with them and hope for some balance in the resulting coverage.
Sometimes, however, reporters and/or the media outlet they serve go too far. They cross the line from aggressive to offensive. They insist on publishing facts which have already been corrected by reputable sources. And when they do, there is recourse other than just taking it in the teeth.
When Reporters Get Offensive
In an actual situation that occurred in 1999, a reporter for an Arizona newspaper, assigned to coverage of an ongoing business crisis situation, apparently got frustrated at his inability to obtain interviews with certain representatives of that business. The organization in crisis had decided, at that point, to communicate only by written statement. The frustrated journalist called the administrative assistant to one of the business’ outside attorneys and insisted on talking to the attorney. When she, appropriately, told him the “party line” that all media calls were to go the PR director of the business (where he’d already called without success), he threatened her. He said that he would publish HER name as the one responsible for information not being available to the public.
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© 2019 - Johnathan Bernstein
Used with permission
Erik Bernstein is President of Bernstein Crisis Management, a specialized firm dedicated to providing holistic strategies for managing crisis situations.
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The "Hard Shock:" The New Madrid Earthquakes.
The largest recorded earthquakes in the history of the US east of the rocky mountains are still somewhat of a mystery to both scientists and historians, but the few first-hand accounts from this then sparsely populated land paint a grim picture indeed.
The 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes were a series of intense intraplate earthquakes beginning with an initial earthquake of moment magnitude 7.2–8.2 on December 16, 1811, followed by a moment magnitude 7.4 aftershock on the same day. Two additional earthquakes of similar magnitude followed in January and February 1812. They remain the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history.
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Updated Links for National Qualification System Job Title/Position Task Books and Emergency Operations Center Skillsets
FEMA’s National Integration Center is redirecting FEMA.gov links for National Qualification System Job Titles/Position Qualifications and Position Task Books and Emergency Operations Center Skillsets from FEMA.gov to the Resource Typing Library Tool.
In late 2023, FEMA’s National Integration Center updated the Resource Typing Library Tool (RTLT) to host all National Qualification System Job Titles/Position Qualifications and Position Task Books and Emergency Operations Center Skillsets.
The RTLT is publicly available for use. Users can view the documents online or download to PDF.
Each specific link will direct users to the specific list of documents referenced on FEMA.gov.
The current PDFs available on FEMA.gov have been removed. However, all PDFs can still be found at the RTLT links.
You can find the updated links at:
Emergency Management Organizational Structures, Staffing, and Capacity Study
FEMA is partnering with Argonne National Laboratory, the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), and Big City Emergency Managers (BCEM) to gain a greater understanding of current state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency management organizational structures, staffing, and capacity. This study will provide important insights on how agencies and organizations are structured and staffed, where they get their funding, and how staff time is focused across the spectrum of emergency management activities.
To accomplish this study, IAEM will be launching four surveys—state, local, tribal, and territorial. Argonne National Laboratory will be conducting the analysis. The state, local, and territorial surveys are now available. A tribal-specific survey will be available in the coming weeks. Key insights about the capacity and challenges facing emergency management agencies across the nation will help FEMA, IAEM, NEMA, BCEM, and others identify strategies to better support emergency management efforts and increase community resilience.
To learn more about the Emergency Management Organizational Structures, Staffing, and Capacity Study and the supporting surveys please visit: https://www.anl.gov/dis/npac/EMStudy.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Call for Quick Response Research – SUBMIT NOW
With the support of the National Science Foundation, the Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Research Award Program provides funds and training for eligible researchers to collect data in the aftermath of extreme events to document disaster before memories fade and physical evidence is erased. The Natural Hazards Center is currently accepting proposals for a Special Call for Health Outcomes and Climate-Related Disaster Research. Funds will support awards in the amount of $10,000 to $50,00 each. Proposals for this special call will be accepted on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted. Apply now! More information can be found at https://hazards.colorado.edu/research/quick-response
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Professional Development Opportunities
DRJ Fall 2024
September 8-11, 2024
Dallas, TX
DRJ’s annual spring and fall conferences are the longest-running and best-attended business continuity events in the world. DRJ can help you protect your organization from today’s disruptions and tomorrow’s threats by exposing you to insights from industry leaders and giving you an early look at new BC technologies.
IAEM Annual Conference and EMEX
November 15-21, 2024
Colorado Springs, CO
The goal of the IAEM Annual Conference is to improve your knowledge, competency level and collaborative skills. IAEM accomplishes this by attracting relevant high-profile speakers to address current topics and practical solutions. Convening in tandem to this annual event, EMEX, IAEM’s Emergency Management & Homeland Security Expo, draws a myriad of exhibitors who are the top suppliers to the fields of disaster preparedness and homeland security.
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When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12
by Jay Feldman
On December 15, 1811, two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews murdered a slave in cold blood and put his body parts into a roaring fire. The evidence would have been destroyed but for a rare act of God—or, as some believed, of the Indian chief Tecumseh.
That same day, the Mississippi River's first steamboat, piloted by Nicholas Roosevelt, powered itself toward New Orleans on its maiden voyage. The sky grew hazy and red, and jolts of electricity flashed in the air. A prophecy by Tecumseh was about to be fulfilled.
He had warned reluctant warrior-tribes that he would stamp his feet and bring down their houses. Sure enough, between December 16, 1811, and late April 1812, a catastrophic series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River Valley. Of the more than 2,000 tremors that rumbled across the land during this time, three would have measured nearly or greater than 8.0 on the not-yet-devised Richter Scale. Centered in what is now the bootheel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada; New York; New Orleans; Washington, DC; and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards.
The quakes uncovered Jefferson's nephews' cruelty and changed the course of the War of 1812 as well as the future of the new republic. In When the Mississippi Ran Backwards, Jay Feldman expertly weaves together the story of the slave murder, the steamboat, Tecumseh, and the war, and brings a forgotten period back to vivid life. Tecumseh's widely believed prophecy, seemingly fulfilled, hastened an unprecedented alliance among southern and northern tribes, who joined the British in a disastrous fight against the U.S. government. By the end of the war, the continental United States was secure against Britain, France, and Spain; the Indians had lost many lives and much land; and Jefferson's nephews were exposed as murderers. The steamboat, which survived the earthquake, was sunk.
When the Mississippi Ran Backwards sheds light on this now-obscure yet pivotal period between the Revolutionary and Civil wars, uncovering the era's dramatic geophysical, political, and military upheavals. Feldman paints a vivid picture of how these powerful earthquakes made an impact on every aspect of frontier life—and why similar catastrophic quakes are guaranteed to recur. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards is popular history at its best.
About the Author
Jay Feldman's writings have appeared in Smithsonian magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Gourmet, Whole Earth Review, and a wide variety of other national, regional, and local publications. A number of his pieces have been anthologized. He has also written for television, film, and the stage.
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Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs
Second Edition
by Lucien G. Canton
This book looks at the larger context within which emergency management response occurs, and stresses the development of a program to address a wide range of issues. Not limited to traditional emergency response to natural disasters, it addresses a conceptual model capable of integrating multiple disciplines and dealing with unexpected emergencies.
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Looking for a speaker for your conference? I offer keynotes, seminars, workshops, and webinars, either in person or virtually. You can find more details and sample videos on my website. | | | |
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©Lucien G. Canton 2024. All rights reserved.
You may reprint and excerpt this newsletter provided that you include my copyright, the source,
the author, and "reprinted with permission."
ISSN: 2334-590X
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