Don’t you have off on Saturday?!? NOPE.

Disasters don’t take weekends off…nor do we.

After the morning brief, I headed back out in the field to Buffalo County to staff part-2 of the package with NTV (ABC affiliate) and KFXL (Fox Affiliate) Brandon Cortes on our ongoing recovery efforts at the Disaster Recovery Center.

Soooooo, this story will include our FEMA’s Individual Assistance Task Force Leader Ellershaw…

…and SBA Cynthia Crowell…

…and our FEMA Mitigation Teams….

…and of course, your favorite acting External Affairs Officer / Public Information Officer!

Special thanks to NTV (ABC Affiliate) and KFXL (Fox Affiliate) Reporter Brandon Cortes on today’s interview.

Great to work with people who live in the community and are dedicated to the serving fellow citizens.

Reporting live from our last day here in Kearney in Buffalo County…

@rusnivek

Morning start w/ our National Ops call and the FCO standup. NWS and our HQ folks working the magic for those in the path of Dorian.

However, this time, we had to really look at how we are staffed because of the increased demands for the response to the Cat-5 Hurricane Dorian.

Our FCO then requesting a follow up staffing plan for ongoing O-periods…basically he wanted to know who was getting redeployed to the hurricane so he can quickly assess his options of staff and move to fill others to compensate. This is the perfect example of prioritization and allocation of resources. EXACTLY what we talk about in class.

Since we are collaborating on the disaster declaration for the Ponca Tribe, our own External Affairs Jay from Region X is the expert on Tribal Relations.

Fresh from the Tribal Council meeting at Haskell University, Special thanks to Jay for teaching today’s training to our staff at the FEMA Joint Field Office.

After a quick huddle w/ my EA staff on our weekend plans, updates, and rally call, I had to head to Buffalo County to staff part-1 of an interview w/ NTV Brandon Cortes featuring Community Leader and long-time humanitarian citizen Paul Younes.

Glad to get him the feature in the story as his dedication to his employees during the floods as well as his generosity for recuperation efforts is astounding.

Looking forward to Brandon’s story about this community hero.

@rusnivek

Welcome to the day of a gajillion meetings!

We started out with the National Ops call and then went right on into the FCO’s stand up.

Next up was the Ops meeting for our current disaster as well as the Tribal disaster action plan. I was fortunate to play the role this week. 😳

Yep, I am the acting External Affairs Officer for this disaster.

I better not screw this up.

And for those wondering if the PSC really does go around the room an ask every Chief and Command and General Staff if they can support the plan. Here’s your proof.

See, the video isn’t too far off.

EA turned it’s attention to the FEMA All-Hands meeting w/ our 260 employees.

Our FEMA EA Plans & Products Manager Tarisha got recognized by the FCO for her exemplary work for this disaster and beyond. Proud of you Tarisha!

Then off to another planning meeting.

See, the planning P does exist and abiding by the process, you can identify other issues and allocate the right resources to combat the issue.

Whew, busy day!

@rusnivek

Full day as I attend the morning rounds of meetings as the acting External Affairs Officer. National Ops briefing, FCO standup, and then briefing our staff with ongoing activities for the week.

External Affairs can support the plan.

Resources are ready…so let’s execute the plan!

Jumping on to another flood conference call with our local partners to ensure our coordinated efforts are working. While not exciting stuff, you have to understand that this kind of coordination calls are mission critical as we move the operations along. These relationships is what makes Emergency Management magical as we continue to concrete our position as the coordinating entity in any emergency or disaster.

But back out to Branch II Division-J!

Windshield time as we open another Disaster Recovery Center in Buffalo County.

These Disaster Recovery Centers allows us to have face-to-face conversations with disaster survivors. We can get them registered, update their records, etc….all sorts of things. Thank goodness for our stellar DSA Teams as they support the role of the MRIC here in Buffalo County. Special thanks to Patricia Windward who just received the FCO’s award for going above and beyond the call of duty for our efforts here in this disaster.

We are also fortunate to have our Mitigation teams out as well helping to inform survivors to rebuild stronger and provide assistance in building a more resilient structure.

Again, we have so many facets of the DRC.

The location of this one is in a mall so it’s nice for our staff to utilize a place that everyone has easy access and is already established.

Looks like it’s going to be a long day covering External Affairs Officer stuff as well as statewide PIO stuff.

Reporting live from the field…

@rusnivek

Late night call from our External Affairs Officer with the orders to move to fill at the Joint Field Office. That means…pack up your stuff and head back to Lincoln!

But at 0500, Mother Nature made no effort to make my travel easy.

How fugly muggly was it? Was it bad?

Yeowza.

On arrival to the Joint Field Office, we were all informed that we were losing 33% of our staff for forward deployment to Puerto Rico to fill External Affairs positions before the Hurricane Dorian strike.

#boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo – I hate losing staff!

So Cinci continued to brief me on my new assignment…..as acting External Affairs Officer for DR4420-NE.

Woah. Just like all the kids in school huh?

But don’t you worry, I still gotta do TV interviews and all media requests. So continue on the #PIO role.

I am thankful to Cini, Zuni, and DuWayne for entrusting me with command of the External Affairs Staff.

Glad to be here and impact the community with solid stuff to aid in response and recovery.

A wise man reminded me of this phrase “Don’t screw it up.”

Thinking caps on this week as I lead our EA team now….

@rusnivek

While you would think we rest on a Sunday…we don’t. Disasters don’t take weekends off…therefore we don’t take weekends off.

Today we will be touring parts of Custer County and doing some damage assessments primarily from the rain from Friday (3 days ago).

Thankful that dedicated Emergency Managers like Mark who are willing to give Sundays up to assess damages in the community.

We toured about 200 miles of Custer County and we found that many of the roads were washed clear away and that recovery is being hampered by the ongoing rain. Some of the critical roadways will be rebuilt with stronger more resilient construction and allow for more flooded roadways.

We came across some roads that were….well not roads anymore. As you can see, large crevasse were created as water found its way to the lowest point in the area. This caused extensive damage in several places. Now new mitigation techniques and equipment are being put into place to solve the local flooding issues.

As we continued on our Sunday county assessment, some roads were impassible due to the overnight rains.

Yes, that is only 3-inches of rain that is flooding the roadway.

Alongside the roadway was the hopes and dreams of so many farmers…their crops submerged and rotting away.

While overlooked, the flood damage and repeated rain the area hurts the local economy as agriculture is a primary source of income for farmers in the area.

Woah.

This widespread continuous flooding impinges upon roadways too.

Without primary roadways, the residents in the neighborhood suffer from rapid access from Fire, EMS, and Police. So yes, the cascading effects of flooding is SO damaging for the entire community.

Aside from agriculture, a large portion of cattle and livestock have issues too.

So you can see, the effects for ongoing flooding are impactful for any community across America.

Much of our great country was founded on agriculture and farming so we must be cognizant of their community efforts in recovery and mitigation – both of which are long and very much a tedious process. As we continue our work, we must be mindful of the lives impacted by the initial devastating floods.

Nebraska’s continued community resiliency surprises me every day.

Proud to be serving countless disaster survivors…

Reporting live from the center of Nebraska…

@rusnivek

As we closed out another FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in Dawson County, I had a chance to talk to a few survivors. Now I know part of our job is hard charging operational tacticians, but there are times where we need to listen to the community.

Now I’ve been to Nebraska before on several teaching/speaking engagements. Outstanding people here – all with huge hearts. Despite challenging conditions, many wanted to share their flooding issues. Many of them have suffered continued flooding as the severe weather in the area has been a constant from March 2019 to present.

That means, they are constantly being flooded.

They ALSO wanted to know what I did and what my role was in the disaster. Explaining the job of External Affairs and the Public Information Officer is relatively easy…because most people said, “Oh, so you get to deal with the media huh?” Yeah, that’s one part of the job, but we probably get the most visibility from the media.

Not only TV, but FM/AM radio is HUGE in the Midwest and Great Plains. One of the disaster survivors talked about how she listens to NPR every day. I smiled and asked what her favorite show was? Without hesitation, she said “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell me!” I gave her my best Bill Kurtis voice impression and she LOLed. In the midst of this disaster, it was wonderful to see her big smile.

We sat and shared memories of listening to Paul Harvey and how America’s youth of today is so entrenched with TV and often forgets about radio being an incredibly viable source of info. I cherish listening to Paul Harvey’s show w/ my Grandfather. Even as a kid, I was specifically excited to hear “And now you’ll hear the rest….of the story…”

As we parted ways, she gave me a hug and said thank you for a good talk about the good being done here in Nebraska for all those who were affected by flooding. As for her recovery? I said I will be interested in hearing the rest of her story.

Later in the afternoon, I made the run to see our friends at Nebraska TV for ongoing FEMA operations and the status of the upcoming FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers.

Yep, I said I was going INTO the studio.

While not a normal occurrence, we PIOs are rarely in studio so it was nice to tour NTV and see their studio setups.

Glad to answer a few questions with our partners in local media to help everyone in the community recover from this disaster.

All the PIO fun on a full Saturday.

@rusnivek

As the Public Information Officer (PIO), you are likely doing interviews and stand ups all the time.

Many times, you want to frame the shot and maximize your efforts by extending your visibility for the situation. And in this case, I opted to utilize the signage from the University of Nebraska Lincoln as the backdrop for this informational push.

However, you always have to be agile enough and make some magic happen.

That’s right, we are most definitely standing on chairs to get the interview done.

While I do enjoy some gritty shots in your PIO field reporting, legit framing your shot is critical for discerning the right info and building trust with your audiences.

Nothing is easy. Earn your stripes. Don’t be afraid to do something different.

Reporting live from the University of Nebraska Lincoln….

@rusnivek

Quick hello to our DoD assets with the Strategic Air Command based here in Nebraska.

No time for playing on Sundays, we got some work to do esp with our most trusted partners in safety.

@rusnivek

Many people ask what I take on deployments. Like a good #PIO, my answer is “It depends…” 🤣

But seriously. IT TRULY DOES DEPEND ON THE #DISASTER!!! Just like your emergency #preparedness #kit (that varies person-to-person) your #deployment bag should suit your needs and the requirements of the deployment.

This particular deployment is different than the typical all response to #Hurricane Katrina/Rita, #Tornado response, #WorldSeries, and Hurricane Irma/Maria.

On this particular deployment, I’d call my setup to be “light” as it is bare bones.

Here’s the specifics on the actual bags.

Wheeled duffel: Eagle Creek ORV Trunk 30

Rollerboard: TravelPro Maxlite-3 22”

Backpack: 511 Tactical Rush 24

Clothing for at least one month goes in the wheeled duffel. Rollerboard carries all tech equipment and PIO/#JIC gear including @nikonusa #DSLR, PIO bag, power packs, dongles, and large battery packs. Backpack is all mission essential stuff including laptops, iPads, radio comms, essential daily gear, hard drives, and important paperwork including hard copy deployment orders.

I have used all of these bags in multiple deployments so they are deployment tested and meet my rugged requirements. TBH, I purchase stuff that is prob over-engineered for use, but I’d rather have more of a safety net than not enough.

Hope that helps you out in your disaster prep as I am on site at 4420DR-NE at the Joint Field Office.

Be safe out there peeps!

@rusnivek