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Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

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Emergency Services

FEMA Support for Hurricane Harvey response including key safety messages

Posted on August 27, 2017 by rusnivek

Key Safety Messages:

Continue to listen to local officials.
Only call 911 if you have an immediate need for medical attention or evacuation assistance.
- If you can’t get through to 911 on first try, keep calling.
- Another option is to place a call to one of five numbers for the Houston Command Center of the United States Coast Guard. The numbers are:
  - 281-464-4851
  - 281-464-4852
  - 281-464-4853
  - 281-464-4854
  - 282-464-4855
Don’t drive on flooded roadways. Remember – turn around, don’t drown.
If you are in a high rise building and need to shelter in place, go to the first or second floor hallways or interior rooms. You want to stay on floors above floodwater or storm surge, but do not go to the highest floors due to wind impacts.
If you are under a tornado warning, seek shelter immediately in the center of a small interior room (closet, interior hallway) on the lowest level of a sturdy building. Put as many walls as possible between you and the outside.

@rusnivek

I better check my email now…

Posted on August 26, 2017 by rusnivek

I better check my email now…

@rusnivek

#Hurricane #Harvey #Barricades? Turn Around Don’t Drown #FEMA #TADD #TXWx

Posted on August 26, 2017 by rusnivek

As ongoing operations continue for survivors of Hurricane Harvey – key messages need to be repeated as Hurricane impact turns into catastrophic inland flooding.

Do not drive through flooded areas. Turn Around, Don’t Drown.

I encourage all Public Information Officers / Public Affairs Officers (PIOs/PAOs) to continue to share/amplify FEMA messaging like this to all their audiences.

#TurnAroundDontDrown

@rusnivek

Graphic: Turn Around, Don’t Drown. This graphic is part of the Flood Safety collection.

Public Works (ESF-3) part of the response phase #Hurricane #Harvey #Port #Arkansas #Texas #Disaster

Posted on August 26, 2017 by rusnivek

I talk about it all the time in class – Emergency Support Function-3 (ESF-3) is an important part of our RESPONSE effort in a disaster.

Why do I talk about this all the time? Public works isn’t considered the traditional Fire or EMS or Law Enforcement….but when faced with this….

Photo credit: Gabe Hernandez (@callergabe) from Hurricane Harvey in Port Arkansas, TX – 08-26-17

Public Works’ efforts with so many various resources allow all public safety to get to affected areas.

Photo credit: Gabe Hernandez (@callergabe) from Hurricane Harvey in Port Arkansas, TX – 08-26-17

Often times, people believe public works is only for recovery and clean up. That is not true. As you can see, we clearly need them during the response phase – just to get to affected areas.

Photo credit: Gabe Hernandez (@callergabe) from Hurricane Harvey in Port Arkansas, TX – 08-26-17

Get to know your public works professionals now. They are an invaluable resource for the response phase.

@rusnivek

Busy morning at FEMA HQ in Washington DC

Posted on August 25, 2017 by rusnivek

Busy morning yesterday and today. Lots of preparation going on for Hurricane Harvey.

So many hard-working Emergency Management pros from FEMA are working the magic to support those in the path of Hurricane Harvey with coordination of resources for deployment.

Reporting from FEMA HQ…

@rusnivek

Meetings at FEMA HQ and prep for Hurricane Harvey

Posted on August 24, 2017 by rusnivek

Fun time this morning at FEMA HQ.

Quick meeting with my manager and a quick hello to our other External Affairs pros on the 8th floor.

Additionally, lots of planning ongoing for the preparedness/response for Hurricane Harvey. And lots of senior administration here today to update ongoing issues as well as brief leadership on various branches of government.

Photo Credit: FEMA/Bill Koplitz

Despite the ongoing flurry of activity, I was still able to grab a few smiles from my External Affairs peeps.

@rusnivek and @EmergencyPrepGal

We are going to need everyone to listen to trusted sources of local, state, national information on safety measures being implemented throughout affected areas.

Please heed the warnings of your local public safety professionals.

If told to evacuate, immediately do so.
Turn Around, Don’t Drown.
Most of all, grab your preparedness kit and keep family/friends close as Hurricane Harvey makes landfall.

Be safe peeps.

@rusnivek

Social media class for State of Delaware and various other partners in public safety

Posted on August 23, 2017 by rusnivek

Great start to our morning social media class in Dover, Delaware!

State of Delaware Mark Rieley Training Manager welcomes our social media class

With participants from 4 different states, a very special thanks to Clayton Fire Station-45 for hosting.

Clayton Fire

Great engagement as we talk about how fast information spreads esp with the newest platforms. What we thought of as “traditional” social media platforms – are really fast becoming outdated or even being identified as “legacy” platforms. That sounds terrible.

Hilariously, the big-3 will likely not be around in about 3 years…so it’ll be interesting to see what emerges to the top of the social media pile.

Andrew discussed info on blogs and how they are used to get information out there.

And of course we had to talk about current events including the most recent eclipse, TSwizzle’s new album release, and photobombing.

Photo cred: @tkn92008

Great time and fun participants – looking forward to more engagement from my new friends on the east coast!

Now use your social media powers for good!

@rusnivek

Great training resource discussion with the State of Maryland EMA

Posted on August 22, 2017 by rusnivek

I stopped by the State of Maryland’s Emergency Management Agency and EOC.

I had a chance to sit down with Executive Director Russell Strickland and talk about various Training & Exercise plans including a few ways to enhance their plans. Also caught up with the famous Doc Lumpkins!

Yep, that’s our classic pose. It’s the same pose as the EMI conference, White House Disaster Day, NEMA Conference, etc….

Obv we all had to have a quick meeting with City of St. Louis EMA Sarah Gambling-Luig.

#FlatSarah had to go to another meeting concerning #CityHallSelfie so the rest of us stayed to plan for upcoming classes.

Great discussion on various aspects of social media focusing on gathering information for tactical operation for SA/COP. Emily and Ed provided some great insight to upcoming plans for Maryland. Additionally, we also had a chance to chat about ready deployable PIOs to field tactical operations, Joint Information Centers (JICs), Incident Management Teams (IMTs), and increasing SA/COP for State of Maryland.

Looking forward to more PIO involvement with my Maryland peeps!

@rusnivek

Social media and a solar eclipse with my new peeps at Prince George County

Posted on August 22, 2017 by rusnivek

Outstanding day yesterday with my Prince George County Emergency Operations Center!

Great new facility to teach and learn. We kicked off our morning with telling our class that they could tweet, FB post, Gram, etc….all DURING class time. And within a few seconds, this happened.

Photo Credit: K-ray-a

It’s always a fun time when you are in class w/ me.

We also had a few celebrity PIOs in the audience like the famous Prince George County Fire PIO Mark Brady. #famous

@rusnivek and @PGFDPIO

As you know, he also teaches at EMI in the Advanced PIO Course.

Since everyone was hyped up for the solar eclipse, we built a break around the maximum viewing time…and yes, we all wore NASA approved safety glasses to view.