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Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

Don’t gatekeep these tips

Posted on September 3, 2026 by rusnivek

Don’t gatekeep our best safety tips – share them with your whole family! All month long, we hope you share these preparedness tips with everyone! #NatlPrep #Ready Americans Stand Ready!

We hope you are widely sharing all these preparedness/safety tips. In fact, not only sharing, but also ASKING your communities to share within their communities too.

Our collective information is bee-hiving it a collaborating with way that is beneficial for all. Abd sharing information is good for any audience that we regularly engage with and perhaps reach a few that we don’t engage regularly with.

Additionally, weird that people think that a big city will thwart a tornado.

Truth be told, Mother Nature doesn’t care about size as she will send a tornado anywhere.

So keep this in mind as you educate others on the possible hazards.

Although they hear it from me all the time, my family gets regular weather updates from me all the time that I share from the NWS-Chicago and NWS-Honolulu teams. This way, they know they are getting the info from the foremost authority, not some self-proclaimed “expert/guru”.

So be consistent in sharing sourced information and regularly address concerns when there is severe weather inbound to your area.

Keep them informed and be one of the trusted sources of information for your family and friends.

@rusnivek

Being informed on the sich #NatlPrep

Posted on September 2, 2026 by rusnivek

Day-2 of National preparedness month!

Being informed of the dangers and knowing what to do in an emergency is critical to the safety for you and your family. #NatlPrep #Ready Americans Stand Ready!

The hardest part of any emergency or disaster…is actually knowing what to do.

The theme of knowing the dangers and being informed is always an easy sell because the nature of our business is always changing. Compounding the problem even more is that every disaster/emergency is NOT the same.

One more time for the people in the back – no two disasters are alike.

This makes it challenging for Emergency Managers to urgently inform and educate their communities because the variability of preparedness will always be changing.

So take a few minutes more to appropriately educate your audiences on how to find the right info. I would suggest you start with severe weather in your locality…this way, you have a wide dearth of topics to cover.

Then, as they get more comfortable with the weather preparedness, then move them on to bigger sandwiches (like cyber threats, HAZMAT, or even active shooters etc…)

I see bright things for your preparedness efforts this year.

Go forth and do good stuff.

@rusnivek

Sat phone partay!

Posted on August 25, 2025 by rusnivek

Our 4th satellite phone came in today. Like gremlins, they are multiplying!

This Continuity of OPerations (COOP) effort is a phased plan that is imperative to everyone here.

It’s just another part of our COOP plan as Emergency Management leads the way for planning and coordination.

Think of it this way, it’s part of business continuity.

At any time, we have staff/SMEs around the world doing critical work. And we need instant communications with them and our global Exfil team that can deploy out immediately in an emergency.

In the near future, look to Argonne EM to lead the COOP effort for the area by providing high level training with our partners at FEMA.

Funny part, we are calling that part “Operation Kevins”

Reporting live from Sat phone stable…

@rusnivek

Annual interface training today

Posted on August 20, 2025 by rusnivek

To better acclimate our public safety partners to our operations, we hosted our annual off-site agency interface training today.

Fire, EMS, Emergency Management, Law Enforcement, and key players from state and Federal were also on hand to make sure we are a well oiled machine when it comes to inbound resources.

Glad to see so many familiar faces on site today.

Just another way Emergency Management leads the way to collaborate with our most trusted partners in response and recovery.

Reporting live from today’s sesh…

@rusnivek

Severe weather awareness week in Illinois #PIO

Posted on March 14, 2025 by rusnivek

Another interview as we talk about preparedness. This week is severe weather awareness week in Illinois.

PIO here….working with the Springfield news to feature IEMA-OHS Deputy Director Clayton Kuetemeyer.

Making sure everyone is prepared is key to safety.

Illinois has had some severe weather lately so I am glad that our media partners are in it to win it too.

Just glad to hang with the crew from WICS today in Springfield.

Reporting live from the SEOC…

@rusnivek

2025 Big City Emergency Manager program with our IEMA-OHS Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau

Posted on January 26, 2025 by rusnivek

Starting out the morning with all the Big City Emergency Managers at Chicago OEMC’s Emergency Operations Center.

First up, IEMA-OHS Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau.

Sharing the challenges of Emergency Management and focusing in on statewide issues. Overcoming challenges and strengthening Federal relationships is key especially in the first few hours of a disaster.

Initial response will dictate the disaster tempo. If your tempo is off and your battle rhythm is askew, you will likely become another disaster. So please make sure your efforts are coordinated.

Diving deep into overcoming resources challenges early on so that we can serve our diverse communities.

Special thanks to all the rising stars in the 2025 Big City Emergency Managers Program.

@rusnivek

PIO Kevin Surr

Posted on July 31, 2024 by rusnivek

More interviews during our Damage Assistance process. Today, we’re in Rockford (Winnebago County).

It’s just three letters. That’s it.

C’mon.

@rusnivek

Your 2024 Democratic National Convention Joint Information Center team!

Posted on July 24, 2024 by rusnivek

I am honored to lead this Joint Information Center (JIC) with the US Secret Service.

I am incredibly thankful for everyone who participated with us from local, county, state, and Federal partners. Welcome to Illinois and the City of Chicago!

2024 Democratic National Convention Joint Information Center

Lots of dangers with these types of National Special Security Events (NSSEs), but through a well coordinated system with highly trained individuals,

Trust me, it took many months of introductions, planning, networking, scheduling, coordinating, and of course collaborating with our most trusted partners from across the country.

I’ve said it before, but it takes a certain skillset to be the agency’s PIO. No day is ever alike.

And no incident or event will ever be the same. Nothing is ever the same.

Proud of the work that was done this week to keep everyone safe.

Reporting live from the 2024 DNC’s Joint Information Center…

@rusnivek