Where is @rusnivek?

Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

Rethink your preparedness plans. Thanks #COVID

Posted on September 6, 2020 by rusnivek

What can you do to improve your plans in 2020 National Preparedness Month?!?

With this COVID thing going on, we must be cognizant of new things in our preparedness plans. New challenges, esp in planning, make us rethink our orig plans.

But this is a good thing. A fresh set of eyes and new parameters that could help us enhance our preexisting plans!

I would say that we all need to add a few masks to our plan. Yep, add a few masks in your car, your work bag, etc….

Coronavirus Spurs Demand For Face Masks — But They're Surprisingly Hard To make : Goats and Soda : NPR

If you happen to work in close proximity to or a high contact environment, consider wearing a surgical mask over an N95 mask.

Rising Coronavirus Cases Put Fresh Strain on Mask Supplies - WSJ

Simple things like this could help enhance the protection and extend the life of your equipment. Not all places will be as prepared as you so I would take the time now to plan accordingly.

Aside from masks, I have changed my plans to have hand sanitizer in various locations. Not only car, but bags, pouches, belt loops, etc…

Funny Fruit Food Silicone Mini Hand Sanitizer Holder Travel Portable Safe Gel Holder Hangable Liquid Soap Dispenser Containers|Refillable Bottles| - AliExpress

(Disclaimer-I don’t own jeans)

This kind of proactive behavior allows me and those around me to be less at-risk of contracting COVID.

I can’t trust the places I go to have a fully-stocked hand sanitizer dispenser right?

Creative Nose Funny Practical Hand Sanitizer Bottle Nose Gel Dispenser – Pink-Always

I know you may be prepared, but the company you keep may not be as prepared as you.

So consider augmenting your plan for double masks, more hand sanitizer, extra set of gloves, etc….

nitrile gloves | Tumblr

Be even more prepared for stuff to happen!

Reporting live from 2020 National Preparedness Month!

@rusnivek

3 reasons why you should have a family communications plan #NPM2020 #NatlPrep

Posted on September 5, 2020 by rusnivek

Final day of the first week of the 2020 National Preparedness Month. So to close this week out, we are going to talk about your family communications plan…aka comms plan.

No, not that kinda plan.

An essential part of your emergency plan is the easy family communications plan.

WAIT…did you say “I already have their phone numbers in my cell phone. Why do I need anything else?”

Your memory isn’t that great. You are human. And it’s been proven that during a crisis/duress, your critical skills and ability to recount precise information sucks.

This is precisely why you need a family communications plan.

Technology has proven to fail and fail at critical times in a crisis or disaster. While your cell phone is a critical piece of equipment, there are times where you lose your phone.

Yeah, I know all of you Apple Watch users have used the find my phone feature.

Regularly, we find evacuees after a storm, they report that they do not have good reception or adequate data service for their phones. This renders their phone useless when trying to communicate essential information to loved ones.

And we all know when we lose power to our phones that most definitely eliminate all critical phone numbers, emails, etc…

So three solid reasons why you want to consider having a hard copy family communications plan ready in case of an emergency.

Need some help? Here’s an easy template provided by our Ready.Gov campaign

Click to access Family_Comm_Plan_508_20150820.pdf

Easy peasy right?

Do the right thing for the safety of your family.

Reporting live and closing out the first week of the 2020 National Preparedness Month!

@rusnivek

Bridges are out…now whut? #NatlPrep

Posted on September 4, 2020 by rusnivek

As we near the end of the first week, we should also consider our planning and look at evacuation routes. As far as things go, most major routes should be open esp in emergency to allow for those who need to egress to GTFO of there right?!?

While in perfect situations, this would be the case. But lately, we’ve had some challenging situations across the nation that leads me to believe we may not have the option to evacuate safety out of the city.

While most days, all the bridges are down in Chicago.

Chicago Hotel Packages Add Spice to the Weekend

However the City of Chicago has had some bad luck and was forced to pop the bridges to curtail silly behavior at night.

With almost all the bridges up, that makes travel through the loop a bit more complex and challenging esp when things happen last minute and late at night.

To help deal with these challenging situations, subscribing to the mass notification systems would provide additional information on which roads are closed but amidst the ruckus, perhaps planning alternate routes out of your location would be best.

Easier said than done but necessary when faced with pressures of the safety of yourself and your family.

While it doesn’t have to be a straight shot out, you can exercise various options on how to exit your location and safely rondevous with loved ones in other places.

Remember, plan at least two alternate routes of egress from your location and try your hardest to reduce the amount of complexity after a disaster/emergency.

As always, remain vigilant and make sure you and your family are safe by planning now.

Reporting live on AlohaFriday…

@rusnivek

How I find out the latest deets on stuff #NatlPrep

Posted on September 2, 2020 by rusnivek

Since this is only the second day of 2020 National Preparedness month, we needed to focus in on your plans before, during, and after an emergency.

On the regular, I get TONS of calls/inquiries from people trying to figure out what’s going on. Many of our friends/families can glean this same info I get from the mass notification systems already in place.

The City of Chicago (IL) Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) has an easy system called NotifyChicago.

By inputting your information and particular way to be contacted, you can get the most up-to-date information about any part of the city. This includes warnings, hazards, and of course major street closures due to riots, protests, or other weird things that happen in Chicago. Choosing to be notified via text message ensures that no matter where you are, you can be alerted to dangers in your area 24/7. Subscribe for free here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/oem/provdrs/alertchicago/svcs/notifychicago.html

At the county level, DuPage County (IL) Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (OHSEM) uses the Smart911 system which is a mass notification system to alert anyone on issues at the county level.

This could include severe weather, road closures, as well as critical information for anyone living/working in the area. You can sign up here: https://www.smart911.com/

From the region:

I rely heavily on our partners from the National Weather Service. While not the primary way, I think their social media work on Twitter is excellent and pull lots of info from them using the alert feature (notifications on) function on Twitter.

Consider following Mike Bardou and the crew from the NWS Chicago or follow your own local NWS office for immediate weather info. There are 122 Weather Forecasting Offices across our great nation.

More details can be found here: https://www.weather.gov/srh/nwsoffices

And finally, with the amount of info and the onslaught of information being pushed to our mobile devices, it’s good to know that IF it’s too much, you can always unsubscribe to any these services.

IF you have family in other parts of the country, consider subscribing to their area notifications. Doesn’t hurt to help a loved one out as they maybe be too busy, sleeping, or incapable of understanding the severity of their situation. More on that tomorrow.

Keep it safe during this first week of National Preparedness Month by making your plan!

@rusnivek

2020 National Preparedness Month!

Posted on September 1, 2020 by rusnivek

Welcome to the 2020 National Preparedness Month!!!

As described by so many, this is the most perfect year to plan for the unexpected.

Join me and my esteemed colleagues as we help share preparedness tips all month and help get you through this rotten year.

Reporting live in my favorite month…..

@rusnivek

Forming the proverbial PIO Voltron for today’s FEMA JIC/JIS course

Posted on May 15, 2019 by rusnivek

And now starting the FEMA JIC/JIS Course with our class here at the Defiance County EMA Emergency Operations Center.

And yes, if you’ve been in a JIC/JIS class w/ me before, you know I talk about Voltron. In the FEMA Basic PIO Course, we teach you to be an individual PIO and function with limited options…however, the JIC/JIS course allows you to join forces with other PIOs and work the magic despite being from different backgrounds and different factions for the emergency or disaster. That’s right-we can all get along in the JIC.

Starting out the day with a cold reality check on expectations and capabilities as we assess our options and ready our agencies for disasters. It would be a good idea to have a clear understanding of the situation and build from there.

Additionally, we bring our all-hazards partners into the fold. Here’s Sister Michael Marie talking about the complexities of what appears as a simple emergency that could quite result in bringing soooooooooooooooooooooo many partners to respond to this typical emergency.

Drawing too simple for you?

You need more description?

NO SOUP FOR YOU!

The whole point of the exercise is to get your mind thinking about various options as well as partners to call early as likely, they have a dog in the fight to help any affected community recover from any disaster.

Look, it’s more than Fire, Police, and EMS – it’s the #WholeCommunity to build a culture of preparedness.

Proud of every single one of these participants as everyone walked away with a new understanding and respect for the PIO. While some have been on TV before w/ a few interviews, all of them realize the dangers of an unprepared interviewee.

Looking forward to working with all of you on the next big one. And just think…in the midst of a disaster, you just might see these two smiling faces.

Now, go forth and use your new PIO powers for good!

@rusnivek

Day-2 of the FEMA Basic Public Information Officer course here at Defiance County EMA

Posted on May 14, 2019 by rusnivek

Day-2 of the FEMA OEMA Basic Public Information Officer course here at Defiance County EMA.

As we start to expand the roles of the PIO, we gotta talk about social media and the impact it has on our every day tasks representing our brand…aka our agency.

Like all info on social media, there’s a ton of things to cover and we won’t be able to talk about ALL platforms. But we can talk about the primary ones that make a difference for any public safety agency.

Also a good time to share one thoughts with you too:

“I don’t care how many followers you have, I care about how you engage all of the followers you do have.” – @rusnivek

Much like Shania Twain, the volume of followers don’t impress me much. What makes a really good social media-er, is how that agency engages with their followers they do have.

I often get asked about in class mock interviews. We still do them as they are incredibly important for participants in a safe learning environment.

But ask any of my participants. They will tell you that it’s pretty real.

Additionally, how I facilitate that part of class nurtures and allows for self-reflection amongst all participants. This ain’t my first rodeo. My peeps are good as we prep them for a really bad day.

Mock press conferences allow our participants to put together a few skills they learned just yesterday.

Just like real press conferences, mock reporters are able to ask questions and test some techniques on running a successful press conference.

The best part?

Participants worked it like pros and did an excellent job in running the pressers! NOOICE!!!!!

Great teamwork and collaboration with everyone here. Strong support network, solid coordination, and nice weather – always a winner!

Proud of the work from everyone in class today.

I’m totes looking forward to tomorrow’s course – FEMA JIC/JIS Course

@rusnivek

My preparedness pallet #NatlPrep

Posted on September 15, 2018 by rusnivek

Speaking of my #preparedness pallet…I mean kit.

I hope all of you have your stuff ready. Half way through National Preparedness Month!!!!

#NatlPrep #SMEM #HSEM

@rusnivek

A free app with preparedness info? #NatlPrep #EmergencyManagement

Posted on September 2, 2018 by rusnivek

So many state emergency management agencies have apps that can help you prepare. Here’s a fine example of the @scemd app that has tons of #preparedness info on #hurricane #nuclear #winter #snow #thunderstorm #wildfire #flooding #thunder #tornado #safety