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Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

Detailed warning information on upcoming weather threats and other hazards

Posted on September 13, 2020 by rusnivek

Welcome to the third week of 2020 National Preparedness Month! This week, we will be addressing how to prepare for specific disasters.

Compared to other weeks where we talk about general topics, plans, and maybe some things in your kit, we will be talking about how you can get stuff ready for each type of emergency or disaster.

So to start out, let’s talk about information about upcoming disasters.

A solid tool that is almost indispensable is…..your cell phone!

That’s right, that little computer/smart phone in your pocket is a GREAT way that you can discern information and better respond to the emergency.

One easy way is to download the FEMA app.

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https://www.fema.gov/about/news-multimedia/app

The FEMA app has a ton of features that could be beneficial to your specific area. Specifically in the notification for five of your identified cities/county.

This feature provides the ability to see what’s going on in a certain area of the country. And since I travel, I always have the first slot in my list for home. This allows me to get any notification on stuff that could be happening at home.

The second, third, and fourth slot are for my family in Los Angles, Honolulu, and San Francisco. Gotta keep an eye on the family no matter where they are. Plus an extra set of eyes from another part of the country is beneficial esp if they are sleeping at 0300 and it’s 0800 here.

Since I travel a fair amount, I usually reserve slot #5 (the last slot) for my work travel. Even though I may not be from Central City, I will always know the latest in dangers in my travel city.

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From critical tornado warnings or immediate evacuation tsunami warnings – I know I’ll be prepared for my location(s) specific disaster or emergency.

All of the information provided to you….FREE. That’s right-all the details are available to you for free. App is free. No charge from FEMA to download the app. No monthly fee. No recurring administrative charges.

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Ahhhh, safety for free.

I got your back.

More free tips tomorrow addressing specific hazards.

Reporting live from the third week!

@rusnivek

JIC up and accounting for staff

Posted on March 19, 2020 by rusnivek

Oh yes….did someone say the Joint Information Center (JIC)?!?!? BRING. IT. ON. BABY.

Not only are we activating the JIC, we need to keep in track and record of all of our staff/personnel.

As a good PSC, you know I wouldn’t leave home without my trusty T-cards right?

Let’s see how many of my ESF friends will be here with us…

Reporting live from the JIC…

@rusnivek

Day-2 of the new 2019 ICS-400 course!

Posted on August 7, 2019 by rusnivek

Day-2 of the new 2019 ICS-400 course! This morning, we start out talking about the deadly 2005 Hurricane Katrina/Rita response with the US Coast Guard.

Facilitated discussion allows our participants to openly discuss perceived issues. Lots of response actions from all of our participants that can contribute to a successful response. Glad we had fruitful discussion prior to the actual disaster.

Our class also acknowledged the national Emergency Alert System Test today for TV and radio.

Everyone in class knew about it…aka prepared leadership and pros. Love it!

Midmorning and afternoon class-time was spent on the capstone activity with heavy discussion on the use of area command and how we allocate resources for multiple jurisdictions.

And you are right if you said that the rotor wing options are high on the list of valuable recourses.

Channeling my best FEMA EMI Bob Ridgeway, “…and don’t worry sports fans” moment, we included the infamous State of Columbia!

This fictions town is always a disaster.

Great to see so many partners discuss overarching goals including challenges with the big three public safety providers. Like pros, they included a large bite into health intelligence, DoD assets, and of course addressing various audiences like the tribal nations. Solid!

Proud to serve my fellow public safety pros from all professions this week in the ICS-400 course.

@rusnivek

Internal Comms training for my #EmergencyManagement staff

Posted on May 29, 2019 by rusnivek

As we continue our training, we want to be cognizant of all kinds of skills needed to be successful in Emergency Management.

Many of you have been apart of a training or exercise…and have indubitably identified that communications is an action that needs more work. But how can you make that fun? Well, enter one of my Thunderbolt-esque exercises.

Giving the nod to former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, these types of no-notice trainings engage our staff and forces them to think outside the box.

How outside? In this exercise, we cover

Communications
Type/Kind resources
Staging
Incident Command
Terminology
Nomenclature
Scene size-ups
Operations
Sequential
Prioritization
Ordering
Tactics

And to boot, it’s non-traditional training cause there are no powerpoints. Zero. Zilch. No joy. Gonzo. Nada Ghostrider.

As adult educators, we often forget that people learn things differently. Additionally, we as instructors need to explore outside our comfort zone and teach things in a classic lecture AND non-traditional style.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a staff that loves to train and enhance their skills. Train like you fight!

Want to know more? Want to train better? Come and be a part of my Emergency Management Team. You’ll see.

@rusnivek

More EM staff IntraOp Radio Comms training

Posted on February 7, 2019 by rusnivek

Concreting our IntraOp radio comms training today with our staff.

Enhancing the message and now assuring our partners get the right message in a timely fashion is so important.

Train like you fight right?

“Air Branch from Ops Section Chief: I”m going to need four type two rotor-wing assets to arrive at the helistop at 1800. How do copy?”

You know our staff – we ain’t messing around.

@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

Final day of DHS/FEMA ICS-300!

Posted on August 3, 2017 by rusnivek

Final day of ICS-300!

This morning, we will be talking a bit about allocation and resource management.

Despite the disaster or emergency, It is critical that we continue to be fiscally responsible to the communities we serve. Let me dispel the common misnomer – there is no such thing as an unlimited budget for disaster response/recovery. We must utilize our resources accordingly to best maximize our time. Much like everything else in life, all resources and personal must be accounted for and justified.

Shout out to BFD and their hospitality this week as we help our local partners, state agencies, and DoD assets in preparation for their upcoming NSSE.

Thanks BFD!

After three long days in class, it’s great to have so many smiling faces

Smiles and shakas from my ICS-300 class!

I’m just proud to have so much participation and networking in class.

Ribbit.

@rusnivek

Day-1 of ICS-400 – who’s excited?!?

Posted on July 11, 2017 by rusnivek

Who’s excited for some ICS-400 today?!?!?

Great start for today’s NIMS ICS-400 Advanced ICS Command & General Staff – Complex Incidents.

Michelle from Emergency Management welcoming everyone to the Training Center (aka backup EOC).

With almost every Emergency Support Function (ESF) represented, we were able to facilitate solid discussion on opening a second Operations Section or Logistics Section.

Collaboration with various partners in public safety, health departments, and National Guard will only help increase speed and efficiency for response/recovery efforts.

Building an Area Command chart(s) in the Unit-4 will help put things into perspective esp when situations has to deal with multiple locations and prioritization of resource allocation.

I know, poor Fryville.

However, various discussions just happens to align with large scale events like political rallies, national sports events, and National Special Security Event (NSSE).

Great first day. Looking forward to more discussion tomorrow too.

@rusnivek

Day-3 Ohio EMA ICS 300 course with 911 PSAP & Belmont County EMA EOC

Posted on October 6, 2016 by rusnivek

Third and final day of the Ohio EMA ICS-300 course at Belmont College.

PhotoCredit: @BelmontCollege

Mid morning, we had lots of great discussion for formal demobilization plans as well priority release procedures.

Our class had some serious discussion on cost vs expectations on resources. If you’ve ever been deployed to a disaster, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Rounding out to the last module, almost test time!

After the class was over, I was able to score a visit to Belmont County 911 dispatch center for our class. So I invited the whole class to attend too!

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Special thanks to Mr. Hudak for the tour and detailed explanation on normal operations in their Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) / 911 call center.

Our class then moved over to the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency where our class was given a formal tour of their Emergency Operation Center (EOC).

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They just happen to be monitoring Hurricane Matthew – so that made it even better for all participants to see how this EOC can monitor any situation in real time. Thank you Belmont County EMA!

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Positions ready…Executive Policy Room ready…ARES Comms center ready…fully operational…who could ask for anything more?!!?!? Even the bonus resources they have were great to see how they could support operations and paint a better picture to increase situational awareness / common operating picture (SA/COP).

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Gah, I see this EOC being a great resource for many all hazards partners in public safety.

Great to showcase the efforts of local emergency management professionals and how they pair with Ohio Emergency Management Agency (OEMA).

Special thanks to Glenn Trudo and Belmont College for being such gracious hosts for the OEMA ICS-300 class.

@rusnivek

Day-2 of Ohio EMA’s ICS-300 course at Belmont College

Posted on October 5, 2016 by rusnivek

Day-2 of the Ohio EMA ICS-300 course at Belmont College (Ohio).

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Participants completed several exercises with S.M.A.R.T. Objectives, finding the right strategy with the right tactic to complete the objective with the right resource – all part of the Planning-P.

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These kinds of activities during non-emergency times will help increase skills of any public safety provider as we look to coordinate all-hazards response prior to a disaster or emergency. Additionally, I was able to showcase the PIO function as it pertains to a school fire (this is an exercise).

So many different agencies in this class!

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Great partnerships collaborating together before an emergency!

@rusnivek