Always keep your wits about you!
Maintaining good situational awareness is critical for any professional. So to help illustrate this, I submit this Thursday gem.
I’d make some sharp joke about between two ferns…
I was out patrolling and arrested a street shark…you know, just some dorsal profiling…
No lie, he thought I was jawsome….
OK OK OK…I’m here all night!
Be safe my peeps and maintain good situational awareness!
Large type-1 disasters are complex. Not only complexity but in pure size.
In the Florida Keys, destruction was not just limited to houses and commercial structures, but he Category-4 storm + storm surge + possible tornadic events affected so many ships and vessels.
Aerial operations are so important esp when gathering information on resource management and triaging. This picture is of one of the many ships in the bay that were inoperable and uninhabitable.
However, as response agencies go, we need to prioritize things and see what needs to be done first. Therefore pictures like this are critical to tactical and operational pros.
If you only had a roadside view, you would have only seen this small portion of this disaster.
Yes I said it, rotor wing WTF! Additionally, your favorite PIO can get a better grasp on the situation and report out to stakeholders of ongoing joint operations.
Again, your command element should consider an aerial element with HQ photography to aid in SA/COP.
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!
| 17-001: A Shake That Never Happened | |
| Agency: US Geological Survey (USGS) | Topic(s): Error message / human error |
| Date: 06-23-17 | Platform: Twitter/Email |
Sometimes, US Geological Survey (USGS) computers have 6.8 sized hiccups which automatically pushed out info this past Wednesday. This caused serious concern as numerous Emergency Management professionals and PIOs desperately searched to verify information on any earthquake in California. None was to be found on Wednesday June 21, 2017.
As you can see, the date listed in the email notification isn’t consistent with Wednesday’s date as well as the time stamp of publication.
Even worse was the 140-character tweet with even less text/info that initially went out to their 679K followers (@USGS). With the magnitude and epicenter location in a well populated area (Santa Barbara CA), it is crucial that we have multiple sources to verify critical information.
As humans, our attention span has shortened. (SQUIRREL!) Likely thousands misread the initial date/time listed on the email. Even less took the time to click the link in the tweet.
USGS noticed the error and posted this explanation of the errand info. Emails were sent to explain the deleted event.
Obviously more than 140 characters, they screen shot a typed response and posted the image to twitter referencing their errant tweet. The USGS used this tactic to get more information and characters into an otherwise short 140-character tweet.
Whether computer or human error, fessing up to an error on social media is embarrassing. However, the ramifications of arbitrarily deleting info without prior public notification will gander your agency a rash of criticism from the most loyal of followers. Government agencies should strive to foster trust and transparency with all of their constituency. Not to mention, deletion of your posts must match your agency’s policy/procedure or SOP/SOG.
Three important tips to consider if an agency posts something weird:
Mistakes happen, but how you recover will either make you a hero or a zero. Maximize your efforts on social media including screenshots of your more-than-140-character-response.
Time is short, so tweet / email correct stuff!
****Or download the one-pager here: AShakeThatNeverHappened-Safety-PIO-SM-17-001***
Maybe watch a quick video from USA Today
Solid start to the week being able to deliver the brand new FEMA NDPTC Social Media Engagement Strategies course.
Numerous pros from across the state of California attending today.
Special thanks to the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services in hosting this fun class in their Emergency Operations Center.
Super special shoutout goes to MayJo!
Talked specifically about addressing audiences and their appropriate platforms. Mediums like static posts are great however we need to explore outside of your comfort zone and try new avenues to communicate. FacebookLive, Periscope, InstagramLive, YouTubeLive, etc…..these new emerging live broadcast tools can allow agencies to be creative in their broadcast of messages.
Solid afternoon facilitation on the formulation of a strategic communications specifically focusing in on social media and audience engagement.
And of course the standard shout out to our friend Cheryl.
Overall, the intent of this class is really to be a catalyst to start a meaningful conversation about engaging your constituents on various social media platforms.
Obviously, you would be taking FEMA NDPTC PER-344 Social Media Tools & Techniques first – which gives you a heavy dose of the currrent tools/platforms that are out there as well as a bunch of tactics and techniques that you could use in your EOC or JIC.
Both courses provide a different take on social media actions esp during disasters / crisis.
Keep on learning peeps. Much more to digest and figure out.
We all must do better to support our local communities, county coordinators, and state officials to work and communicate together before, during, and after the disaster.
We the people right? #Merica
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!
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).
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!
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).
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.
Where is @rusnivek? 