The election is over! The future starts very soon—January 2025.

I woke up this morning and started thinking about election day. I was thinking about the title of this blog post, “Elections and Emergency Management.” What is our role if any? Are we totally “consequence management” available if needed? And, then for what purpose?

These five steps come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Most people have to learn the FEMA process only once. If you are doing it more than once—you might consider moving!

Today while working outside in the rain…I was listening to this Disaster Tough: Emergency Manager & City Councilmember Brenden Winder | Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand  In that podcast episode of the Disaster Tough Podcast they explore that concept in Emergency Management and Response as we hear from Brenden Winder from New Zealand.

An often repeated “warning” I’ve shared in this blog is that the first place where emergency managers get in trouble with a disaster response is in issuing a warning. Many times, it is a “failure to warn” that starts the process of screwing up a disaster response. Citizens are not very forgiving of an agency that failed to warn of a potential or impending warning.

It is normal for a crisis debrief to occur following some harrowing disaster, accident or death. Many times, these are “one time” events. Watching how people respond to these types of occurrences, which can be cumulative for some, there needs to be more attention paid in the weeks and months that follow. We all process things differently.

Homes “perched” right near a river. Stories about, “They lived there for 60 years” and never had an issue with flooding. It was not just flood waters but also landslides that took houses and lives away. Bodies were being found miles away, and even in a neighboring state.

By now, anyone following the events of Hurricane Helene and the disaster response in the mountains of North Carolina know that disinformation caused all sorts of havoc for the disaster response and for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in particular.

New grant programs are not just “hatched” just because. There is almost always an event that causes law makers and administrators to implement a new grant program. That is very true for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP)

The day will come when drones are in the news for doing something very bad!

•           22% of American workers don’t receive any emergency preparedness training

•           Nearly 1 in 4 say their company doesn’t have a written emergency preparedness plan

•           Of those who have a plan, 28% say it’s not regularly tested or updated

Duh! By simple common sense we would likely all agree that who ever is taking a risk, should be responsible for the consequences of their risk taking. However, that is not how the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) currently works.

In this podcast Pete Gaynor, the immediate past Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security shares what he knows about how the national disaster response system functions. The roles and responsibilities of local, state and the federal government. We also dive into some of the malicious lies being told about FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene and Milton.

The purchase of a home is likely the biggest investment that individuals and families will ever make during their lifetimes. In this podcast we discuss navigating the potential risks of a disaster impacting the property you might purchase and how to avoid making a home buying disaster.

First, I must say that much has been written about the Federal Emergency Management’s (FEMA) flood mapping capabilities. It feels like going back a decade or more there was a push to modernize the flood maps that are being used throughout the United States. Yet, every time there is a big flood, the maps are found lacking.

To answer that question is to say, “It is really bad!” We’ve now moved way beyond rumor control. I like most things about our very connected world that we inhabit today, but now the disinformation and outright lies are going to make anyone’s job in the profession of emergency management very difficult.

I can imagine that in this new century when in a job interview you might not be asked, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” Today, I would not be surprised if someone asked instead, “What is your superpower?” I guess my response to that question is that, “I can control the weather!”  Sounds stupid? Well it is, but that is what is just one of the rumors out there on the Internet, along with FEMA is confiscating property from people and hoarding disaster supplies. 

The property insurance challenges are everywhere these days. This includes being able to find insurance, the price of insurance—and finally, when you suffer a loss, being paid for your property damages that you have paid premiums to a company to cover.

Hurricanes can be very deadly. Many deaths come from drowning when the ocean storm surge inundates the coastline and people have not evacuated. Then, as you move further inland, flooding from rains is another deadly killer, again usually from drowning and people driving through high water and being swept away.