I just finished watching a Netflix documentary, Fire in Paradise  It is only about 40 minutes long.

As emergency managers one of our greatest assets to our profession is our personal desire to consume as much information as possible and adapt it to use in the work that we do. This is the professional side of our lives. Professional journals and association news and events are great places to engage our brains and with other mutually interesting individuals.

This topic is one that I’ve written about many times, to include having an Op-ed in the Seattle Times, Western Washington not immune from wildfire risk

This is the year that the Philippines will remember for a succession of storms that have hit that nation, 6 or 7 so far.

This is what happens when someone in your organization acts in a way that shows political favor or “disfavor” based on their political stances.

As it is with all political appointments, the current FEMA Administrator will submit her resignation on January 21^st and another new era of FEMA will begin.

I expect it depends on how much trust you put into long range climate and weather forecasts. But, here is a Washington Post article, Dreaming of snow this winter? Look up the forecast in your area

This is not official, but all over the news on Tuesday, “South Dakota Gov. KRISTI NOEM will be President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s pick for DHS Secretary.”

Either we are having intensive rain someplace or very dry, verging on drought conditions in other parts of the nation. This time however, both coasts of the United States are dealing with wildfires brought on by extremely dry conditions, that when combine with high winds can be very destructive to the landscape, but also homes that stand in the way of these fires.

Normally as emergency managers we think about the impacts of wind on what is called “real property” buildings, homes and infrastructure. If there is damage to the landscape it comes in different forms, but usually we think about trees that have fallen on houses and cars that need to be cleaned up and removed. What we might call “normal debris removal.”

Fiscal years vary across the map. Some end in June, others in December and the federal budget ends in September. In all those scenarios, it is true that there can be a “spend it or lose it” mentality.

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.