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Wishin’ and Hopin' By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Local and state elected officials searching for 2019 New Year’s resolutions to commit to might consider this modest list: Imagine: If elected officials and senior leaders chose to ask, at least annually and without a staff filter, their emergency management directors to list areas where there is a serious staffing or policy shortfall: in short, inquiring as to what could go wrong that some attention, funding and encouragement from the top might resolve before it becomes a real-time, serious deficiency? NOTE: this happened just twice in my 21 years as [...]

You Can Observe a lot by Watching By Jim Mullen "You can observe a lot by watching" (Yogi Berra - former NY Yankee catcher, manager, philosopher) When one retires, or in my case, semi- retires, Yogi's comment begins to make a lot more sense. When you work in a particularly stressful or responsible job, dealing with emerging issues can limit one's scope, a bit like being stuck in a traffic jam on I-5, wedged between trucks that don’t allow you to ever consider changing lanes, altering your speed or even find an alternate direction to take. Early in my 12 [...]

“Us” and “Them” By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed It’s not uncommon for individuals or organizations to attempt to elevate their own standing by demeaning the contributions of others. In the long run it’s a losing game. Those that employ "us" vs "them" as a tactic can only inflate their own capabilities so much before the gaps in their capabilities are exposed. In the meantime opportunities for advancing the values of a profession, an organization or even a nation are deferred to the detriment of all. Emergency management is not immune from such destructive behavior. Way back in 1992 [...]

Lucky Me By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Sometimes big problems start with smaller, seemingly manageable problems that, through inattention, or a failure to take immediate protective measures, morph into serious issues. Emergency managers’ usefulness to society at large accrues for their ability to quickly address problems before they get worse, recognizing that not every problem needs to become insurmountable. Of course, major incidents are not always preventable, but even after the fact lapses in attentiveness can make a massive problem considerably worse. A recent experience of mine highlighted this concept. I’d just turned 71 years of age. It [...]

Emergency Management and Homeland Security: Which Is More Important? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Natural hazards, perhaps because they come and go and soon slip from public view, does not have the “sizzle” terrorism provides for politicians and public safety interest groups. Emergency management’s methodical approach to prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from any number of threats to public safety is not bombastic enough, nor attention-sustaining enough, to meet demand of politicians, media and many in the general public for a “problem – raised, problem-solved” approach. In an earlier blog, I’ve discussed some of the issues [...]

Why Recovery Exercises Fall Short By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Recently I attended an Initial Planning Meeting for the Central United States Earthquake Consortium 2019 exercise ominously entitled "Shaken Fury". The discussion as it related to the acknowledgment of challenges that proposed scenario poses for recovery officials caused me to ponder why recovery exercises have rarely succeeded over the years. I think I know. Most exercises are response-centric, and response personnel are often the principal planners. Said planners, be they military, or police and fire, focus on what they know. They don’t "know" recovery. 2003’s TOPOFF 2 exercise, [...]

Recovery Redux Plus a Footnote from June By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed We all know when a disaster begins: the earth moves, or the winds blow, waters rise or flames burst out of control. What continues to frustrate me is that we seldom grasp as a nation when a disaster is over. One might think, for example that Hurricane Maria was all over shortly after it passed through Puerto Rico. The "official" death toll, 64, led the president and others to comment that it could have been a lot worse. It apparently was a lot worse. A recent [...]

To Stay or Go? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Emergency managers are not strangers to the "stay or go" dilemma. In my career, during but also before entering emergency management, I myself sometimes felt like, well, a lot of federal Administration employees may currently feel these days. For 26 ½ of my final 28 years in government, I was in an unprotected classification. I could have been dismissed any number of times, with no more than a phone call or a terse letter. There are less than ethical ways to get rid of a civil servant in a [...]

Hey, What About Us? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed With the current federal government seemingly in perpetual crisis, how can emergency management compete for attention to its’ needs? Let’s be honest: the current spate of investigations, accusations, counter-accusations, all against the backdrop of midterm Congressional elections could stifle productive debate and decision making on issues emergency managers care about. It always seems to happen. The Clinton impeachment cycle dwarfed any attempts by his Administration to establish emergency management as a national priority despite the efforts of FEMA Administrator James Lee Witt; the post 9/11 environment saw a shift [...]