Emergency Management Once Removed

A Problem or an Opportunity? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The Disaster Reform and Recovery Act (DRRA) addresses longstanding issues in the disaster management system. Pre - Disaster Mitigation (PDM) is touted as a high priority for attention – so far, so good. Here is the problem: FEMA appears to be proceeding too fast with too little consultation with state and local emergency managers. The federal rules and accompanying guidance have yet to be developed or vetted with state and local emergency managers. The BuildStrong Coalition has put forth 14 key principles that they recommend be employed in [...]

Homeland Security: “If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year…”* By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), formed post 9/11, consolidated 20 plus federal agencies under a single Cabinet-level Secretary. There were naysayers among the ranks of emergency managers. I was one of them. Among our concerns: emergency management might be severely under – supported due to ignorance, incompetence or institutional jealousy. We were prescient: Who could forget the attempts to substitute "prevention" for "mitigation", or the determined efforts to "zero out" what we now call the Emergency Management Performance [...]

Just One More Thing By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed As the Washington State Legislative Session kicked off, the Seattle Times listed several topics that were the highest priorities for consideration. They were, in no apparent order: K-12 funding; Special Education; Climate Change; Opioids and Behavioral Health; and Public Records (a Seattle Times’ fixation). Each seems worthy of attention. Missing, however is call for a thorough review of the potential for a major or catastrophic disaster and the efforts and resources currently committed to dealing with them. Local and State governments are far too dependent upon the federal government [...]

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 [...]