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9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Eroding Confidence in Government

2021-09-29T18:54:52+00:00

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Eroding Confidence in Government By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Although the 9/11 terrorists owed their success in some measure to poor coordination between federal government agencies, the feds “generously” sought to share responsibility for their lack of preparedness; protecting the “homeland” suddenly became a shared responsibility that local and state governments were “unprepared” to fulfill (duh!). In 2003, twenty-two federal agencies, including FEMA, were merged into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress and the Administration enticed participation in “protecting the homeland” - dangling vast grant sums in front of governors, mayors, police, and [...]

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Eroding Confidence in Government2021-09-29T18:54:52+00:00

9/11/01 -1/6/21 and Beyond

2022-02-24T02:57:11+00:00

9/11/01 -1/6/21 and Beyond By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed On September 10, 2001, I naively thought I had enough problems on my plate. The new Bush Administration was attempting to redirect virtually every unallocated federally appropriated dollar to address “new” priorities (emergency managers may recall the assault on funding for “traditional” natural hazards programs). My Seattle Office of Emergency Management was wrapping up the previous February’s Nisqually Earthquake recovery process. I was immersed in internal budget battles with Seattle’s Police Department hierarchy. Everything changed shortly after 6 AM on September 11, 2001. In rapid succession, terrorists had hijacked [...]

9/11/01 -1/6/21 and Beyond2022-02-24T02:57:11+00:00

What Now? – June 2021

2022-02-24T00:16:06+00:00

What Now? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed We must have an unflinching but hopeful and constructive post – COVID assessment. Can one prepare a useful and truthful COVID -19 after-action report to spur national planning for the next pandemic in our volatile political climate? How to minimize the impulse to reproach or defend while maximizing emphasis on the measures that should be taken next time? Regular readers must be aware of where I would place much of the responsibility for the scope of the COVID -19 disaster. But, in this instance, I would strive to curb that inclination [...]

What Now? – June 20212022-02-24T00:16:06+00:00

Emergency Management’s Journey to Resilience – May 2021

2021-05-04T23:02:55+00:00

Emergency Management’s Journey to Resilience: Using Our Words by Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Where does the term “resilience” fit among these standard emergency management terms? Mitigation. Preparedness. Response. Recovery. Prevention (how did that get in here?). Finally, Resilience. Mitigation: efforts to minimize the negative consequences of a known hazard. Preparedness: a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to assisting governments, businesses, and the entire community to be prepared to avoid or withstand the disruption of a known or even unforeseen hazard. Response: accorded disproportional attention in disaster exercises, it is “what we do with what we have” in a crisis. [...]

Emergency Management’s Journey to Resilience – May 20212021-05-04T23:02:55+00:00

A Year of COVID – April 2021

2021-04-14T21:47:18+00:00

A Year of COVID: Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Ahead By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed It has been more than a year since the pandemic turned life upside down for everybody. Emergency managers and homeland security professionals should soon begin to assess what went right, as well as identifying any missteps along the way. “Emergency Management Once Removed”(aka “Jim”) merely poses these questions from a comfortable chair: individual jurisdictional answers will vary. Looking Back How did the preset comprehensive disaster framework hold up? ? Was a system super-imposed for the pandemic that eclipsed the existing planning framework? Were [...]

A Year of COVID – April 20212021-04-14T21:47:18+00:00

A Retrievable Legacy for Disaster Mitigation – March 2021

2021-04-07T22:06:08+00:00

A Retrievable Legacy for Disaster Mitigation By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed In 1997 James Lee Witt, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), established a pilot program to reduce the human and economic cost of disasters. The purpose: incentivize the government, private sector, and the public to collaborate on the identification and reduction of a community’s most serious natural disaster hazards. That initiative was Project Impact. Seattle in late 1997 was among 7 jurisdictions chosen as a pilot site to demonstrate the effectiveness of Witt’s vision. As a chosen “pilot” jurisdiction, Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management OEM), where [...]

A Retrievable Legacy for Disaster Mitigation – March 20212021-04-07T22:06:08+00:00

Trust – February 2021

2021-02-09T19:39:07+00:00

Trust By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Well before the pandemic began exacting its horrific toll, “trust in government” was on a downward spiral. Last January, in “Government’s Trust Deficit: A Possible Antidote,” I suggested a program of community-centric disaster exercises that could be used to prepare the public for a disaster. The concept was that through these exercises, emergency managers could make use of their online capabilities to open a dialogue with the public, building trust while also providing constructive advice on community preparedness and government obligations, limitations, and capabilities during emergencies. The technology exists, and emergency managers [...]

Trust – February 20212021-02-09T19:39:07+00:00

The Whole World Was Watching – January 2021

2021-01-13T19:35:35+00:00

The Whole World Was Watching – January 6, 2021 By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Some of us also have been watching what I hope was the last act in a dangerous display of violence fueled by years of dishonesty, threats, the vilification of fellow citizens, and finally an attempted coup. Do not count on it. The attempt to overthrow the United States government and that was what was occurring, has for some reason surprised people, even though the threads of such a conspiracy have been publicly available – including the nutty conspiracy theory that the riot was an [...]

The Whole World Was Watching – January 20212021-01-13T19:35:35+00:00

“There is Too Much: Let Me Sum Up” – December 2020

2021-01-05T19:47:31+00:00

“There is Too Much: Let Me Sum Up” - Emergency Management Once Removed 2020 By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed January: “Government’s Trust Deficit: A Possible Antidote” proposed that emergency managers “devise exercises in which the public can participate, to “penetrate the divisive “white noise” that makes essential government messaging difficult to transmit in normal times and potentially impossible during emergencies…” Hmm-mm! February: “It’s Dusk in America” foresaw a dark (short-term) future. Though things seemed “normal” on the surface, I felt unease that darkness might soon fall (little did I know!). My optimistic assertion that the NCAA’s “March Madness” [...]

“There is Too Much: Let Me Sum Up” – December 20202021-01-05T19:47:31+00:00

In Other News… – November 2020

2021-01-06T00:19:56+00:00

In Other News (Or Let’s Get Back to Governing) By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Nov 10, 2020: “Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler today delivered recommendations to create a statewide disaster resilience office to Gov. Jay Inslee, the Legislature and other state leaders, as recommended by the Disaster Resiliency Work Group. “  When I drifted into semi - retirement in 2013, I had two major regrets as a 20 plus year director of emergency management (in Seattle and Washington State ). I’ve written extensively about both disappointments in this blog - one being the importance of developing disaster exercises that directly involve the [...]

In Other News… – November 20202021-01-06T00:19:56+00:00
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