WTO and Y2K: The Story I Was Never Asked to Tell – Background Information on WTO and Y2K By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Y2K In early 1999, concerns surfaced across the public and private sector that the turn of the century would require a rewrite of coding for a number of computer [...]

Now for Something Completely Different: The Story I Was Never Asked To Tell By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Since September 2015, "Emergency Management Once Removed" has served as a monthly commentary on current local, regional and national emergency management and/or homeland security issues, drawing on my experiences during 12 years as Director [...]

Give “Electeds” Their Due By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Emergency managers often scorn the intrusion of "politics" or "politicians" into their work. Untimely "special" requests during regular business and even during a crisis feed the instinct of most emergency managers to "lay low" in a political environment. The inappropriate intrusion of Executive [...]

Dividing the Burden By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Whose responsibility is it to restore the social equilibrium in a post-disaster environment? It is not solely the government’s role to provide the “answer” in difficult times. Each of us has a role. Some of the burdens of a participatory democracy fall on individuals [...]

Climate Change and Emergency Management By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed At the 2007 National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) Annual Forum, I persuaded the Chair of the Preparedness Committee to allow a presentation on climate change at the Committee’s meeting. The expert speaker, Bob Freitag, a former FEMA official turned academician, proved uniquely [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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’ [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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. [...]