When a crisis or calamity occurs, Emergency Managers need to remain operational. The way a person stays operational has a lot to do being ready. Preparedness can prevent a bad situation from becoming worse. Emergencies come in many forms and having the right plan for any possible contingency can aid in keeping people safe. You could be at work, running errands, or at a ball game and encounter someone choking, you could be in class and watch someone fall back in their chair

In many cases, working within the emergency management field places us with our hands on data connected to essentially vulnerable populations (disaster victims, etc.); we must address the balance between data collection and privacy. The reality is, personal privacy is almost never in the minds of individuals dealing with disasters and crises in their lives. They generally have more pressing issues to worry about. The flipside of this is that in a normally functioning world,

In a recent article, I read where Qatar is reviewing and fixing their migrant worker system, halting their kafala system.[1] The kafala system is used to monitor migrant laborers throughout many of the Middle Eastern Countries and most of the Gulf Counties. In my travels to that region of the globe over the years, I have seen this arrangement first-hand. I have watched these workers trapped in their homes communicating from their balconies with one another. I have personal

The work we do, as Emergency Managers is extremely important. Like many of you, I'm always looking for ways to be a little more efficient and make better use of my time. When I find a strategy that helps, It requires a closer look. What if I were to tell you that your organization is probably holding entirely too many meetings, and you cannot afford it. Some of you would disagree, but I'm sure many of you agree wholeheartedly. Businesses and organizations hold entirely too

What might happen if an Electromagnetic Pulse strikes the USA? The consequences of such a detonation would be dire. According to experts, The U.S. can sustain a population of 320 million people only because of modern technology. An EMP that blacks out the electric grid for a year would decimate the critical infrastructure necessary to support such a large population.[1] Aircraft electronics would be fried, as well as electronics in air traffic control towers, and navigation s

I would be the first to say that there is no place for anyone who would use the effects of a disaster to loot, cheat, or steal from a suffering individual or a community during an emergency, gouging is an entirely different case. Is price gouging actually that bad? In a recent course we dove head-first into the debate after reading an article by Peter McCafferty. In the article, McCafferty stated his case using several arguments. [1] I think that price gouging is actually

In the emergency management field, we live and die on lessons learned. I am currently teaching a Managing Emergency Response Course at Ohio Christian University and this past weeks readings focused on Pamela Varley’s work, Keeping an Open Mind in an Emergency[1]. This research focused on the Center for Disease Control’s “Team B” concept. What is a Team B? The idea of a Team B is in place to reveal novelty ideas where otherwise a person would stay stuck in the deluge of thei

In the article, FEMA Had a Plan for Responding to a Hurricane in Puerto Rico — But It Doesn’t Want You to See It [1] by Justin Elliott and Decca Muldowney, they lay out some of the issues associated with the lack of transparency in emergency response. When you are transparent, people know what is happening and why. It seems to me that this sort of approach would be so much more effective. According to Ken Lin, the founder of Credit Karma, “In transparent organizations, every