Agricultural Disease Outbreaks are an area that is often overlooked by local emergency management, but it should not be. Biological events affecting our communities is inevitable, but the level of their effect on us is not. When was the last time as an emergency manager you toured a farm in your area? When was the last time that you sat down and talked to the manager of a large “Mega-farm” facility? Given the perceived lack of impact on our daily EM operations that results

When was the last time that you really messed up at work? I am not referring to a small misstep; I am referring to a real disaster. A few years ago, I watched as some of my fellow first-responders took a small mishap and turned it into a giant mess. When we make a mistake at work, we expect the boss to drop the hammer and we end up making it worse. What was initially a just a fender-bender turned into much more when the officers decided to approach it differently. Based o

During a crisis or emergency, you need to stay in control of the story. You should always be pushing out critical information, and not waiting for someone to ask. Be proactive, not reactive. There is a saying within the crisis management field that states, “You need to feed the media, otherwise it will eat you.” If you are not providing information to those seeking it, they will often create their own based on faulty information that could damage your organization or caus