The Emergency Management Network Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Disaster Economics, Do We Have The Will To Change? Jun 05, 2022

Show notes

Disaster Economics, Do We Have The Will To Change?

I was writing a piece for this week on the efforts of humanitarians in the world. (This is because I had a great interview published on June 7 on Prepare. Response. Recover.) I could not shake the need to talk about disaster economics. As the hurricane season is upon us, Alex is heading to Flordia with an early-season storm as I read these words. We need to look at some history to address the future.

On February 1, 1953, a fierce, sustained storm created a massive surge in the North Sea off the coast of Holland. Floodwaters overtopped the dikes, swallowing half a million acres of land and killing nearly two thousand people. Within weeks of the storm, the government of Holland created a plan known as the Delta Plan, which is a set of recommendations for flood-control measures.

Over the next four decades, the Dutch invested billions of guilders in a vast collection of dams and barriers, culminating in constructing the Maeslant (Mas Lont) Barrier, an enormous movable seawall to protect the port of Rotterdam. Since the Delta Plan, the Netherlands has not been flooded by the sea again.

In the United States, policymakers fail to look at how disasters and the recovery process are costing taxpayers more money, time, and effort than if we invest in prevention, infrastructure improvements, and meaningful mitigation efforts.

Brock Long stated in an interview, "we're in a vicious cycle of communities being impacted by disasters and having to constantly rebuild. And it's almost as if we're not learning anything from what mother nature and history has taught us."

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which brought havoc to the Northeast and inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage, it's overwhelmingly clear that parts of the U.S. need a Delta Plan of their own. Sandy was not an isolated incident: Hurricane Irene caused nearly sixteen billion dollars in damage, and Hurricane Michael caused $25.1 billion. There is a growing consensus that extreme weather events are becoming more common and damaging.

The annual cost of natural disasters in the U.S. has doubled over the past two decades. Instead of just cleaning up after disasters hit. We need to ask whether we can find the political will to invest in such ideas.

Although politicians have called for significant new investment in disaster prevention, reports from Washington suggest that Congress will be more willing to spend money on relief than on preparedness.

That's what history would lead you to expect: for the most part, the U.S. has shown a marked bias toward relieving victims of disaster while underinvesting in prevention.

A study by the economist Andrew Healy and the political scientist Neil Malhotra showed that, between 1985 and 2004, the government spent annually, on average, fifteen times as much on disaster relief as on preparedness.

Politically speaking, it's always easier to shell out money for a disaster that has already happened, with clearly identifiable victims, than to invest money in protecting against something that may or may not occur in the future.

Healy and Malhotra found that voters reward politicians for spending money on post-disaster cleanup but not for investing in disaster prevention, and it's only natural that politicians respond to this incentive.

The federal system complicates matters, too: local governments want decision-making authority, but major disaster-prevention projects are bound to require federal money. And much crucial infrastructure in the U.S. is owned by the private sector, not the government, making it harder to do something like bury power lines.

These are genuine hurdles, and safeguarding the great expanse of the Atlantic coast is a much more expensive proposition than defending Holland's smaller one. But there's a more fundamental problem: the U.S., as a rule, tends to underinvest in public infrastructure. We've been skimping on the maintenance of roads and bridges for decades.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation's infrastructure a grade of C-minus; however, 11 of the 17 infrastructure categories evaluated are graded in the "D" range. In addition, they found that 70% of the nation's electrical transmission and distribution lines are well into the second half of their expected 50-year lifespans.

In the United States, utility customers experienced just over eight hours of power interruptions in 2020, more than double the amount in 2013, when the government began tracking outage lengths. Last four times as long as those in France and seven times as long as those in the Netherlands. This isn't because of a lack of resources; the U.S. is the biggest economy.

Though we may have the most incredible twenty-first-century technology in our homes, we're stuck with mid-twentieth-century roads and wires.

Meaningful disaster-prevention measures will undoubtedly be expensive: Yet inaction can be even more costly; after Katrina, the government had to spend more than a hundred billion dollars on relief and reconstruction—and there are good reasons to believe that disaster-control measures could save money in the long run.

The A.S.C.E. estimates that federal spending on levees pays for itself six times over. That is, the investment in infrastructure is saving taxpayers money.

The federal government is already on the hook for all the damage caused by disasters. To be prudent stewards of taxpayers' money, we need to address how much those disasters cost and put money into prevention and preparedness programs.

What To Read

Global Risk Report 2022: Implications for crisis management

The Global Risk Report identifies global risk perceptions among risk experts and world leaders in business, government, and civil society. It presents the results of the latest Global Risks Perception Survey, followed by an analysis of critical risks emanating from current economic, societal, environmental, and technological tensions. The report concludes with reflections on enhancing resilience, drawing from the lessons of the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accounting for probabilities in conflict

In his latest blog, Phil Trendall says that we must stop hiding behind likelihood calculations when it comes to emergency planning. The U.K. needs to think about what civil protection looks like in a war that could escalate.

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show

What Disaster Recovery Teaches U.S.

Have you ever thought about what happens with the personal effects of the disaster zone? Robert A. Jensen has written an up-close and personal look at the complex work behind the yellow tape. He has chronicled the grim job of sorting through the personal effects and what the unique tool the repeated exposure to mass death brings.

Prepare Respond Recover

For Waffle House, Keeping the Doors Open is About Community

In the Southern U.S., spotting the iconic Waffle House sign means a hot meal, a stop on a long drive, or a place to gather with friends. Waffle House is Americana at its best and a symbol of pride for Southerners. Following the 2011 Joplin Tornado, F.E.M.A. Director Craig Fugate created the Waffle House Index, an informal metric that helped F.E.M.A. determine the storm's impact based on if the local Waffle House restaurants were closed or open. But even before the index, continuity of operations was ingrained in the culture of Waffle House. We are joined in this episode by Will Mizell, VP of People for Waffle House, to talk about how they prepare, respond, and recover from a disaster. While it may not make fiscal sense to remain open, Waffle House keeps operations going for the communities they serve. Don't be surprised if you happen to be in a Waffle House after a bad storm. The person working the grill may very well be the C.E.O.

Business Continuity Today

The IoT and A.I. Helping With Decision Making

As organizations look at ways to address the most significant challenges, from natural disasters to sustainability, they need to invest in the IoT solutions embedded with advanced analytics to better prepare for and react to these incidents.

With connected sensors and long-range, low-power IoT technology leveraging artificial intelligence, organizations can harness real-time data and advanced analytics to deliver meaningful results.

Combining IoT-enabled analytics, devices, and networks will accelerate intelligent decisions and improve overall response time if a natural disaster occurs.

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

What Disaster Recovery Teaches Us Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

Have you ever thought about what happens with the personal effects from the disaster zone? Robert A. Jensen has written an up-close and personal look at the difficult work behind the yellow tape. He has chronicled the grim job of sorting through the personal effects and what the personal tool the repeated exposure to mass death brings.
Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/
Robert Jensen
Twitter handle : https://twitter.com/robert_ajensen
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-a-jensen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.a.jensen.37
Website https://robertajensen.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/robertajensen01/
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Commander's Intent: Why EM Should Embrace it May 29, 2022

Show notes

Commander’s Intent: Why Emergency Management Should Embrace It

Extreme Ownership is one of those books that emergency managers have been recommending to each other since Jocko Willink and Leif Babin published it. It is a best-selling leadership book. Frankly, I was not a fan of the book, primarily because of the war stories. As a Greenside Navy veteran, I guess it should have gotten all moto reading of the exploits of life and death and decision making. It was not a bad book, and I got some leadership lessons out of it, and that was that. I like the message that Jacko and Leif have, and in general, they make excellent points in the book.

It was not until I was invited to attend a Milestone Leadership Summitt where Jacko Willink conducted the workshop that I appreciated Jacko and Leif's work.

This story did not start out as a day of contemplation and lessons learned. I thought it would be a motivational speaker and more about the books circulating around the room. When I got to the workshop, like most of us in emergency management, I found my way to the back of the room, landed myself at a table with a couple of people I knew, and made sure my coffee was hot. Quickly our table became full of veterans and public safety guys (we gravitated toward each other). Our day of leadership lessons started.

I was not sure what I would get out of this experience. I was mildly enthusiastic about the event, I always enjoy learning new things, and I liked the book's message. Who can argue with taking Ownership of your team and the decisions you make?

Okay, I will cut the chase. It was a great workshop. It was not Jacko standing on the stage telling us how cool he was. And he could have pulled that off. He could hold the room. He took the time to break down the concepts in his book and put the why behind each segment.

Now for full disclosure, a lot of what he talks about are principles of leadership that have been taught in the Navy/Marine Corps leadership programs. However, Jacko could break them down, remove the military from the idea and present them to a general audience. That is the beauty of his program.

Decentralized Command

Let's explore Jacko's idea of Decentralized Command. The concept is simple but hard to execute if you do not build trust with your team. With Decentralized Command, everyone is a leader.

Last week on the Todd DeVoe Show, Brad Borkan talked about the remarkable leadership of Ernest Shackleton. One of the exciting things about Shackleton's team was its decentralized command structure. In the military, formal leadership is a two-up and two-down. You always have someone in the command structure who can take responsibility for the team. More on this idea later.

To understand this, decentralization of decision-making is not every person for themselves. Each team member must understand the Intent of the mission. I talk about this with the idea of "commander's intent" in a few lessons and lectures.

What is Commander's Intent?

Commander's Intent describes and defines what a successful mission will look like. Military planning begins with the Mission Statement that describes the who, what, when, where, and why (the 5 W's) of how a mission will be executed. Commander's Intent describes how the Commander (read: CEO) envisions the battlefield after the mission. It shows what success looks like. Commander's Intent fully recognizes the chaos, lack of a complete information picture, changes in the situation, and other relevant factors that may make a plan entirely or partially obsolete when executed. The role of the Commander's Intent is to empower subordinates and guide their initiative and improvisation as they adapt the plan to the changing environment. Commander's Intent empowers initiative, improvisation, and adaptation by providing guidance on what a successful conclusion looks like. Commander's Intent is vital in chaotic, demanding, and dynamic environments.

This moves to the second part of the principle of decentralized command. L. David Marquet's book "Turn the Ship Around!" examines the idea of "I intend to" vs. "May I" when it comes to subordinate decision making. As a leader, you need to strike the right balance between being inside the problem and supporting your team's decision-making.

Applying the lessons to EM

In emergency management, the situation changes quickly, and teams need to be able to move with ease and without friction. The leaders must be free to get where they are needed the most.

The emergency manager's role is not just to track each team is doing. You must feed essential information back to the team, and the team should supply you with what is happing in the field. One critical part of this two-way communication, the team in the field or on the project, needs to feel they can ask for clarification without being punished. As a leader of teams, you need to make sure that each team member knows that you are there to open doors and kick down walls for them if needed.

The key to Commander's Intent

The last part of this idea is the hardest for most leaders. You can always give away authority to your team members. However, you never can give away your responsibility. How do you ensure that your team is successful? The key to Commander's Intent is trained, confident team members. Each team member must understand the plan and when they have to deviate to ensure the Commander's Intent is accomplished. As the teams adapt the plan to meet Commander's Intent, they do not want to change proven processes and other shared work techniques that are part of the plan and strengthen operational outcomes. The plan is often a source of strength; leaders need to adapt only the portions of a plan that require adjustment.

Commander's Intent defines and describes what a successful operation will yield. Good Commander's Intent allows employees and teams to adapt the plan using improvisation, initiative, and adaptation to reach the original plan objectives.

At the end of the day, I got a lot out of attending the program. I got to meet and sit down with Jacko, pick his brain about leadership, and learn how to implement the idea and concepts with the teams that I have been leading.

What To Read

Servant Leader's Manifesto & When Your Life Depends on It

Marc C. Baker

You do not have to be in a position of authority to be a servant leader, because they lead through influence rather than authority. Leadership is often the art of persuasion influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Servant leader derives their authority through understanding that the mission is bigger than themselves and by building trust. Servant leaders seek the way of the Jedi wielding the force of influence, naturally seeking to develop people. The Jedi is a Master of Psychology leveraging the strengths of their employees and creating hope in their people by investing in them.

Your Emergency Management Team Has a Strategy Whether You Like It or Not

Kelly McKinney

As an emergency manager, you’ve got a huge job to do...but you don't have nearly enough resources to do it with

You pry away the valuable time of executives, managers, and staff all across your organization

...building resilience for the inevitable next disaster

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show

Making Extreme Decisions When Your Life Depends On It

In any field, you need to make decisions, and in public safety, the decisions you make can be life and death. This month we talk with Brad Borkan, the author of When Your Life Depends On It

Extreme Decision-Making Lessons from the Antarctic. We will explore how to make better decisions and how When Your Life Depends on It is action-packed and fast-paced. Historically accurate, complete with jaw-dropping storytelling, this book explains the mindset of the explorers who risked life and limb in the Antarctic to explore, discover and further the cause of science. Their lives depended on mutual respect, resilience, camaraderie, loyalty, determination, the ability to resolve conflict and move forward, leadership, and decision-making. All that can be summarised in one word - teamwork! Teamwork was the foundation on which Antarctic exploration was built.

Brad studied how people and businesses can make better decisions. He has a graduate degree in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Brad’s expertise is in leadership, teamwork, and decision-making, especially as it applies to people, teams, and businesses striving for epic achievement.

Prepare. Respond. Recover

How Venue Safety and Security Teams Keep Us Safe at Mass Gatherings

In 2020, we saw stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and convention centers go dark. While some facilities transformed to care centers and vaccination sites, today they are reopening.

In 2020, we saw stadiums, arenas, concert halls, and convention centers go dark. While some facilities transformed to care centers and vaccination sites, others started planning for fans to return under new COVID guidelines. Not only do these large event spaces need to take into account man-made or natural crisis situations, now they must plan for a safe and healthy return of guests. So much goes on behind the scenes to make sure your trip to the ballpark is not only enjoyable but safe. In this episode, we talk with James DeMeo, founder of Unified Sports & Entertainment Security Consulting. DeMeo, who consulted on the opening of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, shares with us what you don’t see behind the scenes.

Business Continuity Today

The Power of Mesh Networks During Emergencies

The new internet may soon be coming to a home near you in the form of Mesh Networking. So what is Mesh Networking and how does it differ from traditional networks…and how will it change disaster communications?

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Making Decisions When Your Life Depends On It May 26, 2022

Show notes

In any field, you need to make decisions, and in public safety, the decisions you make can be life and death. This month we talk with Brad Borkan, the author of When Your Life Depends On It
Extreme Decision-Making Lessons from the Antarctic. We will explore how to make better decisions and how
When Your Life Depends on It is action-packed and fast-paced. Historically accurate, complete with jaw-dropping storytelling, this book explains the mindset of the explorers who risked life and limb in the Antarctic to explore, discover and further the cause of science. Their lives depended on mutual respect, resilience, camaraderie, loyalty, determination, the ability to resolve conflict and move forward, leadership, and decision-making. All that can be summarised in one word - teamwork! Teamwork was the foundation on which Antarctic exploration was built.
Brad studied how people and businesses can make better decisions. He has a graduate degree in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Brad’s expertise is in leadership, teamwork, and decision-making, especially as it applies to people, teams, and businesses striving for epic achievement.
Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/
Brad Borkan
Twitter handle https://twitter.com/PolarDecisions
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradborkan-author-keynotespeaker/
Website http://www.extreme-decisions.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/extremedecisions/
Youtube youtube.com/channel/UCdjr9AklC6ceQjPsxibaWjA
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Do You know You Are In The Water? May 22, 2022

Show notes

Do You know You Are In The Water?

I have only recently learned of a great thinker named David Foster Wallace. He was a writer and college professor and challenged the way people look at life. Although he left this world way too young, David made a lasting mark with his writings and thoughts. When I think of the people I have come in contact with, both good and bad, I try to learn from them.

David Forter Wallace, when he was addressing the students at Kenyon College, he started his speech with this story: There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually, one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

One of my students asked me how someone in emergency management can positively impact their community. The answer was simple, don’t forget the people you serve. However, we should explore this question and my response a little deeper. In the spirit of David Foster Wallace, the simple answer may be the most complex.

We must break down this student's question first as a humanitarian and then as a professional. And for my friends that do not think you are a humanitarian, you are in the wrong line of work. We have chosen a field where we deal with disasters that impact people's lives. We have to remember that we are serving people, not the damage that has occurred or the threat we face. I have repeatedly seen how we meet the challenges of the danger, the hurricane, the storm, the fire, the earthquake, but we forget about how these disasters affect the displaced people. We talk about numbers, the billions of dollars the response costs, the number of acres burned, the thousands of emergency responders on scene, and the total number of people evacuated.

We don't talk about the number of people returning to a home that was underwater or burned to the ground. Their struggles to rebuild their home that will never be the same for them. We ignore their losses that will never be replaced, the loss of photos hanging on the wall, the baby clothes in a cedar chest in the attic that are gone forever, and the blanket that kept them warm when sitting on their favorite chair.

We forget about the loss of the residents from the community that cannot or will not return. They may be a statistic in some accounting program at city hall, but they are real people to neighbors and friends that are now lost. When we talk about recovery, it is all numbers and not reflective of what the community is or was.

We do not realize that we are in the water.

The fish story's point is that the most obvious, important realities are often the hardest to see and talk about...In the day-to-day trenches of emergency management, the banal platitudes of "we have been there and done that" and “You did a great job on this drill, everyone.” You know, the ones that make us all feel good even when we see areas of improvement. They can have a life or death importance.

Before I Got Old, I Had All of The Answers

When I was young and had all of life's answers, I complained about running a routine call and how the victim's family was in a panic. A senior department member looked at me and told me that this might be the 1,000th time you have seen this issue. However, it was their first time for them. What I learned that day is that we need to put ourselves in their shoes, empathy is the most critical skill that we can learn and develop, especially when we have become hardened to the horrors of the job.

We need to celebrate the victories, the lives saved from near death, the family reunified with their pet, the everyday hero who was at the right place and did the right thing. We need to bring the community together after the disaster and lead them through recovery. We need to share tears and smiles with the people that look to us for answers. And together, we can become a stronger community.

When we seek the truth of what we do, it has nothing to do with the number of years on the job, the training, the classes we attend, and the meetings we hold. Everything that we do as emergency managers are simple. It is awareness, awareness of what is fundamental and essential, awareness that we are serving the people of our jurisdiction, the members of our organization, and the individuals in need. We need to keep the core of what we do in mind, life safety, preserving property, and protecting the environment. As David Foster Wallace said, we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

This is water.

Podcasts

The Todd DeVoe Show

Emergency Management as a Second Career

prepare. respond. recover

IBHS, Destroying Buildings to Save Yours

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo, please visit us on the web – https://www.ndemevent.com

Business Continuity Today

Communications and Active Shooter Response Planning

The news of two active shooter events one in Buffalo NY and the other at a church in Laguna Woods CA, and mass notification communications mistake by a major city in SoCal are driving the conversation in emergency management. Do you have a plan on how to communicate with your team, your clients, and stakeholders? Now is the time to take a look at your plan, test it and revise it if you need to. Join BCT as we explore these events and more.

What To Read

New York City resident tested positive for Monkeypox

According to A.P., New York state health officials said late Friday that a New York City resident tested positive for the virus that causes monkeypox.

Why it matters: It's the state's first confirmed case of monkeypox since multiple countries recently reported infections from the virus, which previously had been rarely seen outside of western and central African countries.

It's also the U.S.' second confirmed monkeypox infection this year, as Massachusetts reported the first on Wednesday.

Your Emergency Management Team Has a Strategy Whether You Like It or Not

By Kelly McKinney

As an emergency manager, you’ve got a huge job to do...but you don't have nearly enough resources to do it with

You pry away the valuable time of executives, managers, and staff all across your organization

...building resilience for the inevitable next disaster

...while struggling against the fierce headwinds of competing priorities, high expectations, and ever-increasing risk

All the while, that little voice in your head tells you that all of this is somehow your fault

...not only because you chose to pursue a career in emergency management (instead of going to law school as your mother told you)

Crisis Response Journal

Examining post-incident processes

There is general learning here for organizations; learning about the strengths and weaknesses of internal processes. The evidence provides an insight into how organizations deal with priority setting and governance. It gives a hint about corporate perceptions of risk and it shows that it has become routine for important functions to become under-resourced, leaving individuals struggling to provide services to the standard that they regard as the minimum.

Bringing clarity to your Business Continuity exercise

In planning an exercise, we tend to confuse what it is we’re trying to achieve. Even though we think we know what we want our people to do or to experience, we seem to have a habit of making it far less clear than we should. So, aprons on and let’s see how setting the right intentions for a BC exercise is as simple as following the recipe for your favorite cake.

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Climb and Lift: Emergency Management as a Second Career May 19, 2022

Show notes

Emergency Management is a highly diverse career field with a favorably projected future job growth. There is no clearly defined pathway for becoming an emergency manager and why are people moving to emergency management? Because there are opportunities in public service at all levels of government and a variety of sectors, including education, healthcare, and private business. Today, we explore emergency management as a second career with Jill Caputi and Cassie Nanoff.
Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/
Cassie Nanoff - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassondrananoff/
Jill Caputi - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-caputi/
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

IBHS, Destroying Buildings to Save Yours May 17, 2022

Show notes

Today prepare.respond.recover. speaks with Lead Research Meteorologist and Senior Director for Standards and Analytics Dr. Ian Giammanco from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) as he talks about the crazy experiments IBHS conducts to save lives and property as a result of severe weather. Why does IBHS do what they do? As we unfortunately know, severe weather disrupts lives, displaces families, and drives financial loss, however IBHS’s building safety research helps lead us to real-world solutions for home and business owners, helping to create more resilient communities.
If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo please visit us on the web - https://www.ndemevent.com
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

The Weekly Round-Up May 9-15 May 15, 2022

Show notes

The Infant Formula Problem and Emergency Management

I have talked about supply chain issues on The Todd DeVoe Show and Business Continuity Today. And When we discussed this issue, it was more about how the cost of items across the spectrum are increasing.

The other day, I was grocery shopping with my 9-year-old daughter, and she noticed that when we checked out, the baby formula was behind a locked cabinet. She is a very observant child and inquisitive. She asked me what was that and why was it protected. I told her that it was baby formula and that because it was so expensive, at times, people try to steal it.

On our way home, she contemplated that problem for a while and asked me why can't we help babies with getting the formula. I am always honest with her and explained that the government has programs. My wife is a social worker and I used her as an example of how social services work. And then we discussed Women Infant and Children (WIC) support, and more specifically how that helps with buying food for babies. She was satisfied with that answer. Until we got home.

It is strange how the world works because when we got home, the news story on TV was about the infant formula shortage and how online, private sellers are gouging prices, marketing cans for double or triple their usual price and many large retailers are sold out altogether. Then our conversation we got into was about how the supply of the formula was disrupted, which caused the price to increase and that some people cannot afford the formula and resort to thievery.

I share this story with you because the collective we (or the royal we) have decided that society will look after those in need when it comes to infants and children. That there is a role for government agencies to perform. However, in this crisis, should it be more than social services responding to the event?

Is This Crisis an Emergency?

This got me thinking about how as emergency managers, how do we look at each crisis that comes across our news wire. I am not arguing that we need to have emergency management involved in the supply chain crisis or even the issues of the formula shortage. However, the formula problem can become, and I might say, is a true health care crisis for the poor and women and children on the margins.

How did This Crisis Start?

Let's first explore how the formula shortage began. As I stated, the ongoing supply chain disruptions have been the cause of shortages of a wide range of consumer goods. In February, the current lack of baby formula became worse after manufacturer Abbott issued a recall for products made at a Michigan plant and sold under the Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare labels.

The reason for the recall call Four children — one in Minnesota, one in Texas, and two in Ohio — fell ill with bacterial infections, and two died. The deaths of the infants, caused the FDA to shut the factory down.

What is the impact of the shutdown?

The states seeing the worst shortages include Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota — all with out-of-stock rates of about 50 percent. A total of 26 states have out-of-stock rates of 40 to 50 percent.

San Antonio's out-of-stock rate has climbed to 57 percent among metro areas, with Memphis and Nashville at 52 percent and Houston and Des Moines at 50 percent.

According to news reports, Abbot is working to address the issues and resume production of infant formula products. Brian Dittmeier, senior director of public policy at the National WIC Association stated that Abbott is the exclusive supplier for more than half the nation's WIC agencies, through which more than 1.2 million infants receive formula benefits, Dittmeier said. Such benefits are typically limited to various formulas, but agencies have waived some requirements to give families more flexibility during the shortage.

Formula Has Become A Public Policy Issue

Why is this critical for public officials to aggressively address this shortage? Because infant formula recall is having severe issues for babies and could lead to additional health problems in the future. Dittmeier said that the National WIC Association has been sounding the alarm about "risky behaviors" amplified on social media, "including the use of homemade formulas, diluting infant formula, consuming recalled formula products, or introducing cow's milk earlier than recommended."

With the trust of the national government at an all-time low, the formula shortage is causing additional concern about how government agencies are prepared to deal with any crisis.

Resources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/11/baby-formula-shortage-similac-alimentum-elecare-fda/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/10/us/baby-formula-shortage.html

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/05/17/public-trust-in-government-1958-2021/

Podcasts

The Todd De Voe Show

Ask Todd, Explore Insightful and Humble Answers to Life’s Questions

prepare. respond. recover

Keeping Your Business Valuable During a Crisis, Why Planning Matters

For our first episode, we welcome Ambi Silk, Director, Governance, Risk & Compliance, and Mohinder Kainth, Senior Global Risk Consultant both from CyberCX. CyberCX provides business continuity services for a range of global clients including RELX and its exhibitions subsidiary Reed Exhibitions, host of this podcast. Ambi and Mohinder dive into a range of topics including the current COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain management, the importance of the “pivot”, risk management for your staff in the office or working from home, and more. The episode wraps up with the importance of a robust incident management plan using the real-life example of when Reed Exhibitions employees were in Las Vegas for one of RX’s largest trade shows during the 2017 mass shooting.

Business Continuity Today

Why Fire Drills Are Critical

What do you do after your emergency procedures and evacuation plans are complete? It is time to exercise them. Your team must know what to do in an emergency at work and home. And How you are going to communicate with them. A vital part of this training is a fire drill, which puts the emergency procedures into practice to see if they work. If they don’t work, and there is a fire, it can have devastating consequences. Fire drills are often perceived as an unnecessary nuisance and disturbance, but they are critical in safety plans.

What To Read

Insights into the Emergency Management Hiring Process

Part 2: Tips for New and Aspiring Emergency Managers

By: Tobias Watson

I sought to gather information for Aspiring and New Emergency Managers. I asked a series of questions aimed at hiring managers to understand their evaluation criteria so I could help educate others on how to leverage themselves better in the hiring process.

Emergency Management: Is It The Hero or the Villian?

By: Todd T. DeVoe

The profession of emergency management is evolving. We are moving away from the lights and sirens of public safety and expanding the idea of what emergency management ought to be.

When we talk about Emergency Management, what are we talking about? What does this emergency management system look like to the public we serve? Emergency management is changing, and it is time we challenge the current leaders in the profession to grow.

The Crisis Response Journal

Disasters are the new business as usual

Avnesh Ratnanesan and Derrick Tin contend that disasters are fast becoming the new normal or business as usual (BAU) in the corporate world and suggest ways that future preparedness might be enhanced

Supply Chain Chaos Continues

Bill Peterson takes a closer look at the conditions and factors that continue to cause supply chain challenges and offers a view of what might be in store in the months – and possibly years – to come

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Ask Todd, Explore Insightful and Humble Answers to Life's Questions May 12, 2022

Show notes

Todd DeVoe shares his perspective on the questions that we all have asked ourselves. The only thing I know is that I know nothing This statement is known as the Socratic Paradox. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.⁣ So let's dive into the questions and have a great conversation.
The EM Network - https://emnetwork.substack.com/p/socratic-paradox-in-emergency-management?s=w
Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Weekly Round-Up May 08, 2022

Show notes

A Mother's Day Message

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world. Our team wants you to know that we appreciate you. So when I was looking for a topic for this week, I felt that it was essential to address how disasters worldwide impact women.

Asako Okai, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP Crisis Bureau, stated in her piece, "Women are hit hardest in disasters, so why are responses too often gender-blind?" Women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die in a disaster.

As noted In the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 70 percent of the people that died were women.

So How Do Disasters Impact Women Differently?

New projections of global poverty by UN Women, UNDP, and the Pardee Center for International Futures estimate that, globally, 388 million women and girls will be living in extreme poverty in 2022 (compared to 372 million men and boys). But the outlook could be far worse. In a "high-damage" scenario, this number could balloon to 446 million (427 million for men and boys). This is a fundamental factor leading to higher mortality rates when compared to men during a disaster.

Because women are statistically poorer, they have far limited available financial resources, such as resilient housing. Women typically have limited financial safety nets and often less education to seek employment to rectify their collective situations. These social vulnerabilities explode during and after a disaster, ensuring a cycle of poverty that can become generational.

Why Water Matters?

In last week's Weekly Round-Up, we shared an article from the Crisis Response Journal on Africa's water security. We chose this piece because of its implications on climate migration. However, in many parts of the world, lack of access to clean water and poverty go hand in hand with women facing hazards. The female populations of developing nations are more likely to be responsible for retrieving water for their family. Water scarcity forces women to walk further from the safety of their homes to collect water, making them increasingly susceptible to sexual assault and rape. In Bangladesh, which is considered the epicenter of climate change, the World Health Organization has estimated that in 8 out of 10 homes, women are exposed to the risk of harassment, sexual assault, and rape when collecting water.

Women's Health Care and Disasters

One of the significant issues facing women worldwide is they are susceptible to poor health outcomes, violence, and inequalities in all stages of a disaster. In developing countries, women have less access to education, including basic survival skills such as swim safety. The lack of training reduces their ability to flee in rising floodwaters, for example. In these nations, Women traditionally are homebound, caring for their family members. They do not have access to the early warning systems, reducing their disaster preparedness and response times and increasing their chances of death. That is one of the significant factors explaining why 90 percent of the 140,000 people who died during the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone were female.

At any disaster, women have a statistically higher instance of forced marriage. They are exposed to sexual violence and can be required to engage in transactional sex for financial coping strategies. For example, after the 2004 tsunami in India, nine out of ten women affected by the disaster had experienced sexual violence within two years of the incident.

The impacts of disasters on women are not only in developing nations. After the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, New Zealand saw a 40% rise in intimate partner violence in rural areas.

The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 proved that the issues facing women have not changed significantly. Although they're no longer blamed for disasters, they're not included in the relief process.

During a fact-finding trip to areas affected by the 2011 tsunami, Akiko Domoto, an environmentalist, feminist, and former governor of Tokyo's neighboring Chiba Prefectures, found those "in charge of a shelter in Minamisoma would not let the evacuees put up dividers. This meant there was no place for women to change, for infants to nurse, or for the elderly to change their diapers." In addition to a lack of privacy in shelters, there was also a lack of essential women's goods and an expectation that women would help with reconstruction by spending their days in the shelters cooking.

Women-Owned Business and Disasters In the U.S.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study showed that businesses run by women had been impacted more by disasters. They are more likely to close, experience decreased revenue, and lose customers. NIST surveyed 1,300 businesses. The study showed that women-owned businesses had fewer employees and reported less disaster preparedness than other businesses. And women-owned businesses are considered less essential to the community's overall economy. This is because most women-owned businesses are in the service industry.

Ariela Zycherman (who conducted the study) stated that "research like this demonstrates the ways preexisting social inequities threaten resilience. This information is essential for supporting just climate futures across communities."

Critical information might also lie in how businesses think of disaster resilience, what resources they are aware of and how they use them.

Moving toward an Antifragile Community

As we assess risk to the communities we serve, we must consider the part inequality plays in disaster recovery. A strong community includes personal empowerment of underserved populations, including women-owned businesses.

In our communities, we need to support small businesses in general. However, we need to provide tools and training to help historically underrepresented group-operated (HUGO) businesses thrive before and after a disaster.

References:

https://www.undp.org/blog/women-are-hit-hardest-disasters-so-why-are-responses-too-often-gender-blind

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212096320300279

https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/japans-sexism-in-natural-disasters

https://www.thejournal.ie/women-and-children-more-at-risk-at-times-of-disaster-1124615-Oct2013/

https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/4/e004377.abstract

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/02/businesses-run-minorities-women-and-vets-disproportionately-affected

Podcasts

The Todd De Voe Show

Planning Practitioner Program

EMI is announcing a new program, the Planning Practitioner Program. The Planning Practitioner Program (PPP) is a series of two (2) resident courses in Emmitsburg, MD, and an online Capstone. The PPP will have two (2) cohorts in FY23, beginning October 17th and January 9th. you can Apply at training.fema.gov

Todd DeVoe

Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/

Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

James Greenshields

Twitter handle https://twitter.com/FEMA_EMI

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgreenshields/

Website https://training.fema.gov/netc_online_admissions/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fema/?hl=en

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/FEMA

prepare. respond. recover

Looking to Private Forecasters to Save Lives

According to NOAA, severe weather issues (such as more frequent and intense heat waves and hurricanes dumping more than the usual rainfall) are an increasing liability to the economy, with 10 weather and climate disasters costing more than $1 billion each so far this year! In addition, western wildfires have also cost more than $40 billion during the past two years alone. Today, prepare.respond.recover. speaks with StormGeo’s TropicWatch Manager Chris Hebert to discuss how the rising costs of changing weather trends, advances in data-gathering and processing, and access to low Earth orbit (remove comma) have allowed StormGeo to lead the way in keeping critical businesses informed on storms heading their way.

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo please visit us on the web -

https://www.ndemevent.com

Business Continuity Today

Do You Have A Wildfire Plan

The Southwest has moved from fire season to a 365-day threat of wildland fires. Why do you need a plan? Roughly 60,000 wildfires burn 8 million acres in the U.S. each year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Wildland fires are more destructive and deadly than ever. Although we see fires in the west the most, every state has a wildland fire threat. Is your organization ready?

Web:

https://titanhst.com/

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3KgRvv6

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titanhst/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TitanHST

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TitanHST/

Youtube: https://bit.ly/3mePJyG

What To Read

IAEM and NYU Team up to Assess DAFN Planning Nationally

By Anne-Marie McLaughlin

Researchers from NYU’s School of Global Public Health and members of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Accessibility and Whole Community Inclusion Caucus have teamed up to find out.

Initially, the project started out small with a request from Anne-Marie McLaughlin, the Caucus Chair for an NYU intern to help out with a survey. It was a simple idea: the Caucus will ask Emergency Managers, disabilities advocates, and people with disabilities the same set of questions to see if there are gaps nationally—with the understanding that some people may fall into all three categories. The basic idea was to identify both best practices and areas where more resources are needed.

Important Skills for Entry Level Emergency Managers

Part 1: Tips for New and Aspiring Emergency Managers

By Tobias Watson

This is the first of three (3) articles aimed at helping aspiring and new emergency managers as they begin or seek to begin their employment in the field. My hope is to pass on lessons from myself and other professionals to create better emergency managers and assist them in the challenges or lessons we have experienced…

Baker’s Dozen

When Your Life Depends on It

By Marc Baker

We are adding a bonus book to this month’s reading, “When Your Life Depends on It” by Brad Borkan & David Hirzel. This is an excellent complement to the Servant Leader’s Manifesto. After reading the book, join the conversation with Brad Borkan on May 26th on Bullhorn.fm.

The Crisis Response Journal

Accounting for probabilities in conflict

May 2022: In his latest blog, Phil Trendall says that we must stop hiding behind calculations of likelihood when it comes to emergency planning and that the UK needs to think about what civil protection looks like in the context of a war that could escalate.

Fresh perspectives on social responsibilities

The Institute of Risk Management (IRM) and the Environmental & Social Governance (ESG) Group is hosting an online event on May 26, 2022, featuring CRJ’s Emily Hough as one of the panelists in a Q&A session. This is the IRM’s third event organized by the newly formed ESG Group, entitled ESG Perspectives on Social Responsibilities. Following on from the success of the first two events, it brings together an expert panel to provide perspectives for the benefit of those committed to: “The governance of purpose-driven organisations with the intention of fulfilling their social responsibilities in an ethical and sustainable manner.”

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

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