Disaster Zone

Technology is dominating almost every aspect of our lives. It was not that long ago that emergency management and first responder agencies operated with just hardline phones and radios. Today it is a whole new ballgame. Unfortunately, many organizations have purchased technology that they are only using a small fraction of its capacity. In this podcast we explore how organizations can get the most...

The State of Hawaii has a unique geographical location among all states—an island state! This podcast is an interview with Luke Meyers, the Emergency Management Director for the state of Hawaii. We discuss the hazards the state faces and also their jurisdictional arrangement with a total of four counties. There is a brief discussion of the botched “the missiles are coming” warning along with other...

Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems remain the backbone of communications for first responders across the spectrum of agencies and disciplines. In this Disaster Zone Podcast Todd Perdieu , Vice President of Products and strategy with L3Harris provides information on how LMR systems function. He goes into more depth about the challenges of coordinating radio spectrum issues in the design of new systems...

Building for disaster resilience requires a concerted effort to build disaster resilient buildings with new building materials and siting buildings in the right location to limit the impact of natural hazards. Evan Reis , Executive Director for the US Resiliency Council shares how they are working to improve building codes and construction methods and processes. He also touches on how equity and s...

One segment of our community that is using drones more and more includes the television media. This podcast is an interview with Greg Thies, News Operations Manager at King Television in Seattle, a NBC affiliate. In this podcast we learn about what the safety and operational protocols are in use to provide the safe operation of drones by the media. There is also information on how they approach wo...

T-Mobile is now the second largest wireless carrier in the United States. Their recent merger with Sprint has given them some significant advantages in coverage and emergency and disaster capabilities. This interview is with Craig Martinez, a public safety advisor to T-Mobile with a long background in law enforcement. In the interview we discuss the many strong attributes that T-Mobile now has to...

Los Angeles World Airports, which includes LAX is the 3rd busiest airport in the world by passenger volume. In this podcast I interview Justin Pierce who is the Emergency Management Director there. We talk about the challenges and opportunities he faces with such a large enterprise system. Besides going into the details of his emergency management program we also discuss the future of the emergenc...

While climate change and disasters are mentioned frequently in the popular media, most of the information being shared is about climate mitigation that has to do with reducing the amount of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere. There is little discussion of climate adaptation. This podcast looks specifically at adaption as a strategy that can be implemented now and can provide immediate result...

There are more and more women entering the profession of emergency management or thinking about a career in this field. This podcast is an interview with Curry Mayer, Director, City of Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management . Curry has worked in both California and in Washington State as an emergency manager and also worked as a consultant. In this interview we talk about the opportunities and c...

There are earthquake risks in about every corner of the United States. This podcast looks at earthquakes in Western Washington State. Bill Steele, Director of Communications and Outreach at University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is interviewed. In addition to talking about plate tectonics and the three different types of earthquakes the region is subject to, there is a discuss...

Everyone has a boss. Emergency managers are no exception. Sometimes the position of emergency manager reports to a senior appointed official like the public works director or the fire chief. Others report directly to an elected official, mayor, fire chief or county commissioners. I was fortunate to work for a senior appointed official—a Deputy County Executive. This podcast is an interview with Pa...

Food insecurity is a huge issue in the United States, and it got worst during the coronavirus pandemic. One organization at the center of coordinating and providing food to people who need it is Feeding America . This podcast is an interview with Vince Davis, Director of Disasters Services for Feeding America. In our conversation we discuss their role in providing support to day-to-day food bank o...

  Michele Wucker is an author, speaker and strategist on the topic of risk. Her most recent book is You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World   This podcast interviews her about her expertise and questions are centered on topics of interest to individuals and emergency managers when it comes to disasters. This would be an excellent text for courses in emergenc...

 In this podcast we learn about the National Health Security Preparedness Index This index gets an annual update and looks at the public health readiness of all 50 states and Washington, D.C.  The show’s guest is Glen Mays, Professor and Chair, Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, Colorado School of Public Health. We discuss what criteria is used to achieve ratings and how over 2...

If you are going to invest time, energy and money into becoming more disaster resilient, what type of effort are you putting into the social capital of your community or organization? Daniel Aldrich, Director of the Resilience and Security Studies Program at Northeastern University shares in this podcast the importance of investing in social capital and how it can pay huge dividends. Having surviv...

It is now possible to get an online degree as a Master of Infrastructure Planning and Management . This podcast is an interview with Wendy Freitag, Program Director for the University of Washington’s program linked above. In this podcast we talk generally about online degrees in general, to include those in emergency management. How they compare school to school and with resident courses of study....

Emergency management organizations have now been immersed in COVID-19 response for over a year. This podcast is an interview with Jody Ferguson, Director for Pierce County Department of Emergency Management . In it we explore how her department responded first to the call to help with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) distribution and then more recently with mass vaccination efforts by the count...

In the podcast we talk about the cybersecurity threats and different approaches being used to counter those threats. Cybersecurity training is one of those and it has become something employees must accomplish as part of organizational standards. There are many mistakes that companies and governments make in their approaches to this training. Heather Stratford, CEO for Drip7 is the Disaster Zone g...

Emergency management is primarily known as a profession that responds to disasters. Another very important aspect of the discipline of emergency management is disaster mitigation. This podcast focuses on a relatively new federal program called Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities (BIRC). Derrick Hiebert, Deloitte is the mitigation expert interviewed in this recording. He shares the key el...

What does disaster readiness look like for the Pacific Northwest from a person coming to the topic with a fresh point of view? Brian Landon , an attorney, writer and director is working on a master’s degree and his project is examining how the Cascadia Subduction Zone will impact the State of Oregon and other parts of the Northwest. He comes to the task with more of a world view having lived and w...

One of the outcomes from the coronavirus pandemic is that our normal training sessions have been disrupted. People can’t gather into classrooms. A solution to that issue, and one that will be used going forward is virtual training that goes beyond the online Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) self-paced learning. This podcast is an interview with Todd Manns, Owner and Managing Partner of T...

The coronavirus pandemic has multiple impacts to our society, ranging from medical, economic, education—you name it, nothing has remained the same. All this physical change has impacted how people interact and relate to one another. The social impacts to people have been huge. Besides the coronavirus itself there have been political and racial tensions in the United States. Tim Bayer, a Lutheran P...

The blood supply for a community, region or state is critically important. This podcast is an interview with Curt Bailey, President and CEO of BloodWorks Northwest   Their territory covers eight million people in the states of Oregon and Washington. Consider this a Blood 101 class on all aspects of blood collection and use.  It amazing all the blood products that are collected in just one donation...

One of the outcomes of the coronavirus pandemic is the need to maintain social distancing. An innovation borne out of this is organizations have begun using technology to conduct virtual exercises. My guest for this podcast is Kyle McPhee, Director of Preparedness for Hagerty Consulting . Topics discussed include what technology solutions work and what the benefits and challenges are for doing vir...

No matter who you are and what you do, there is an element of salesmanship to how you interact with other people and organizations. This podcast is an interview with Jeff Kirchick, author of the book Authentic Selling, How to use the Principles of Sales in Everyday Life . In this podcast we discuss what it takes to be authentic and how incorporating listening and being empathetic can help you inte...