Disaster Zone

One of the aspects of our environment that impacts us on a daily basis is the weather. When it comes to disasters, the weather can be the cause of the disaster and even if it isn’t, weather conditions are something we need to always concern ourselves with. In this podcast the guest is Reid Wolcott, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service (NWS) Seattle In the podcast we h...

When asked, emergency managers will unfailingly say that the first critical infrastructure that needs to be restored after a disaster is communications. In this podcast I interview two T-Mobile subject matter experts, Rodney Cooper and Casey Muilenburg who, along with others, are responsible for the T-Mobile Emergency Response Team (ERT). We discuss all the components that make up an ERT, both equ...

Melanie Spring has over 18 years of experience in engineering, operations, continuous improvement, organizational change management, and business transformation, primarily in power and utilities.  Having just moved to consulting, her focus is now on helping organizations grow and transform by adopting improved business processes and finding new ways of working, enabled by technology investments. ...

One of the things that the COVID Pandemic has highlighted is the growing shortage of healthcare workers. This is especially true in rural areas of the United States.  Erin J. McLaughlin   An employment attorney discusses the causes and impacts of this labor shortage and what is being done to address it. See a previous Disaster Zone Blog post directly related to this subject about an initiative by...

One of the innovations coming out of the response to the COVID Pandemic is the use of Microsoft Teams as a platform for managing a remote response to the event. MS Teams can combine with the power of Esri ArcGIS to provide the mapping function which was a winning combination for some jurisdictions and companies. Chris Mcintosh, Bent Ear Solutions is my guest, along with Carrie Tropasso, Director o...

Planning is one of the major tasks that all emergency managers undertake. We have all manner of plans that need to be written, from general all-hazard plans to those that encompass special hazards like dams, pandemics, HAZMAT, school shootings, and on and on. In this podcast we hear from Brad Milliken who’s day-job is serving as an Emergency Management Specialist at the White House Operations Cent...

Ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 there has been a much stronger relationship between law enforcement and emergency management. In this podcast we explore that relationship with Paul Pastor, the former Pierce County, Washington State Sheriff. It is a wide-ranging discussion of challenges being faced by both professions. One of the topics covered included how we need to become prepared for m...

Morgan Wright is the Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne and an internationally recognized expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyber terrorism, and advanced technology. His landmark testimony before Congress on Healthcare.gov changed how the government collected personally identifiable information. He has made hundreds of appearances on national news, radio, and print. In this podcast Morgan highl...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 10 has a new Regional Administrator, Willie Nunn. Nunn had previously been a Federal Coordination Officer (FCO) for a number of years. In this podcast we explore how his past experiences, personal and professional have shaped his approach to his new position. We also delve into what makes FEMA Region 10 unique in its own way, from the people, h...

Keith Krach is the former chairman and CEO of DocuSign . He has been recognized for his work in B2B Commerce and Digital Transaction Management. He has held leadership positions with Angie’s List and General Motors . Formerly he was Chairman of the board of Trustees for Purdue University . Lastly, he served as the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment in the las...

Who’s responsibility is it to develop the next generation of emergency managers? I think that all of us must be contributing to that effort. In this podcast, Pete Gaynor, the immediate past Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator shares his ideas on Next Generation Emergency Managers The link will take you to his recent opinion piece in Emergency Management MagazineGaynor calls fo...

In our 21st Century workplace and personal lives, technology has dominated, and thus cybersecurity has become an ever more important consideration. For each and every organization, be it public or private, along with cybersecurity comes the need to protect the privacy of people and organizations. In this podcast Ginger Armbruster, Chief Privacy Officer for the City of Seattle shares some best prac...

When emergencies and disasters strike, we all depend on 911 Centers to be functional. Disasters range from earthquakes, cyberattacks and wildfires to local power outages, an ice storm or a white powder delivered to your door. Today 911 Centers are tech heavy places and getting even more technical as they try to keep up with consumer technology trends. In this podcast we explore the technical side...

Supply chains have been in the news for the last two years. Their vulnerability has been highlighted in many different ways during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In this podcast we learn about cybersecurity and dependencies that exist between elements of our various supply chains.  Our guest, Missy Gillette, a Senior Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton has the expertise and experience to share best practic...

The Incident Command System (ICS) can be complex in itself to any novice learning about it for the first time. What can make it even more challenging is when disciplines and jurisdictions begin trying to operate as a Unified Command. The concept of unified command is not well understood and what appears clear cut decision making can be countered by others as being inappropriate. Unified Command an...

With every advance on the technological front, we are getting closer and closer to having real-time situational awareness when disasters strike. This is happening via a variety of means. One of which is the seismic monitoring of buildings for what seismic (G forces) they have been exposed to. Knowing that, along with the age of the building, the construction methods and soils that they sit on, you...

One significant natural hazard risk that the West Coast of the United States has comes from tsunamis. The guest for this podcast is Elyssa Tappero, Outer Coast Tsunami Program Coordinator for the Washington State Emergency Management Division. In this program we review what the difference sources of tsunami waves are, and what their potential impact can be here in the Pacific Northwest. We also de...

Every disaster imaginable produces some form of disaster debris. Disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and a tsunami can be mega producers of debris. Even the typical flood has people ripping out carpets and other household items from their homes and piling them on the curb. It becomes government’s job to haul them away. Chris Walker with MERITS provides very practical suggestions for people and...

What does leadership look like in the 21st Century? To find out, I went to Steve Metruck, the Executive Director for the Port of Seattle. The port has both maritime and airport operations with billions of dollars in capital investments being made. Steve had a very successful United States Coast Guard career, retiring as a two star admiral. In a series of responses to a number of questions he refle...

The disaster recovery process for Presidentially declared disasters here in the United States is hugely complex. It is no easy task to enter into and to accomplish. Jerry Quinn is an expert in assisting public agencies work their way through the disaster recovery maze. In this podcast we look at the process in general, where the pitfalls are, and then suggestions for getting the most recovery fund...

This podcast is a bit of reminiscing with Diane Newman. She was at different times my Operations Program Manager and my Deputy Director at the King County Office of Emergency Manager. At one point, I actually worked for her! In this podcast we discuss various aspects of our personal journeys in emergency management and along the way share what worked and what didn’t work when it came to trying to...

The United States’ blood supply has reach a dangerously low level of inventory. It has come via the impact of COVID and recent winter weather that has impacted much of the nation. In this short podcast we hear from Craig Cooper, an American Red Cross Spokesperson who explains the crisis and also how people can identify locations where they can go and give blood. It is a very safe and painless proc...

Many first responder agencies have chaplains who work with them. They go to the scenes of emergencies and disasters. They minister to people both residents and the actual firefighters and law enforcement officers. In this podcast I interview Mike Ryan, who is the Bellevue Washington State Fire Department Chaplain. Mike has many years of experience and service. Together we discuss how people end up...

Volunteer organizations who support disasters come in many different types and sizes. One such organization is The Soup Ladies who feed first responders when they are deployed on missions. These can be search and rescue missions, evidence processing of crime scenes or any other disaster response where first responders are present. The guest for this podcast is Ginger Passarelli, the Executive Dire...

When we send our children and grandchildren off to school we expect that they are going to a safe place. In Washington State that might not be true. In this podcast the guest is Jim Buck, a former Washington State legislator. He has a passion for emergency management and when he discovered the status school seismic safety in his state he set off to change that. Besides listening to this podcast yo...