Disaster Terms:
Have you noticed how people are using hazards to describe all sorts of things from politics to recession to just social demographics. The most popular one is Tsunami. I think this comes from the Indian Ocean event that made people familiar with the term. Just today I saw some write "avalanche" and they were not talking about snow. Events with a lot of turmoil might have a reference to either tornado or hurricane. I hate to say it, but they are stealing our thunder!
Worst Case Planning:
An article I read on the banking crisis referred to the planning that was done when times were good. Banks were "stress tested" based on what was believed to be the worst case scenario. In reality the 2008-2009 financial crisis was 2-3 times worst than their previous "worst case" scenario. There is something for us to learn from this. I always told elected officials not to get too confident in our ability to respond to disasters since we had not experienced the "worst case" type of disaster. It can be so tremendously huge that our planning and preparations seem wimpy at best. So when you think worst case--make it colossal!
Windows 7 Mobile Operating System:
The new Windows 7 Mobile Operating System from Microsoft should be out before the end of the year, but no date has been announced. I talked to someone who had seen it and they said it was pretty cool. The trouble is that they are playing catch-up with Apple and Google. It is the development of the Applications by third party vendors that drive the popularity of the phone/operating system. It is another example of the interdependencies that exist in our society. To be successful today you have to be interactive in the marketplace and within you community. The time of independent action is long gone. True success in emergency management depends on your ability to be functional across many different types of organizations and technologies.
Keep Your Personal Opinions to Yourself:
One of the mantras I've told my staff again and again is that if you have to speak to the media (those that are left these days) stick to the facts of the incident--don't offer personal opinions. While not a direct connection to emergency management the following quote makes a great case in point. A staffer for a nonprofit group that promotes the use of bicycles in urban environments made this comment in an Op-ed about people who hit bicyclists with their cars, "I'd love to hang these people up by their toenails at the edge of town and paint 'killer' across their chest and let them hang there until the buzzards peck their eyes out."
The article I was reading was about the Executive Director for the group who was let go because of his failure to control his staff. Just stick to the facts, never use the words, "I think" when talking to the media. Keep those personal opinions to yourself!
