Peanut butter and hurricanes
Chapter 20 did a great job of laying out the difference between a crisis and an emergency. While a crisis can be predicted an emergency cannot. However, each requires knowledge and understanding of appropriate communication measures.
Would this past week’s salmonella outbreak in certain batches of Peter Pan peanut butter fall into the category of crisis or emergency? I would say it is definitely the latter. “Sudden?” Check. “Unforeseen?” Check. To demonstrate how quickly communicators can work these days, I arrived home the day of the announcement last week to a counter stacked with four jars of Peter Pan. I hadn’t yet heard the word because I’d been working, but my two roommates, who are wired constantly, had not only heard and read about the recall but already went through the pantry!
As the text states, people’s reactions to emergencies can be “intense and complex.” However, these days, with publics more used to and aware of communication channels in the face of terrorist attacks and other threats, the channels are more accessible and easy to find. In this case, the threat was specific; the salmonella outbreak was limited to batches beginning with the numbers #2111, making the elimination of potentially dangerous peanut butter (in our household, anyway!) a cinch. The reading in the text reminded me of what my roommates did, “You must do X, you should do Y and you can do Z.” They chose to toss the peanut butter, but reports also told them they could visit Web sites for more information and send the jar cap to the manufacturer for a refund, among other options. Options are good!
The importance of role defining in the face of crises and emergencies also was covered in Chapter 20. “What often hinders communication in emergencies is not the lack of infrastructure of skills but the lack of consensus on roles and responsibilities.” At this reading, I had a flashback to my weeks spent in the City of Orlando Emergency Operations Center during Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne in the fall of 2004. It was kind of like camp, with no sleep, bad food and thrice-daily press conferences! But it was so well organized employee-wise that I couldn’t complain.
Every ESF was staffed with the appropriate people and we were informed as to who took over which shift and when, who gave information about what and what outside information was coming from other agencies, when and how often. Everyone had been fully trained; fortuitously, they had been flown to Maryland to do FEMA training just months prior.
Immediately, we activated the emergency phone tree to call the City’s nearly 1,000 non-essential personnel and tell them not to come into work. During our aforementioned press conferences, we had the Mayor at the helm, but close behind him was our EOC manager, fire chief, police chief, public works director, streets and drainage director and even our community services director (where we were temporarily housing displaced residents). They were all ready and willing to pipe up and offer appropriate information should they be asked. Our hotline was staffed with 12 people 24/7 and those of us in ESF 8 literally ran from room to room with little sheets of paper if there was breaking news that needed to be communicated to citizens – everything from where residents with diabetes could get treatment to where people could take their pets for emergency care. We set up the reverse 911 phone system to send 30-second sound bites from the Mayor to people’s phones, telling them where to go for ice, which major streets were closed, what numbers to call for more information; weeks later, after everything had died down, I got stopped by people who said, “You know, I got the Mayor’s phone message. That was pretty cool.”
While there was much physical damage to our city, there were fortunately no deaths and both city staff and residents were mostly calm and organized. I like to chalk that up to the composure and communications tactics of our EOC manager who was ready and willing with information at every turn, even if his words to the press or the public were, “We’re still working on that, but we’ll get back to you.” And we did.
Would this past week’s salmonella outbreak in certain batches of Peter Pan peanut butter fall into the category of crisis or emergency? I would say it is definitely the latter. “Sudden?” Check. “Unforeseen?” Check. To demonstrate how quickly communicators can work these days, I arrived home the day of the announcement last week to a counter stacked with four jars of Peter Pan. I hadn’t yet heard the word because I’d been working, but my two roommates, who are wired constantly, had not only heard and read about the recall but already went through the pantry!
As the text states, people’s reactions to emergencies can be “intense and complex.” However, these days, with publics more used to and aware of communication channels in the face of terrorist attacks and other threats, the channels are more accessible and easy to find. In this case, the threat was specific; the salmonella outbreak was limited to batches beginning with the numbers #2111, making the elimination of potentially dangerous peanut butter (in our household, anyway!) a cinch. The reading in the text reminded me of what my roommates did, “You must do X, you should do Y and you can do Z.” They chose to toss the peanut butter, but reports also told them they could visit Web sites for more information and send the jar cap to the manufacturer for a refund, among other options. Options are good!
The importance of role defining in the face of crises and emergencies also was covered in Chapter 20. “What often hinders communication in emergencies is not the lack of infrastructure of skills but the lack of consensus on roles and responsibilities.” At this reading, I had a flashback to my weeks spent in the City of Orlando Emergency Operations Center during Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne in the fall of 2004. It was kind of like camp, with no sleep, bad food and thrice-daily press conferences! But it was so well organized employee-wise that I couldn’t complain.
Every ESF was staffed with the appropriate people and we were informed as to who took over which shift and when, who gave information about what and what outside information was coming from other agencies, when and how often. Everyone had been fully trained; fortuitously, they had been flown to Maryland to do FEMA training just months prior.
Immediately, we activated the emergency phone tree to call the City’s nearly 1,000 non-essential personnel and tell them not to come into work. During our aforementioned press conferences, we had the Mayor at the helm, but close behind him was our EOC manager, fire chief, police chief, public works director, streets and drainage director and even our community services director (where we were temporarily housing displaced residents). They were all ready and willing to pipe up and offer appropriate information should they be asked. Our hotline was staffed with 12 people 24/7 and those of us in ESF 8 literally ran from room to room with little sheets of paper if there was breaking news that needed to be communicated to citizens – everything from where residents with diabetes could get treatment to where people could take their pets for emergency care. We set up the reverse 911 phone system to send 30-second sound bites from the Mayor to people’s phones, telling them where to go for ice, which major streets were closed, what numbers to call for more information; weeks later, after everything had died down, I got stopped by people who said, “You know, I got the Mayor’s phone message. That was pretty cool.”
While there was much physical damage to our city, there were fortunately no deaths and both city staff and residents were mostly calm and organized. I like to chalk that up to the composure and communications tactics of our EOC manager who was ready and willing with information at every turn, even if his words to the press or the public were, “We’re still working on that, but we’ll get back to you.” And we did.
posted by Lauren at
2/18/2007 11:53:00 PM
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