Hcs 320 Communication and Crisis Essay

Research on the NBEOC used during Hurricane Sandy consists of an extensive review of peer-reviewed articles using ProQuest and EBSCOhost, and journals associated with public and environmental health. Additional contributions to the research paper will include the FEMA website and the PS7 Review. The PS7 Review is a monthly newsletter created by FEMA to educate and inform community partners about its mission to increase collaboration amongst the private sector and whole community (Homeland Security, 2013). The final research paper will begin with an overview of Hurricane Sandy, followed by a description of the design and location of the NBEOC, and conclude with the media’s role in dispersing disaster information to the public. While taking into account that “more than 60 percent of NRCC personnel rated the NBEOC as effective or very effective” (FEMA, 2013), a major limitation of this research is that the NBEOC has not been implemented enough to back this statement. Therefore, information collected during the research process will assist in determining whether the NBEOC demonstrated organizational excellence before, during, and after Hurricane

Timely and accurate information is essential during a terrorist attack and a natural disaster. Therefore, the government must inform the public of all events. However, officials need to be mindful of the information that is released could expose intelligence in an ongoing investigation and put lives at risk. Crisis communication is a fine line of keeping the public informed and placing them harms

Social media and web coverage allow the community to stay connected in emergency situations through forums for family and friends. Traffic and road closings can be posted by viewers in real time to assist the broadcasters as well as

The current communication systems between first responders and other emergency officials have many existing problems. The first issue in communication between first responders is the inability to communicate over a completely wireless system. Wireless communication systems allow first responders to communicate, no matter the situation in which they are thrown. Communication through wireless systems are also more efficient, due to the updated technology that is used for wireless systems. First responders are also unable to communicate with exactly who they want,

September 11, 2001 is commonly thought of as the next major disaster in the United States. So I prefer to choose this real incident. The event that shook the world like a thunderstorm, thousands of people died in the terrorist attacks they did not resemble the catastrophic disasters previously discussed. Unlike all of the natural disasters previously detailed, the attacks in New York City and Washington, DC did not completely overwhelm the emergency response capabilities of entire regions. The attacks caused brief mass confusion and overwhelmed individual emergency response agencies but did not paralyze the entire emergency response network. The primary first responders were the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD. While federal officials participated in rescue operations and helped provide security after the attacks, the immediate rescue efforts were orchestrated by local responders. The local response networks were overwhelmed and resources were strained, but there was no system-wide breakdown in organization or authority. Nonetheless, emergency responders encountered many of the same problems that responders experience during catastrophic disasters. Communication systems

First responders as well as individuals working in law enforcement, fire fighters, and other emergency personnel, often face a very critical issue, not being capable to communicate to one another effectively at the scene of an emergency. This issue is

Getting a staff together to bring in useful information to plan for the release of the information to the news media is a great way to enhance communication to the public. The media will then get the information out to the public by ways of News releases, web sites, news conferences, newspapers and other social media (Hicks, 2012). The advantages of using these types of media are they quickly allows for the public to know what type of crisis has happened, and what kinds of precautions are being taken to ensure their safety. If there were to be any fatalities caused by the crisis event(s), these types of avenues also will give information on that. Some disadvantages can be unreliable technology of the citizens that will not allow for them to get access to the information that is being released by the media, such as no television, computer is not working properly, or they don’t received the local newspaper to be able to read it, etc.

Due the rapid flooding, whole neighborhoods were engulfed in water, numerous residents became stranded, and could be seen on the roofs of buildings across the city. A neighborhood TV channel reported New Orleans was encountering broad flooding due to levee damage, clean water was scarce, and the city was electrically deficient and was estimated to last for weeks. At day’s end, the Mayor of New Orleans described the considerable death toll with reports of bodies floating on the water throughout the city. The National Guard set up morgues all throughout the city. Coordination of rescue efforts days to come were hard due to lack of communication. Telephones and internet access became nonfunctional due to line breaks or power failures. Often, reporters were asked to brief public officials on the conditions in areas where information wasn’t reaching them. All local television stations and newspapers were quickly relocated, as broadcasting and internet became an essential method of distributing information to evacuees and the rest of the world for reports of what was occurring in the city. (Silverman)

Media partnership is another critical assumption that is used in an emergency situation. The media takes the responsibility of giving information to the public, as well as receiving information from them too. Thus, any emergency response team must work together with the media to give information that is particularly accurate and timely to avert situations that aggravate tension. Emergency managers must have an understanding of the needs and requirements of the media and the value that they come with in emergency response situations (Haddow & Haddow, 2013).

Hurricane Katrina has destroyed several of the core communications infrastructure in the area. The storm made it harder for 911 emergency call centers which disturb local emergency services. A great majority of people lost phone service, broadcast communications were also affected. Even through state, federal and/or local agencies had communications plans in place, the plans were not enough to respond efficiently to the storm. The available communications were not fully utilized due to the fact that there was no national or state wide communications plans to incorporate them. The local, state, federal governments haven’t really completed an extensive strategy to improve operability and telecommunications for emergency responders. The Department of Homeland Security should come up with an emergency communications strategy if a disaster like Hurricane Katrina would happen again.

Nor can effective use of power be reduced to wise control of our personal powers, though that may be a good start.  Social power, including our own, is concentrated, channelled, and distributed by the culture and structure of our families, communities, organizations, countries, etc.  Personal power is limited or extended by such cultures and structures.

This report outlines the current crisis situation and provides a range of crisis communication strategies and methodologies that are suggested for use immediately.

Crisis communication is the most important aspect of external and internal organization communication. This type of communication ranges from image restoration campaigns to employee turnover. In the articles that I have analyzed, I discovered many examples of crisis communications and its importance. I will discuss the Bridgestone-Firestone Corporation's image restoration campaign and explain Benoit's theory of image restoration. Also, I will discuss how crisis communications fits into public relations models. Two examples for discussion will be how supervisors should convey bad-news to their employees, and group communication within employee turnover. My last example for this discussion will be Bill Clinton's image repair discourse.

This emergence of social media has also changed emergency management and disaster response. Emergency management as a whole is fairly new, only creating widely recognized, integrated emergency management systems beginning in the 1970s. Furthermore, at this same time people realized that the effects disasters have on the communities they strike can be mitigated by the creation of disaster plans ahead of time, proper disaster response training, and the efforts of human actions in these situations. Because social media has enabled mass amounts of instant information sharing, it allows not only locals and disaster response teams to help with the management of crises, but also many remote citizens.

During emergencies, the importance of our country’s communications systems becomes clear. These communications systems include the wire line and wireless telephone networks, broadcast and cable television, radio, Public Safety Land Mobile Radio, satellite systems and increasingly the Internet. For example, in an emergency, we may dial 911, call our family members to make sure they are safe, and turn on our televisions and radios to get breaking news and important updates (FCC, 2012).