How Emergency Managers are Adapting to Climate Change

It’s always a good idea to learn about trends and best practices from other factions in the emergency preparedness universe, which is why I was intrigued when I stumbled upon an article that focused on ways in which federal and state emergency managers are addressing the increasing challenges associated with climate change.  The purpose of this post is to highlight some of the key elements I learned from the article.

Key Areas of Focus for State and Federal Emergency Managers

The article, from Homeland Security Today, is available here.  Here is an abbreviated list of some of the key tactics that state and federal emergency managers are utilizing to cope with more severe weather threats:

1. Increased utilization of location-based data, including the enhancement of user interfaces and the inclusion of advanced mapping technologies, to boost situational awareness.
2. Increased implementation of cybersecurity exercises and drills – cyber-threats are the second biggest concern for public-sector decision-makers.
3. Enhanced focus on getting local residents registered to receive emergency warnings by making it easier to enroll, providing information to help people understand how to use the alerts, and promoting the benefits to boost awareness.  This is critical, because in some areas, less than 20% of residents are registered to receive disaster warnings, and this is simply not good enough. 
4. Continuous testing of emergency alert systems to boost their reliability and usefulness.
5. Expanding emergency alerts to rural and other hard-to-reach locations via geolocation technologies.
6. Increasing the frequency of exercises and drills that focus on weather-based scenarios.
7. Coordinating response with school districts so that students are better prepared for disaster scenarios. 

As you can see, there is nothing Earth-shattering on this list, but it does highlight what keeps emergency mangers up at night.  I think the listed tactics make sense, and utility companies ought to review this list to make sure that they are covering all their bases when it comes to emergency preparedness.  Good luck!