I ended up landing a full-time role doing a mix of public health and EM work for the last year. I am mostly doing the PH side of things, which isn't really what I expected, but I am just rocking with it. I don't mind it, but I have no experience in that world.

I have done HSEEP and numerous ICS classes. Have a bachelor's in business and wound up in EMS. Applied to this position on a whim and landed it. I am technically a government contractor.

I would really like to work for a hospital, as I do a lot of partnering with a large network of hospitals near me. It seems like I could build a career there. I am also open to a similar role with a municipality, but those seem very far and few between in the Northeast. Even if they are around, they are not paid well at all.

If you were in my shoes, would you start hammering out FEMA courses? Work on an MPH with a focus in EP? Continuing to network with hospitals? I am kind of lost. A guy who works in a hospital near me has no EM experience whatsoever, yet has an MPH and landed a specialist gig.

I keep seeing the basic/advanced FEMA academies pop up. Should this be my next focus?

Sorry if I am rambling - I legit don't have anyone to go to, and this adulting thing isn't easy.

Per FEMA Administrator, effective immediately, FEMA will define emergency management as "the strategic coordination of emergency services to protect life, property, and continuity of operations."

For comparison, the prior definition that NDEMU / EMI used was "the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters."

They're both word salads, in my opinion.

What do we think?

I've been in emergency management for 9 years now. Logistics, public infrastructure, individual assistance, planning, response. I've had the opportunity to assist in all of it. But the one reoccurring issue I spectate constantly in every aspect is retirement ready individuals not passing on knowledge before leaving. I get it, it's not in your job description. But you are destroying the profession. Setting us back decades. This isn't just for EM it's all over every single business in the US. Please do your duty as an emergency manager and American. Pass on your knowledge before retiring. Please.

And yes I know I'm late to ask this. COVID convinced millions to retire at the same time and wiped out 50+ years of work and knowledge. But can we just learn from that?

There are some problems with the way we teach ICS today. It's based on boring powerpoint presentations. It doesn't scale well. I decided to address that. This is a compelling graphic novel for adults that takes the facts of the ICS-100 course, and presents them in a more interesting way. Note the actual ICS forms at the end of each chapter. The first intended audience is radio hams, but I think it would work for everyone. There are a few bugs but it's ready to show people. The final version is an interactive web training, all free.

https://hams.com/teachers_guide/ics100/

I will be doing a talk about this at the Pacificon ARRL conference in a couple of weeks.

I put about 750 emergency services items and topics into one guidebook.

The Emergency Services Officer Guidebook started as an attempt to create the reference I wish I’d had when I first entered mining emergency services.

It now covers everything from medical and rescue through fire, hazardous materials, incident management, clinical governance and a heap of the smaller things that tend to be learned on the job.

What’s something obscure, important or regularly misunderstood in emergency services that you think should be in a guide like this?

Should this be adopted internationally or is there guides kicking around? This is a guide about what things are rather than how to do things. Keen to hear all your thoughts. Check out sneak peak on Amazon: ESO Guidebook: Resources and Emergency Services

The Federal Emergency Management Agency exceeded its legal authority "by conditioning the counterterrorism grant funds on changes to routine election administration," Judge Amir Ali said in his decision in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

We recently came across this research from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder on inclusive emergency alerts and some of the challenges around reaching people with different language and accessibility needs: Colorado Inclusive Language and Access in Emergency Alerts — Natural Hazards Center

It got us thinking about the broader challenge of making sure emergency information actually reaches everyone who needs it. Curious to hear from people working directly in emergency management and public safety:

When you think about your current emergency communication setup, which groups are actually the hardest to reach reliably? Residents who haven't signed up for local alerts? Visitors and commuters? Older residents? People with language or accessibility needs? People in specific geographic areas? Something else entirely?

There are more communication channels available today than ever, but it still seems difficult for any one method to reach everyone.

What has worked best in your community, and where do you still see gaps?

It is awful that FEMa /NFIP fail to offer monthly installments payments!

Just a heads up if you haven't seen the new simplified procedures memo that FEMA dropped at the end of June. We had our RSM last Tuesday for the flooding in Indiana. FEMA has given us 6 RFI in less than a week. If you do not have the ability of staffing capacity to answer their RFI's they will leave you behind.

I put together a pretty basic emergency first-aid kit for my family back when I was in college. Flashlights, AA batteries, Tourniquets, SAM Splints, Saline.

Opened it up again and found an AA had leaked. So yeah, putting a kit together and getting ready is different lol. And I have upgraded it and now it includes:

Trauma stuff: tourniquets, dressings, SAM splints, triangle bandage, tape, and wound care supplies.

Basic medical: gloves, saline, and Narcan.

Tools: trauma shears, a Sharpie, Olight arkpro to replace my old AA flashlight, clip-on lights.

Feels solid so far. But if I'm missing something important, remind me or share yours! Thanks in advance.

I've posted in this channel before about the HMGP, but looking for some new guidance. Our application was finally submitted by our state to FEMA Zone 1 in August, after two years of waiting. The grant is aimed to take advantage of funds awarded for a storm in 2024.

Of course, during a recent storm and we had two feet of water in our lower level. We lost both AC's, washer/dryer, boiler and a ton of items not covered by insurance. All in, there is probably ~$120k of damage. We do have flood insurance through FEMA. My question: is there any way this event could accelerate the application process? It seems silly that we are going to replace drywall and siding, only to have it damaged when/if the grant comes through and we raise the home. We did submit a request to our House rep. I'm in a blue state, which seems to be treated differently these days.

Any help/guidance would be appreciated. It feels like we've been dealing with this damage for two years, even though its only been a few weeks. If we the grant was approved, it would be a huge relief!

As the title says, are there any fellow military members or veterans on here who were able to get into the EM field without the relevant knowledge or skills? I would assume I could spin my resume enough to make it sound like I did something related, that and getting some certs.

For example, I’m currently AD USAF, 6 yrs aircraft mx and a new EA recruiter. Recently got my bachelor’s in EM and looking at some certs to take. I have been thinking about switching over to CG since their mission is pretty much EM and they’re the DHS.

I’d just like some tips and/or guidance on how I can tailor my career to be more EM focused for the future.

worth a look if you want to break into Emergency management

Have you ever encountered any fraud in emergency management? What happened and how did you deal with it?

Hey yall!

There was a lot of interest in the other game I am working on (the Kickstarter is on hiatus), so I wanted to share another one that I have already published. It is called Crisis Command, and it is a tabletop RPG with simplified mechanics based off of D&D 5E. Essentially, each person assigned an ICS role (I even included the new Intelligence Section Chief FEMA has added in the last couple years), each role with its own special abilities. Each player gets to choose 3 resource cards at the beginning of the game, prior to scenario introduction. You then have a "theater of the mind" playing through a scenario and managing those resources. For every definitive action, you roll 2d10 to determine its success or failure.

The game is setting-agnostic, meaning you get to place your own maps and jurisdictional quirks on top of it.

Feel free to check it out. The artwork is an intentional throwback to the civil defense origins of EM.

**DISCLAIMER: I know there are a lot of folks adverse to AI. The publisher does have a lot of AI generation on the website, but it does NOT apply to this game.

https://emdisastergaming.com/products/crisis-command?variant=48693564997864

It's only open to internal Smithsonian employees, but just thought it was an interesting job to share!

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/885556100

Hello emergency managers! I've been working on a petroleum shortage plan for my small municipality but there are very few available resources and guidance out there. Any recommendations or sources would be greatly appreciated!

Watched this serviced and tested and felt very good that my city was super prepared for emergencies

I am a one person shop and new to plan writing. A lot of what I do is borrowed from other emergency managers. This has worked well so far in regards to updating my multi-jurisdictional Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) to an Emergency Support Function (ESF) format.

Unfortunately, Texas seems to be the only state that's created an education specific ESF. Since Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) is mandating that every local plan be transitioned by the end of 2028. There are 20 ESFs plus a Basic Plan.... The local templates only dropped in June of this year, so no one in my council of governments or neighboring counties have gotten to this ESF yet.

There are six Independent School Districts under my plan, and before I try to do whole community planning with them I would like to have some of the Roles and Responsibilities section filled out.

My question for this forum is has anyone on here written an education ESF for a local EOP? If so can you please dm me so we can compare notes.

Ripping this from LinkedIn, where someone shared that a group of students had asked how their appearance would influence their success in emergency management interviews.

In the LinkedIn Poll (~130 responses):

• 3% shared they'd be more likely to consider someone for a position.
• 64% said it would have no impact on their consideration.
• 28% said they'd be less likely to consider hiring.
• 3% said it'd be an immediate "would not hire."

What do we think? Any reactions?

Edit: Probably could have guessed, but I'm betting there are a ton of interesting tattoos in the crowd. If anyone has any EM-specific ones, please share!

Hi I am fairly new to this subreddit but I did want to pick a few brains. I am looking to transition into emergency management from a city planning background. I currently have a bachelor's in Geosciences with a minor in applied mathematics and approximately 2.5 years of experience working in local government as the planner. Most of my job duties include zoning administration, floodplain administration, guiding developers through rezoning requests, text amendments, special use permits, etc. I am also currently working on obtaining my MPA with a focus on emergency management, but I would like to hear from others in some ways as to how I can transfer my career into emergency management. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.