Trust is a very basic aspect of our society’s functioning. When we get to a stop light we trust that others are obeying the red light as we enter on green. People pay their taxes and they expect that government will equitably disburse those funds to programs approved by our elected officials.

The news about drones being seen in the night sky over New Jersey is the first widescale news about drones being spotted across a wide area of a state (now expanding to other states) and drawing national attention. Drones are no longer a novelty in American airspace.

The 2024 hurricane season has been a memorable one, especially with the impact that Hurricane Helene had on the mountainous areas of North Carolina. Now, even months after the hurricane and the rains are gone, the search and recovery for missing people continues and small pieces of the community infrastructure are beginning to be pieced back together.

What can we learn from that disaster and how those lessons can be applied to our own situation here in earthquake country? The disaster and the hazards may be different, but the experiences we see being played out in North Carolina can be instructive to our own geographical setting.

The recent killing of a healthcare executive and the subsequent search and capture of the assailant are good reminders for emergency mangers.

It is not uncommon for the topic of martial law to come up in emergency management circles. It could be while doing planning or perhaps during a disaster exercise. Someone will say something like, “What about declaring martial law?” Or “When might martial law be declared for this situation?”

I remember when I was about 10-12 years old, and the summers would drag on and on. By the end of August, I was ready for school to start, since it was a boring time to be a kid.

If you are staying up with the news, I’m thinking not about snow or hurricanes, but financial budget forecasts.

Sometimes you can include the practical with some levity.  Check out Your Holiday Safety Briefing

The National Association of Counties (NACo) has a new effort to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reduce the complexity of its disaster recovery processes and also reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The news of specific political personalities being hacked was in the media in the latter days of the election cycle. Today I read in the NY Times, Emerging Details of Chinese Hack Leave U.S. Officials Increasingly Concerned that the hacking of telecommunications companies was much more extensive than originally made public.

I just finished watching a Netflix documentary, Fire in Paradise  It is only about 40 minutes long.

As emergency managers one of our greatest assets to our profession is our personal desire to consume as much information as possible and adapt it to use in the work that we do. This is the professional side of our lives. Professional journals and association news and events are great places to engage our brains and with other mutually interesting individuals.

This topic is one that I’ve written about many times, to include having an Op-ed in the Seattle Times, Western Washington not immune from wildfire risk

This is the year that the Philippines will remember for a succession of storms that have hit that nation, 6 or 7 so far.

This is what happens when someone in your organization acts in a way that shows political favor or “disfavor” based on their political stances.

As it is with all political appointments, the current FEMA Administrator will submit her resignation on January 21^st and another new era of FEMA will begin.

I expect it depends on how much trust you put into long range climate and weather forecasts. But, here is a Washington Post article, Dreaming of snow this winter? Look up the forecast in your area

This is not official, but all over the news on Tuesday, “South Dakota Gov. KRISTI NOEM will be President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s pick for DHS Secretary.”

Either we are having intensive rain someplace or very dry, verging on drought conditions in other parts of the nation. This time however, both coasts of the United States are dealing with wildfires brought on by extremely dry conditions, that when combine with high winds can be very destructive to the landscape, but also homes that stand in the way of these fires.