The latest Disaster Zone Podcast: Better Coordination Between Government and Nonprofits is now live.

Nonprofits play a critical role in responding to and recovering from disasters. In this podcast we hear from one nonprofit and then we will also have a discussion about how government and nonprofits can achieve better outcomes by what they do before and how they interact during disasters.

Liz Baker, CEO of Greater Good Charities — a global organization that has spent the last twenty years providing disaster relief to communities in need. Because of its unique funding and agile operational model, Liz's organization, Greater Good Charities, can respond to often overlooked issues that larger aid organizations often don't have bandwidth to address. They're also there within hours of crises they're responding to, mobilizing quickly, listening locally, and responding with their global resources

I have always recommended the use of informational interviews to help people in their job and career search. See this one extract below that I picked up from of a successful use of an “informational interview:”

There are three different “courses of action” in play right now for what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will look like in the future.

In this Disaster Zone Podcast: Turmoil in the Media all the changes we are seeing take place will impact how we consume news and entertainment.

Hurricane Mellissa has been in the news for many days. Most recently for the impacts it had on property and infrastructure on Island of Jamaica. I ran across this item in a LinkedIn post, “What really stood out to me, though, was their report of 25,000 tourists currently on the island as of their October 29, 11 AM EST briefing.

The National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) held its annual meeting a couple of weeks ago in Chyenne, Wyoming. But…there were no Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives in attendance. The number one reason is likely the government shutdown that is continuing at this writing. However, even if there was no shutdown, it is possible that there still would not have been any FEMA representation at the meeting—because attendance at such events were declared “verboten” early in the Trump Administration.

Disaster movies are ones I always try to watch. Most of those movies these days have a natural disaster as the premise for impending doom. However, a new NETFLIX movie House of Dynamite uses nuclear war as the risk facing the United States and the world. I watched it last night and found many aspects of the movie accurately portraying what might happen if a rogue nation fired one missile at the United States.

See this story from The Hill, Trump officials refer Biden-era FEMA staff to DOJ for potential criminal charges

This all stems from Hurricane Helen and accusations made about one supervisor telling her staff canvassing homes to avoid those with Trump signs on their property. The story above provides much more details and the fallout from those events.

I’ve been active in the emergency management profession for over thirty years, and I had never heard of 831(b) Plans. As the insurance industry continues to struggle with rising losses and costs, here is a strategy to help minimize those costs while still providing a business with insurance.

CHDS is recruiting for their programs with a December 1 deadline for applications.

In the 2025 edition of their Where Natural Disasters Are Having the Biggest Impact on the Nation’s Food Supply report, Trace One pinpoints where these events are having the greatest impact on farmers and the nation’s food supply. Researchers analyzed and ranked locations at the county and state levels based on their average annual economic loss (expected annual loss) in 2025 dollars within the agricultural sector.

If you might recall, President Trump went to North Carolina early in his administration to view the disaster damages caused by Hurricane Helen. He lambasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for having what he considered a totally botched disaster response. This was the beginning of his call to reform FEMA and make it more efficient and have states pick up more of the bill for disaster damages.

The federal government is in the news multiple times every week and every day. Today there was a headline about the Secretary of Homeland Security purchasing (I should say the US Coast Guard) two new executive jets to support personal travel for the Secretary, price tag $171M.

While we are waiting for the council that was appointed by President Trump to announce its recommendations, there are already changes happening out in communities impacted by disasters. See this New York Times article, How FEMA Is Forcing Disaster-Struck Towns to Fend for Themselves

My father was a railroad engineer. Sometimes he would come home with a story and say, “Is this any way to run a railroad?”

The same thought came to my mind when I saw headline at Bloomberg News, “FEMA Tells Staff to Name Whistleblowers or Risk Losing Job.”

As emergency managers we have to always have our toes in the science side of things in order to better understand the hazards that our community’s face. While you’re not all in California, I thought this news release was significant. It is an  example of the science of tectonics that is still developing and helping us understand what is happening deep in the earth.

You have to go back to around 1989 to when state and local jurisdictions administered portions of the civil defense program that were within the scope of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Those included the Civil Defense Shelter and Supplies along with the Radiological Instrument Program (I administered both of these for the State of Washington). As I recall, funding for both of these were eliminated around 1991. The beginning of the end of that program started with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

It has happened again. From the New York Times, L.A. County Declares State of Emergency Over Immigration Raids

When you are considering who to appoint to senior positions in a federal agency it is important to do robust background check. Perhaps that was done, perhaps not—since President Trump waived background checks for White House staff requiring security clearances.

Predicting the future for what might happen to the profession of emergency management and how it is practiced under the Trump Administration has become almost anyone’s guessing game. While many have shared their ideas for what might lay ahead, I thought that his opinion piece was measured and relevant, see The Shifting Emergency Management Balance