The transportation of hazardous materials is a modern-day issue to be contented with. These materials are manufactured, stored and then transported via different transportation systems. This article provides some insights into the number of incidents by transportation type and where these incidents are happening by state. Check out U.S. States Most Exposed by Hazardous Materials Transport Incidents

Camp Mystic has been in the news of late. The camp owners have been seeking to reopen the camp for summer activities. All this following the terrible tragedy of the flood event that killed girls attending the camp and some camp counselors. Parents of the girls killed have sought to have the camp prohibited from reopening.

I think this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to investigations at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). See this article, House Democrats Are Investigating FEMA Contractor Tied to Corey Lewandowski

There are different types of leadership styles. One common one that still persists is using fear as a motivator for people and organizations. We will be exploring the impacts of using fear in the workplace.

Emergency managers should be good at servant leadership…during the disaster preparedness phase of emergency management.

At this point it is not official, but the New York Times is reporting, Trump to Pick Ousted FEMA Head to Lead Agency Again

I have been involved with many different types of command posts and Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) in the past. A key element for all of them includes mechanisms for displaying information on the status of an emergency or disaster. The more sophisticated of these centers had audio visual systems that cost $600K or more.

Disaster Zone Podcast: Project Hope Responds

This podcast focuses primarily on aspects of disasters that impact operations here in the United States. In this particular podcast we will cast a bigger view at the international operations of one particular NGO providing disaster services around the world—that being Project Hope.

The short summary would be this, “Keep FEMA, but reform it.”

More in this Guardian article, DHS secretary calls for US states to lead disaster response instead of Fema

You might have missed this story, a big one in my opinion, CBS News Radio shutting down after nearly a century on the air, marking end of an era

 Check out the forecast below. It is a “better than average” forecast with El Nino hindering hurricane formation in the Atlantic Ocean, but possibly more in the Pacific where they are called typhoons.

Remember that “below average” does not mean no significant hurricanes in 2026, which AccuWeather points out below.

FEMA is hoping for the best, I can tell you that!

Bob Calkins is one of the most experienced Public Information Officers (PIO) that I worked with in my professional career as an emergency manager. We interacted in numerous settings over the years. He was at SeaTac Airport as the PIO there and then spent time with the Washington State Patrol (Chief Batiste mentioned below was the Chief of the Patrol).

If you give or get performance appraisals, this podcast will be of interest to you.

Disaster Zone Podcast: Performance Reviews for Dummies

It is not front-page news in newspapers or other news media. There is just too much news everyday that hogs not only the front page, but any coverage at all. Which brings us to this Politico article, It's 3 times harder for blue states to get disaster funding under Trump

I remember some information that I read a few years back about what climate change would look like in the future.

The hot temperatures we saw on the West Coast last week that set records for March are to continue their march East later this week. That is what we expect from a warming climate.

What do you do when you’re on an airplane sitting next to a stranger? Me, I chat them up! This is what I did likely about 16 years ago after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 It turned out that I was talking to a engineer who was familiar with deep well drilling. As I recall, the Deepwater Horizon well was around 5,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. I asked him the feasibility of digging a well that deep underwater. He shared that it working at the absolute limits of the technology of the day.

Senator Mullin is now sworn in as the next Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). His priorities are going to be dealing with several immigration and budget issues that are significantly impacting immigration policy and then also air travel in the United States due to TSA agents not being paid and long lines in airports. Some of those issues are highlighted in the Politco article I’ve copied into this blog posting below. He will have his hands full on immigration issues, with likely MMA style battles with Stephen Miller in the White House pushing his extremist views on deportations. Remember what got Kristi Noem in hot water was that she was in lockstep with Stephen Miller (not to mention the $200M DHS funded ad campaign) and his maximus approach and goals to deport 3,000 illegal immigrants a month.

Two of the fastest growing states, by population, have been Texas and Florida. Both are also noted for the frequency of disasters and types of disasters that impact their residents. It is clear that disaster probability is not figuring into where people want to live. It just might be that both states not having a personal income tax is much more appealing that feeling safe from disasters.

You can thank a federal judge and multiple states that were plaintiffs looking to reverse the cancellation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program. It looks like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of issuing new instructions about resuming the grant program. The first communities to be impacted by the resumption will be those which had already been designated to receive BRIC funding via previous awards.

Once someone is gone, more knives come out than were present in the past. See this Guardian news article, US disaster response workers won’t miss the ‘singularly destructive force’ that was Kristi Noem