Disaster Tough Podcast

Expert emergency manager, Patrick McGinn serves as the Regional Disaster Services Director at The Salvation Army for all of Northern California and Nevada. He talks about his response experiences and shares lessons learned on emergency training exercises. Patrick also served the elite National Incident Management Assistance Team (N-IMAT West) for FEMA with our host, John Scardena.

Patrick is truly a well rounded emergency manager with both planning and operational experience. With his current role with The Salvation Army, he has developed axioms that push emergency managers to have a one-team, one-fight mentality.

Kevin Coleman is an experienced Federal Response Official with years of experience and countless deployments to large-scale disasters. During the COVID-19 Federal Response, he worked on a joint agency taskforce to recommend and build federal capabilities around the county. In his day-to-day job, Kevin is working to improve the qualification process for FEMA's staff, including the approach and style of how emergency managers qualify for new and upcoming positions. He shares advice on how you can gain additional skills to be more qualified for future jobs.

The Miami Surfside Building Collapse Incident required local, state, and federal assets deployed as well as a complex system to support responders, family and friends of those missing, and potential survivors. This was an urban search and rescue operation with support across the emergency support functions.

Our host was invited and instructed at a USAR conference in May, many of the participants were deployed to this disaster. Joe Hernandez leads Disaster Medical Solutions, the group who put on the training- he self-deployed to support teams on the rubble pile. His perspective improves our next mission.

We have a BIG announcement this week! Make sure to listen in to find out what it is!

Todd DeVoe from EM Weekly returns to the show to talk about the major disasters that are happening right now, the potential hazards we face, and the need for greater mitigation.

⛑ Operations are currently underway in Miami, FL. due to the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condo. Only a few weeks ago, Joe and his company, Disaster Medical Solutions hosted a medical urban search and rescue certification conference in Orlando. Several of the students & instructors are based out of Miami.

Joe walks us through actions they are taking, provide advice on next steps, and explains strategic level operational control.

The Disaster Tough Podcast and Doberman EMG are proud to support our USAR counterparts and hope for their success and safety in this major incident.

Mental First Aid:
A portion of our conversation involved addressing the need for mental first-aid for responders and their families who deal with catastrophic events, such as this building collapse. If you are experiencing high stress, or you have been involved with an incident- talk to someone about it (a friend, a relative, a professional). One of the most brave and tough things you can do is to seek help. If you're looking for an outlet of resources, please contact [email protected] or our podcast parent, [email protected]. Do not hesitate to address this lifesaving, life-sustaining issue.

Chief Bryan Davis was called to respond to the active shooter in progress at the Pulse Nightclub Shooting. Unlike other active shooter incidents, there was no question - this catastrophe was a terrorist attack. An attack on all Americans by a coward shooter who took hostages, remained on site for hours, and even called news stations. It was an active shooter like we haven't seen before. Chief Davis had to act swiftly and with precision to control the triage and life-saving mission for those impacted by the shooter. We talk about his experience on our show to help those in the field gain leadership skills in times of crisis.

Now, Chief Davis is focusing on another crisis- the impact of disaster on first responders. Keenly aware of these impacts, Chief Davis is an advocate to care for first responders and their families who experience catastrophic events.

If you have experienced a disaster, choose to be Disaster Tough by talking to someone about it, don't bottle it up. Processing these events in healthy ways allows us to keep doing our jobs. If you are looking for ways to manage and move on, please contact our show and we will point you in the right direction.
[email protected]

Chief Walt Lewis serves on the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Florida Task Force 4 team and operates as a District Chief for Orlando Fire. Chief Lewis has been able to successfully combine forces with his emergency management counter-parts, looking at the fire perspective and coordinating other stakeholders of the disaster lifecycle.

In this episode we talk about leadership, firefighting and the culture of fire rescue, training, and incident command. As noted in the show, all groups that play a role within the disaster lifecycle should apply these principles of success, which highlights the need for cross-sector training and collaboration.

We want to provide a big thanks to Disaster Medical Solutions for inviting Doberman Emergency Management the the State Urban Search and Rescue skill based training conference. Joe Hernandez, C.E.O, is a great friend of the show and led a flawless conference. It is at this SUSAR conference that we met other powerhouse first responders and instructors , like Chief Lewis. Thanks again for the invite Joe!

In this week's episode, tactical meets strategic. We talk about the use of small drones (sUAS) to support emergency services response operations, and the benefits, as well as after actions, of real-world use cases. We also explore the future of emergency managers, first responders, and humanitarians in this increasingly popular field and what you can do right now to get your own program off the ground. Today's guest, Fritz, developed the first small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) drone program for SWAT, which is now a complex and highly effective drone program. Fritz now leads Skydio's Public Safety Program. Likewise, our host John, created FEMA's first drone disaster response program. Fritz and John highlight what drones can do for you by comparing their experiences in tactical and strategic level operations. While these uses are different, their discussion points to the numerous benefits and hurdles associated with using small drones. Ultimately, drones enhance the capacity of emergency services.

In the world of COVID-19 and beyond, it's time to look at innovative solutions that overcome traditional disaster norms. One of those is a double-hitter by addressing food as emotional care for survivors, as well as, saving small local restaurants during times of crisis.
Small restaurants are particularly vulnerable to disasters. Between supply chain rout interruptions lack of business from the local community, and staffing constraints- restaurants fail too often in disaster. Ironically, by focusing on the business continuity of restaurants, we also help survivors by providing delicious meals, made by culture of local cuisine. We know that great food, packed with nutrients can counteract the impact of emotional trauma of environmental chaos. Thus, if we focus on creating relationships with the local food community to build business continuity and use their resources to support survivors- we now save two groups. A win-win for emergency services.

Learn more about Off The Grid's mission and strategy to save local restaurants and provide emotional care to survivors by visiting www.offthegrid.com

Vaccination sites, supply-chains, and innovation - Joe Dellamura returns to the Disaster Tough Podcast to discuss the complexities, successes, and lessons learned happening in real-time as FEMA seeks to support States in a mass COVID-19 vaccination mission.

Joe is a logistics chief at FEMA Headquarters, previously assigned as White House Liaison during the testing mission. Joe provides strategic level insight into this Pandemic Response.