The Todd DeVoe Show

Emergency Management is a highly diverse career field with a favorably projected future job growth. There is no clearly defined pathway for becoming an emergency manager and why are people moving to emergency management? Because there are opportunities in public service at all levels of government and a variety of sectors, including education, healthcare, and private business. Today, we explore emergency management as a second career with Jill Caputi and Cassie Nanoff.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Cassie Nanoff - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassondrananoff/

Jill Caputi - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-caputi/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Todd DeVoe shares his perspective on the questions that we all have asked ourselves. The only thing I know is that I know nothing This statement is known as the Socratic Paradox. True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.⁣ So let's dive into the questions and have a great conversation.

The EM Network - https://emnetwork.substack.com/p/socratic-paradox-in-emergency-management?s=w

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

A Mother's Day Message

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world. Our team wants you to know that we appreciate you. So when I was looking for a topic for this week, I felt that it was essential to address how disasters worldwide impact women. 

Asako Okai, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP Crisis Bureau, stated in her piece, "Women are hit hardest in disasters, so why are responses too often gender-blind?" Women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die in a disaster. 

As noted In the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 70 percent of the people that died were women. 

So How Do Disasters Impact Women Differently? 

New projections of global poverty by UN Women, UNDP, and the Pardee Center for International Futures estimate that, globally, 388 million women and girls will be living in extreme poverty in 2022 (compared to 372 million men and boys). But the outlook could be far worse. In a "high-damage" scenario, this number could balloon to 446 million (427 million for men and boys). This is a fundamental factor leading to higher mortality rates when compared to men during a disaster. 

Because women are statistically poorer, they have far limited available financial resources, such as resilient housing. Women typically have limited financial safety nets and often less education to seek employment to rectify their collective situations. These social vulnerabilities explode during and after a disaster, ensuring a cycle of poverty that can become generational.

Why Water Matters? 

In last week's Weekly Round-Up, we shared an article from the Crisis Response Journal on Africa's water security. We chose this piece because of its implications on climate migration. However, in many parts of the world, lack of access to clean water and poverty go hand in hand with women facing hazards. The female populations of developing nations are more likely to be responsible for retrieving water for their family. Water scarcity forces women to walk further from the safety of their homes to collect water, making them increasingly susceptible to sexual assault and rape. In Bangladesh, which is considered the epicenter of climate change, the World Health Organization has estimated that in 8 out of 10 homes, women are exposed to the risk of harassment, sexual assault, and rape when collecting water.   

Women's Health Care and Disasters 

One of the significant issues facing women worldwide is they are susceptible to poor health outcomes, violence, and inequalities in all stages of a disaster. In developing countries, women have less access to education, including basic survival skills such as swim safety. The lack of training reduces their ability to flee in rising floodwaters, for example. In these nations, Women traditionally are homebound, caring for their family members. They do not have access to the early warning systems, reducing their disaster preparedness and response times and increasing their chances of death. That is one of the significant factors explaining why 90 percent of the 140,000 people who died during the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone were female.

At any disaster, women have a statistically higher instance of forced marriage. They are exposed to sexual violence and can be required to engage in transactional sex for financial coping strategies. For example, after the 2004 tsunami in India, nine out of ten women affected by the disaster had experienced sexual violence within two years of the incident. 

The impacts of disasters on women are not only in developing nations. After the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, New Zealand saw a 40% rise in intimate partner violence in rural areas. 

The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 proved that the issues facing women have not changed significantly. Although they're no longer blamed for disasters, they're not included in the relief process. 

During a fact-finding trip to areas affected by the 2011 tsunami, Akiko Domoto, an environmentalist, feminist, and former governor of Tokyo's neighboring Chiba Prefectures, found those "in charge of a shelter in Minamisoma would not let the evacuees put up dividers. This meant there was no place for women to change, for infants to nurse, or for the elderly to change their diapers." In addition to a lack of privacy in shelters, there was also a lack of essential women's goods and an expectation that women would help with reconstruction by spending their days in the shelters cooking.

Women-Owned Business and Disasters In the U.S. 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study showed that businesses run by women had been impacted more by disasters. They are more likely to close, experience decreased revenue, and lose customers. NIST surveyed 1,300 businesses. The study showed that women-owned businesses had fewer employees and reported less disaster preparedness than other businesses.  And women-owned businesses are considered less essential to the community's overall economy. This is because most women-owned businesses are in the service industry. 

Ariela Zycherman (who conducted the study) stated that "research like this demonstrates the ways preexisting social inequities threaten resilience. This information is essential for supporting just climate futures across communities."

Critical information might also lie in how businesses think of disaster resilience, what resources they are aware of and how they use them.

Moving toward an Antifragile Community 

As we assess risk to the communities we serve, we must consider the part inequality plays in disaster recovery. A strong community includes personal empowerment of underserved populations, including women-owned businesses.  

In our communities, we need to support small businesses in general. However, we need to provide tools and training to help historically underrepresented group-operated (HUGO) businesses thrive before and after a disaster.  

References: 

https://www.undp.org/blog/women-are-hit-hardest-disasters-so-why-are-responses-too-often-gender-blind

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212096320300279

https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/japans-sexism-in-natural-disasters

https://www.thejournal.ie/women-and-children-more-at-risk-at-times-of-disaster-1124615-Oct2013/

https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/4/e004377.abstract

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/02/businesses-run-minorities-women-and-vets-disproportionately-affected

Podcasts 

The Todd De Voe Show 

Planning Practitioner Program

EMI is announcing a new program, the Planning Practitioner Program. The Planning Practitioner Program (PPP) is a series of two (2) resident courses in Emmitsburg, MD, and an online Capstone. The PPP will have two (2) cohorts in FY23, beginning October 17th and January 9th. you can Apply at training.fema.gov

Todd DeVoe

Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/

Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

James Greenshields

Twitter handle https://twitter.com/FEMA_EMI

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgreenshields/

Website https://training.fema.gov/netc_online_admissions/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fema/?hl=en

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/FEMA

prepare. respond. recover 

Looking to Private Forecasters to Save Lives

According to NOAA, severe weather issues (such as more frequent and intense heat waves and hurricanes dumping more than the usual rainfall) are an increasing liability to the economy, with 10 weather and climate disasters costing more than $1 billion each so far this year! In addition, western wildfires have also cost more than $40 billion during the past two years alone. Today, prepare.respond.recover. speaks with StormGeo’s TropicWatch Manager Chris Hebert to discuss how the rising costs of changing weather trends, advances in data-gathering and processing, and access to low Earth orbit (remove comma) have allowed StormGeo to lead the way in keeping critical businesses informed on storms heading their way.

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo please visit us on the web -

https://www.ndemevent.com

Business Continuity Today

Do You Have A Wildfire Plan

The Southwest has moved from fire season to a 365-day threat of wildland fires. Why do you need a plan? Roughly 60,000 wildfires burn 8 million acres in the U.S. each year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Wildland fires are more destructive and deadly than ever. Although we see fires in the west the most, every state has a wildland fire threat. Is your organization ready?

Web:

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Youtube: https://bit.ly/3mePJyG

What To Read

IAEM and NYU Team up to Assess DAFN Planning Nationally

By Anne-Marie McLaughlin

Researchers from NYU’s School of Global Public Health and members of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Accessibility and Whole Community Inclusion Caucus have teamed up to find out.  

Initially, the project started out small with a request from Anne-Marie McLaughlin, the Caucus Chair for an NYU intern to help out with a survey. It was a simple idea: the Caucus will ask Emergency Managers, disabilities advocates, and people with disabilities the same set of questions to see if there are gaps nationally—with the understanding that some people may fall into all three categories. The basic idea was to identify both best practices and areas where more resources are needed.

Important Skills for Entry Level Emergency Managers

Part 1: Tips for New and Aspiring Emergency Managers

By Tobias Watson

This is the first of three (3) articles aimed at helping aspiring and new emergency managers as they begin or seek to begin their employment in the field. My hope is to pass on lessons from myself and other professionals to create better emergency managers and assist them in the challenges or lessons we have experienced…

Baker’s Dozen 

When Your Life Depends on It

By Marc Baker

We are adding a bonus book to this month’s reading, “When Your Life Depends on It” by Brad Borkan & David Hirzel. This is an excellent complement to the Servant Leader’s Manifesto. After reading the book, join the conversation with Brad Borkan on May 26th on Bullhorn.fm.

The Crisis Response Journal 

Accounting for probabilities in conflict

May 2022: In his latest blog, Phil Trendall says that we must stop hiding behind calculations of likelihood when it comes to emergency planning and that the UK needs to think about what civil protection looks like in the context of a war that could escalate. 

Fresh perspectives on social responsibilities

The Institute of Risk Management (IRM) and the Environmental & Social Governance (ESG) Group is hosting an online event on May 26, 2022, featuring CRJ’s Emily Hough as one of the panelists in a Q&A session. This is the IRM’s third event organized by the newly formed ESG Group, entitled ESG Perspectives on Social Responsibilities. Following on from the success of the first two events, it brings together an expert panel to provide perspectives for the benefit of those committed to: “The governance of purpose-driven organisations with the intention of fulfilling their social responsibilities in an ethical and sustainable manner.”  

Supporters

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https://titanhst.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

EMI is announcing a new program, the Planning Practitioner Program. The Planning Practitioner Program (PPP) is a series of two (2) resident courses in Emmitsburg, MD, and an online Capstone. The PPP will have two (2) cohorts in FY23, beginning October 17th and January 9th. you can Apply at training.fema.gov

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

James Greenshields
Twitter handle https://twitter.com/FEMA_EMI
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgreenshields/
Website https://training.fema.gov/netc_online_admissions/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fema/?hl=en
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/FEMA

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

What is The Intersection of Emergency Management and Climate Adaptation?

As Earth (Day) Week comes to a close, I am left with the question, how do we see the intersection of emergency management and climate adaptation?  Holly ManieOskoii’s piece Climate Resilience Can Elevate The Emergency Management Field explores the idea that the knowledge of basic climate science is a critical area of study for emergency management. I have to agree with that assessment as well.  

Photo by Louis Maniquet on Unsplash

One of the areas that I studied in graduate school was land use and the environment. The link between land use, climate, and disasters are complex.  A great example of land use and the impacts on disaster response is Houston and Hurricane Harvey. 

When Harvey stalled over Houston, the rain caused extreme flooding. Fifteen Counties in the region reported over 25” of rainfall (the depth of an average toddler pool). The flooding was characterized by extreme precipitation events, low topographic relief, and clay-dominated soils. It is naturally flood-prone. However, Houston is also one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. This rapid growth has contributed to increased runoff volumes and rates in areas where climate changes have also been shown to be contributing to extreme precipitation. 

Why Should Emergency Managers Care? 

That is always the question, what is the threat matrix for the climate-caused emergencies. In the SouthWest United States, we are experiencing a year-round fire season.  Fulled by dry winds and ample fule. With increasing global surface temperatures, the possibility of more droughts and increased intensity of storms will likely occur. As more water vapor is evaporated into the atmosphere, more powerful storms develop. More heat in the atmosphere and warmer ocean surface temperatures can increase wind speeds in tropical storms. 

I hope you all had a great Earth Day (Week), and please join us on May 19th, 2022 | at 11 AM PT for a great discussion on climate-induced relocation and why emergency management needs to be involved. 

Podcasts

The Todd De Voe Show

Leaning Forward Human-Centered Crisis Management

Alicia Johnson's approach to getting your organization ready for a crisis is different from others; she takes a human approach to planning. Using a human-centered design to support those decisions may prove beneficial as you decide how your company will respond to an emergency. Leaders must consider how a crisis can affect their employees, their employee's families, and the community.

So how can a leader hope to strike a balance between saving their business and mitigating a crisis? A human-centered design approach to that question is a positive place to begin.

Alicia Johnson

Twitter handle https://twitter.com/UrbanAreaAlicia

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciadjohnson/

Website https://twolynchpinroad.com/prepare respond recover

Business Continuity Today

Building High-Quality Teams and Culture

A NASCAR PIT CREW COMES TO MIND when I think of a high-performing team. Each team member has a critical role to play, and they are specialized, hyper-focuses, and ready to achieve outstanding results under pressure. How can you achieve the outcomes your team can give you? Quality performance management empowers collaborative workspaces and develops result-orientated teams.LinksWeb: https://titanhst.com/LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3KgRvv6Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titanhst/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TitanHSTFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TitanHST/Youtube: https://bit.ly/3mePJyG

prepare respond recover

The Cooling Solutions Challenge DHS's Fight Against Climate Change

Join Prepare. Respond. Recover. as we explore the Department of Homeland Security’s prize competitions on strengthening the nation’s resilience to climate change. The “Cooling Solutions Challenge” is part of DHS’s effort to implement a proactive approach to climate change resilience. DHS is looking for novel ways to protect those at risk of heat-related illness or death, including first responders, households, or group quarters without access to conventional cooling systems or are experiencing sustained power outages, plus displaced or homeless populations. Relative to current cooling solutions, these new designs will be more eco-friendly and energy-efficient while being cost-effective, scalable, durable, and allowing for alternate power sources.

If you would like to learn more about the Natural Disaster & Emergency Management (NDEM) Expo, please visit us on the web - https://www.ndemevent.com

What to Read

Climate Resilience Can Elevate The Emergency Management Field

By Holly ManieOskoii

Across the country, communities are creating plans, positions, and funding to address climate adaptation and resilience. FEMA’s strategic plan leads the emergency management field towards “Goal 2: Lead the whole community in climate resilience.” 

This is a pivotal time for emergency management and adjacent fields to actively participate in climate resilience conversations and action. Active engagement in local climate resilience shifts away from the “response” only perception of emergency management. Contribution and participation in climate change action is the chance to further define the field and advocate for an understanding of the true scope and depth of emergency management and adjacent fields.

Historically, the controversy over whether climate change is man-made has distracted efforts in planning for its effects. Historically, climate adaptation has existed in the outer spheres of emergency management. Many of us have been hearing about climate change for years and have developed a desensitized apathy. The topic can be bleak or daunting; it’s easier to postpone action and attention. 

BUT…

The Baker’s Dozen Book Review

One Second After

By Marc C. Baker 

Wow! What a scary realistic possibility and perspective on the nation's readiness for an Electrical Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack. I certainly hope that society will not devolve so rapidly, but it might not be that far off given our current social climate. What would you do without power or electronic devices for a year? How many local emergency plans account for this kind of attack? Are we prepared for it? How do we prepare for an event of this nature? What do we do when we pick up the phone and can not get anyone on the other end?

This book takes place in Black Mountain, North Carolina (which I plan to visit soon) and is centered on an EMP attack on the U.S., which disables the electrical grid across the nation. The cascading effects collapse the national infrastructure plummeting America back not the dark ages. Although this story is fictional and possibly slightly exaggerated, I agree that this cautionary tale should be seriously considered. With all that is happening in Ukraine and the posturing involved with the U.S. support and Russia's vow of consequences if the U.S. crosses “the line” and the fact that they (and other nuclear adversaries) possess the nuclear capability for such an attack, I would say now is a pretty good time to start having this discussion at the local level. As we saw in the book, it was an EMP attack on the nation, but the action taken at the local level determined the outcome for communities, and it all started with leadership.

The Crisis Response Journal 

A boost for farmers to safeguard EU food security

Growth in the EU’s agricultural sector has come at the expense of environmental health, with soil degradation costing nearly €100 billion due to lost productivity, which threatens future crop supply. Additionally, agriculture represents ten percent of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and is critical for a net-zero future.

The report, Transforming Food Systems with Farmers: A Pathway for the EU, was launched as part of the ongoing efforts of the EU Carbon+ Farming Coalition, making recommendations on how to work with farmers to strengthen the EU’s food systems. Written in collaboration with Deloitte and NTT Data, it is based on insights from farmers from seven countries that make up a majority of the farmer based in the EU. The farmer survey was designed and implemented by the EU Coalition to shed light on the main barriers to scaling climate-smart agricultural solutions, including challenging farm economics, lack of awareness, uneven technology adoption among farmers of different generations and farm sizes, as well as fragmentation of policies at the national level.

Africa’s water security

Except for Egypt, all country scores are below 70 out of 100. Only 13 countries reached a modest level of water security in recent years, and over a third are deemed to have levels of water security below the threshold of 45.  

Together, the 19 countries below the threshold are home to half a billion people.

Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius, and Tunisia are Africa’s top five most water-secure countries in Africa, yet with only modest absolute levels of water, security achieved. 

Somalia, Chad, and Niger appear to be the least water-secure countries on the continent. 

The report finds that there has been little progress in the national water security of most African states over the past three to five years. The number of countries that made some progress (29) is close to the number of those that made none.

Supporters

https://www.disastertech.com/

https://www.ndemevent.com/en-us/show-info.html

https://titanhst.com/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Alicia Johnson's approach to getting your organization ready for a crisis is different from others; she takes a human approach to planning. As you come to decide how your company will respond to an emergency, using a human-centered design to support those decisions may prove beneficial. Leaders must consider how a crisis can affect their employees, their employee's families, and the community.

So how can a leader hope to strike a balance between saving their business and mitigating a crisis? A human-centered design approach to that question is a positive place to begin.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Alicia Johnson
Twitter handle https://twitter.com/UrbanAreaAlicia
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciadjohnson/
Website https://twolynchpinroad.com/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

The concept of partnering with institutions of higher education to assist with this educational and training challenge was developed in 1994 by Kay Goss with the launch of the FEMA Higher Education Project.

Since 1994, the Higher Education Program, with the mission to engage emergency management academia, and practitioners, has helped foster growth in the academic community, including college and university-based programs in emergency management, homeland security, and related fields.

Together, they have fostered a culture of continuous learning and innovation through education and research to meet the nation's challenges.

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Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Kay Goss
Web-https://www.unlv.edu/people/kay-goss
LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/in/kay-collett-goss-cem-2351535/
Twitter-https://twitter.com/KAYCGOSS

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

We are coming up on the 159th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. The lessons that were learned in early July of 1863 are still pertinent today. The battle that was not supposed to happen, occurred in the heat and humidity of the small farming community in Pennsylvania. The decisions that were made, and not made on the fields, in the woods, and crossroads of Gettysburg changed the direction of the US Civil War and the history of the Union. Join Dr. Kelly Garrett (Retired US Army Colonel) as we discuss leadership lessons from Gettysburg.

Baker's Dozen book of the month: “Think Again”

As the world changes, we too must change with it. In this month’s book “Think Again” by Adam Grant, we explore the notion of rethinking what we know not only in a particular instance but as a continuous practice in everyday life. Everyone should strive to break the rigidity of our minds seeking mental agility, to remain relevant and become better practitioners, leaders, and humans.

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe

Hummingly is the creation of Elizabeth McNaughton and Jolie Wills, a duo who have worked in disasters around the world for more than two decades. The realization that helping one person, one community, one disaster at a time was no longer enough, lit the spark that became Hummingly. Elizabeth and Jolie set about creating easy-to-use products that people, communities, and workplaces the world over could access to do well in tough times.

These proven products are based on Elizabeth and Jolie’s knowledge gained in real disaster and crisis situations. They have gathered wisdom from over 100 crisis leaders, feedback from thousands of disaster survivors, scientific insights from their background in cognitive psychology, and a shared passion to prepare the world to do disruption, stress, and uncertainty well.

Use code 'EMcommunity' for 20% off the Cards for Calamity and the Doing Well deck at www.hummingly.co

Todd DeVoe
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/ToddTDeVoe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtdevoe/
Substack: https://emnetwork.substack.com/
Website: https://toddtdevoe.com/

Guest Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hummingly.co/
Website: https://www.hummingly.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jolie-wills-91423695/
Blog: https://medium.com/hummingly
Video: https://vimeo.com/user110765676

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emnetwork.substack.com/subscribe