Moderator: Matt Holloman, Desoto County, Public Information Officer
Mel Klein, FPL, Area Manager & Former Communications Services Manager
Cindy Rodriguez, Polk County Board of County Commissioners, Communications Director
Michael Walley, SRQ International Airport, Director of Development and Community Relations
Matt: What is your crisis communications plan?
Mel: We never know in any given situation whether or not the lights are out in just a small area or if it is a much bigger system-wide problem.
You need people who understand what their role is. We have people who understand how to respond to a crisis as a full time job. It is important to have a full time plan that is understood and enabled from all levels within the organization. It is a full time commitment to planning.
Communications can mean a couple of things during a crisis.
Can I communicate from point a to point b or are the roads open for through traffic? You must have the organization in place so everyone knows their role and what to do. It’s about people, planning and practice.
Cynthia: It's critically important to have a crisis communications plan whether you have it as a component of your regular plan or as a separate unit. Most organizations do not have one.
Mentioned in our reg. communications plan, but it’s mostly housed in our emergency management plan.
Usually responding to natural rather than man-made disaster.
The I-4 crash was really the result of natural phenomena – dense fog that completely blocked visibility, but it was not a natural disaster.
If you don’t have one, you definitely should develop one.
Michael: We are required by FAA to have a plan. We also implement a yearly exercise with all necessary people. We cannot predict what may happen so much of what we do in terms of planning is to go through a variety of scenarios. In fact, we recently simulated airplane crash at night which was a great exercise for and produced a lot of lessons learned.
We also plan for how will respond to various and diverse audiences agencies such as tenants, press, clients, the emergency team from D.C. and others. In terms of pure press, we work out operations center and distribute news releases with status reports on a regular basis.
In our case, we remain open 24-7 regardless of a crisis which presents another factor that we must calculate in our crisis planning.
Matt: How do keep your crisis communication plan flexible but stay regulated to plan?
Cynthia:I feel your pain, Polk County got hit by all three hurricanes – we’re as large as Delaware or Rhode Island.
#1: I live by the mantra: REMAIN FLEXIBLE, keep saying to myself: remain flexible, so shock will be minimized when the unexpected inevitably happens. You can cover the majority of what might happen, and the KEY IS Great internal communications with your team, so you are able to work together, to rely on your gut and do what’s right, particularly when it comes to safety. The focus has to be SAFETY FIRST, so PR is easier on the backside. IF you go in with a rigid attitude, you’re destined to fail.
I spent 20 years with Delta, including a crash in Dallas that killed a lot of people, which is different than hurricanes and different from a 70-car pileup on I-4, where you can’t see past your waist to see your feet. There’s no way to prepare for that. You have to stay flexible and have good ties with your leaders, so you can stay flexible and shift together when things shift.
Mel: You have to have a plan, but it is only a framework to begin. You must constantly ask the question, what if? Command and control structures are important, but what if the person in command is not there. What if the procedures that are in place are made irrelevant by events? It is important to have someone from outside the organization come in and take a look at the plan. You must constantly ask questions to cover unforeseen circumstances.
Michael: I agree with my colleagues, they have hit the nail on the head.
I would also like to add that emphasis for you to know your role in the plan.
In the simulated response I spoke about earlier, we purposely did it at night because it is different than the day. At night it was "organized chaos," but it allowed us to learn and be better prepared in the event of a true crisis. Keep everything safe. Worst case scenario is when you are responding to a crisis and someone gets hurt.
Think carefully about what you say to the press during the crisis. Key is communication in all aspects. Make sure everyone is there for press conferences including media advisories, press releases and give them enough room for flexibility.
Matt: How do you prioritize target audience communications during a crisis?
Michael: I was working for an airport in Canada during the 9/11 incident. We had 400 aircrafts who could not land and the airport managers was not in that day. We told the tower to a clear construction space and 3000 distressed passengers flooded the airport.
In the next 12 hours the US government provided updates every 15 minutes and we had to communicate the information to the passengers even when the message was constantly changing and media. The passengers did not know where they were or did not have a place to stay.
Next morning everyone gathered at the ice rink at 10 o’clock for briefing including the press. I learned then that he who speaks first loses. Every distressed passenger wanted answers from me and I didn’t have all of them. My only advice is to expect Murphy's Law. Be ready to handle any question in concise manner and in a manner as not to hurt you later.
Cynthia: When you have a major disaster, everyone becomes your audience. People are going to be listening all over the country / world, not just your own backyard. Your key stakeholders are employees. If you haven’t given information to employees to share with their loved ones in the community than you need to do so. They need to feel empowered and need to know in advance How do I call in; How do I know where to report?
It is not just customers; remember your vendors and suppliers...all the people who do business with you every day. Rely on media to get message out to masses but more targeted information to key audiences.
After a major crisis, I once had elected officials from all over the state wanting to hold press conference in the area. I spent a lot of time w/tours, press conferences for elected officials.
….even a good list of targeted audiences, it’s going to change
Mel: Start from the inside (employees, vendors and all stakeholders). Make sure you prioritize your internal groups first.
Matt: Have you found use for new media in crisis communication plans?
Mel: We all try to use so called new media but I'm going to diverge. We get so caught up in new media and what would you do if you didn't have it?
Cynthia: You go low-tech; in a natural disaster it may not work especially in a power loss. Power is "king." It is Queen, Prince and Princess. In the case of the highway disaster, I am aware of it and I want to be the first to say it and I want it to be true. Someone may monitor it and be able to address it with media on scene. The best way to do this is with your key messages. Don't ignore it. Address it head on. Credibility is all we have in this business.
Mel: I think it is more important to understand how to use old media first. If you do not have electricity, you better know how to use old methods. Understand how to communicate via channels that existed before the Internet, because you may just have to get on a horse and travel the old road to get the message across.
Matt: What is one piece of take away for participants today?
Cynthia: Get started on your communications plan today if you don't have one already.
Tell the truth and don't overreach into someone else’s territory.
Michael: I agree. Manage and use the press correctly. Use them as a tool because in reality, they are trying to do a job. If you can't give it to them, help them find the answer. It is an extremely valuable tool.
Mel: Start working on your crisis plan today if you do not have one. If you do, go back and review it, ask as many what if questions as possible and continuously review and refine the plan.
Matt: How to handle donations and volunteers during a crisis?
Mel: Cindy had a crisis volunteer center set up where they could coordinate all individual volunteers and organizational efforts. The center is set up to enable those in the community who want to help, to do so.
Both institutionally and individually, crisis brings people together. It leaves the community with a better sense of itself. Every county in the state now has an Emergency Operations Center with trained resources to operate during a crisis. What they are looking for is understanding and cooperation with the citizenry. When they tell you to evacuate, evacuate. When they say to stock up on water, stock up on water.
Audience members asked specific questions for targeted panelist as follows:
Q. FEMA announced that it downgraded ice from a necessity to a luxury. What do you think of the policy?
Cynthia:I don’t think I’d tell the public “No ice.” If FEMA feels it’s not a necessity, I would find someone to donate it. I saw babies and older folks in mobile homes with no way to deal with heat, in danger of heat stroke – which becomes a community health issue. I would find local resources to supply it.
Have any of you found 400,000 lbs. of ice available right now?
Even when FEMA supplies ice, you may not be top of the list, so we’ve partnered with all retail outlets in Polk County about having ice on hand and generation capacity to keep it. We also have encouraged them to open stores as soon as possible after the storm, to make it available and accessible to those who can pay. I feel sure they would also donate some to people who can’t afford it.
Michael, what did you learn and didn't expect and how was process communicated to other agencies who did not participate?
Best lesson I learned was that we need directions. The firefighters got lost. Our primary purpose was to get agencies (i.e. Firefighters, police, EMS and Red Cross) familiar with the airport grounds at night. At night there are lots of colored lights that can be distracting.
We notified agencies up to 4 months in advance of the simulated exercise. We were most surprised by the amount of equipment and vehicles who showed up.
Cynthia, did you have any role in how the blood donated by the Suncoast Communities Bloodbank was used or how things happened on-site in the I-4 pile-up crisis?
No. It’s important to know your role, and that wasn’t my role. It was determined by others in my agency. I didn’t have any initial questions about blood supply on scene. We staged media away from site for safety, and then later moved them closer to the incident. We were still trying to figure out how many injured, how many dead, when could we transport safely.
During hurricane seasons we (Coldwell Banker) set up a supply distribution center in Punta Gorda. I found it difficult to find someone in the county to give a PSA to. How do you coordinate efforts to communicate to public where services and assistance is?
We have specific area called “Volunteer Reception Center,” particularly for individuals, and the communications folks try to stay in close contact with the center, so we know what we need to do to support their efforts and we can communicate unmet needs and to give credit to outside organizations that come to help.
We had a program after the storms called Hurricane Heroes, inviting helpers to come back and visit when Polk County wasn’t at its worst, including coupons and incentives to come back and visit.
We had a planned mechanism for taking care of it, but I had become communications director 4 weeks before Charlie hit. (I wasn’t baptized by fire, but by a lot of rain.)
You have to deal with a crisis effectively, but if you do so, it solidifies your role and in my case it established my reputation. It helped our organization to come together and work together and to work better with other organizations and agencies.
Matt Gentile, Susan Hicks, Lynn Hobeck Bates
CWCFPRA Blog Team
