There's an interesting article in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle that restates what experts like my colleague Johnathan Bernstein have been saying for years: social media has almost eliminated the time you have to react to a crisis. In the article, Chronicle writer Carla Marinucci describes how the proliferation of social media sites has created […]
Levee failure California Delta 2004 Photo: California Dept of Water Resources A good friend offered this comment on my recent blog on San Francisco's push to mandate mitigation: NY did not mandate mitigation & Congress just rewarded them with BILLIONS. Not fiscally prudent to mandate/mitigate. His point is well-taken and highlights one of the major […]
Please join me this Wednesday, February 11th at 9:00 AM PST on EM Forum for an interactive discussion on planning assumptions. My topic is, "Are Your Emergency Operations Plans Realistic?" I'll be discussing some of the issues I raised in my recent article Paper Plans and Fantasy Documents and in a recent post in my Managing Crisis […]
Typical San Francisco soft-story building. Photo: Lea Suzuki – The Chronicle One of the problems with retrofitting properties to make them safer is motivating people to actually do the work. Building code changes are generally not retroactive which means that a building owner need not comply with new standards unless remodeling projects are extensive enough […]
Does your organization have a "zero tolerance" policy? Whether it's for drugs or harassment or violence is a bit irrelevant. Organizations create such policies to demonstrate that they take the particular problem seriously and will take whatever measures are necessary to prevent or curtail it. However, there's a problem with zero tolerance policies. Blind enforcement […]
Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images It was interesting to see the emphasis on climate change in President Obama's inaugural address. A few years ago those of us who expressed concern over the predictions were viewed with considerable scepticism. Now we may be seeing the beginning of a national debate that will focus not on the […]
Last Sunday was the one year anniversary of the capsizing of the Costa Concordia off the western coast of Italy. As you may recall, the cruise ship was sailing too close to shore, struck a rock, and rolled on it's side, killing 32 people. The ceremony, a tribute to those who died, was by all […]
Photo: Pamela J Boehland, U.S. Coast Guard / SF A near miss on another oil spill in our beautiful Bay as an empty oil tanker scraped one of the fenders protecting a tower of the Bay Bridge on Monday. Fortunately, the hull was not ruptured and no contamination took place. What was interesting was the […]
The Aurora Theater that was the scene of last year's tragic shootings is scheduled to reopen on January 18th. As part of the reopening ceremonies, Cinemark is hosting a "special evening of remembrance" the night prior and has invited the families of the shooting victims to attend. The reopening is supported by the majority of the […]