Trust in Emergency Management & Hurricane Preparedness

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What we have all seen in the southeastern USA over the past week has been heart wrenching, whether here in Canada where I could do little more that financially support the NGO conducting operations, to the individuals charging into the chaos to provide relief and rescue those in peril. Evidence is clear that humans do not panic, they rally to the cause, step up to the occasion and do not turn to crime. Acts of violence and theft dramatically fall in disaster zones, though any instance of opportunistic theft is labelled as looting and broadcast across all channels as a representative behaviour of the local population. Abhorrent.

Misinformation is the intentional spreading of information one believes to be true but is in fact false, while disinformation is the international spreading of information the individual knows to be false, but does so anyway. Disasters include a breakdown of communication, where normal and stable networks are disrupted, sources of facts are interrupted and a void of available information seeds conspiracy theory. Dependable sources of accurate information are difficult to find and follow, this is a significant problem we are watching in the aftermath of hurricane Helene.
Institutional trust in the government has been on a steady decline, amplified in the pandemic and has shown little indication that statistical trends are returning to a growing public confidence in the government. FEMA is a federal government entity and therefore is subject to a mandate from the Stafford Act as well as other regulatory and policy frameworks. I have written extensively about the importance of building trust with the served population in times of peace and calm, building relationships with the affected population in advance of any disaster, so that when the event occurs, FEMA is seen as a trusted and valued addition to the response.
If EM is trying to establish themselves as a trusted source after the crisis begins, little success is likely. That requires dedicated pre-event population engagement over time, with all sectors of society acting together. We call it the community response council, the gathering for all parties in the area to discuss how they expect a response operation to be conducted, to establish priorities and to discuss who can do what for whom. Cooperation, coordination - not command and control. The secret sauce is just that, create the council in your area, be the champion and bring together all sectors of society. Leverage what has happened in Helene as an example of why a successful response operation requires a whole of community effort. When the trust is established it won't matter what mis and disinformation is present, residents will turn to their trusted sources for guidance. That is how you win, not by authority or title, but through engagement across society.

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