One of the searches that has most often brought people to my blog over the last couple of years has been POETE. In case you forgot, POETE stands for Planning, Organizing, Equipping, Training, and Exercising. If you conduct an internet search for POETE, there are very few relevant results. Along with a few of my … Continue reading In a POETE State of Mind
POETE stands for Planning, Organizing, Equipping, Training, and Exercising. These are the five elements that each jurisdiction should be examining their own capabilities by. By examining their capabilities through each of these elements, a jurisdiction can better define their strengths and areas for improvement. The POETE analysis, often completed as part of a THIRA (Threat … Continue reading The POETE Analysis – Emergency Planning and Beyond
Return on investment (ROI) is generally defined as a measurement of performance to evaluate the value of investments of time, money, and effort. Many aspects of preparedness in emergency management offer challenges when trying to gauge return on investment. Sure, it’s easy to identify that m number of classes were conducted and n number of … Continue reading Measuring Return on Investment Through Key Performance Indicators
A conversation I find myself having fairly often is about people not using plans. It’s amazing that we invest so much time, money, and effort into building plans to never see them used, even if the opportunity presents itself. Why is this? I see four primary reasons: 1. People don’t know the plans exist. There … Continue reading A Few Thoughts on Emergency Planning
Earlier today FEMA dropped the latest version of the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) doctrine. Doing a quick comparison between this new version and the previous (2013) version, I’ve identified the following significant changes: They replaced the ‘Elected and Appointed Officials’ mentions within the document with ‘Senior Leaders’. This makes sense, since often … Continue reading NEW: 2020 HSEEP Revision
A few days ago, Homeland Security Today posted an article titled FEMA Creates Pilot Program for Long-term Emergency Management. It seemed intriguing, so I took a look. The article is pretty much verbatim (no fault of HS Today) from the press release posted by FEMA of the same title (linked to in the article). Needless … Continue reading A FEMA Pilot Program? Maybe?
The 2018 National Preparedness Report was released last week. For the past few years, I’ve provided my own critical review of these annual reports (see 2017’s report here). For those not familiar with the National Preparedness Report (NPR), it is mandated by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA). The information is compiled by FEMA … Continue reading Reviewing The 2018 National Preparedness Report
Planning efforts and documents are incredibly central to everything we do in preparedness. When we look at the spectrum preparedness elements of Planning, Organizing, Equipping, Training, and Exercises (POETE), ‘planning’ being first should be a reminder that everything goes back to planning. Our organizations, equipment, training, and exercises should all reflect back on plans. These … Continue reading Expanding Hazard Mitigation Plans to Truly Address All Hazards
In late May, FEMA/DHS released an updated version of Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 201. For those not familiar, CPG 201 is designed to guide communities and organizations through the process of the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA). This is the third edition of a document that was originally released in April 2012. … Continue reading An Updated Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 201 (THIRA/SPR)
Harris County, Texas has recently released their After Action Report (AAR) for Hurricane Harvey that devastated the area last year. I applaud any AAR released, especially one for an incident of this magnitude. It requires opening your doors to the world, showing some incredible transparency, and a willingness to discuss your mistakes. Not only can … Continue reading Hurricane Harvey AAR – Lessons for Us All
The Contrarian Emergency Manager 