People, Mission, Message: Priorities for Emergency Management

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Ted Halpin
February 24, 2025

Strategic leadership from elected and senior officials in disasters can be distilled down to three priorities: People, Mission, Message. These three words form the basic elements of all the mission areas of emergency management. They serve as the “North Star” for “Blue Sky” planning, training and exercises, as well as the backbone of the high-level guidance from elected and senior officials during disasters. Keeping these concepts in mind and incorporating these three priorities into planning, exercises, response and recovery, will enable you to achieve your overall mission: to keep people safe.

This article will describe the characteristics of PMM and how they are inexorably linked. Success in emergency management leadership depends on embracing these priorities and understanding how they are connected.

People

Everyone agrees that, in emergency management, people come first. But what does this mean? How do we make that happen? Asking ten emergency managers would likely elicit ten different answers on how they ensure “People” come before anything else. “People” in its simplest terms, describes what has to happen to save and sustain lives during emergency management activities. To elevate “People” to its hierarchical place one must ensure that our most at risk populations are cared for. Lifesaving and life-sustaining services must be delivered to these people regardless of their physical and mental challenges, socioeconomic status, location, mobility, technological limitations to send and receive messaging, language spoken, existing infrastructure, the status of the support services they already rely on and whether they have pets.

Mission

Mission is often spoken of in a military context. However, “People” rely on government, social services, health/mental health care, utilities and private entities in order to thrive and survive. The term “Mission” needs to be viewed from the citizen’s perspective. The government services of law enforcement, fire and EMS are what communities need to keep them safe. They are often thought of first. However, as we have seen in numerous disasters, even emergency services have their limitations (2022 Buffalo, NY blizzard, 2023 Maui wildfire, 2024 Hurricanes). The interruption of other services areas can also be damaging, albeit not as rapidly harmful. These include the utilities of electricity, water, sewer, natural gas/propane, cellular/ landline and the internet. As populations have become more dependent on these services, their failure drastically raises the possibility of harm. Extreme weather and cyberattacks can seriously interrupt and disable many utility services. Examples include the 2022 Buffalo, NY blizzard in which 48 people perished, the 1995 heat wave in Chicago in which 700 people died, and the 2023 Aliquippa, Pennsylvania water authority cyberattack. Cyberattacks have and will likely continue to cripple critical infrastructure- negatively affecting Missions and the ability to deliver and receive Messaging. Health care and mental health care can easily be viewed as critical missions. Disasters exacerbate existing health and mental health difficulties. Health facilities being damaged, health providers unable even to get to work, transportation difficulties and the lack of pharmacy support all cause fragile individuals to decompensate. The interruption of services also is increasingly more problematic as these services become intrinsically linked to technology. The failure of the internet, for example, would have cascading negative effects on virtually all the services within the Mission area. Public safety communications, government operations, health care, mental health care, utilities and even government’s ability to communicate would be seriously impaired.

Message

It is through messaging that government officials shape favorable outcomes for people and communities. Disaster messaging consists of four key elements. First, the messaging must be solid before, during and after a disaster.  Solid messaging during “blue sky” includes emergency preparedness for individuals, families, organizations and businesses. When these entities are better prepared, emergency management can focus on the most vulnerable of populations, the ones who are the most dramatically affected. This emergency preparedness must take into consideration all the diversity in communities and the stark fact that many people do not have the resources to adequately prepare, mitigate, respond and recover.

The second key element is that during a disaster, the messaging must continue to get through, regardless of the sender or receiver’s technology dependency. Emergency management must understand the limitations of their messaging under less-than-ideal conditions. When cellular and internet services fail, AM and HAM radio systems must be available and promoted. Additionally, EOCs, 911 centers and hospitals should retain/maintain/reinstall their plain old telephone service (POTS) copper lines. This is to enable communications when the internet fails.

Third, and often overlooked, elected and senior leaders must be able to view the disaster from the receiver’s perspective. Is it a coordinated message that ties into previous messages and corrects misinformation previously provided? Does it describe what has happened, what is happening and what you want people to do? Are the agencies involved in the disaster all speaking with “one voice” and collaborating on their messaging? Are the messages reviewed by the right people before release? Is there a mechanism in place to determine if the messages are even being received? How are emergency managers verifying that the messages are being received? Many messages across the mission areas can be pre-scripted and edited quickly as needed.

Lastly, the messaging services must be able to expand rapidly when required. Leaders and emergency management staff must be able to adapt to be able to push and pull information across multiple social media and media outlets. Many governments rely on multiple departments to assist in this situation. This expansion of capability must be planned for, trained to and exercised.

This PMM matrix of People/ Mission/Message are the priorities, a three-legged stool, on which emergency management succeeds or fails the public. By applying these priorities holistically, leaders become more effective in serving the public, protecting critical infrastructure and providing the strategic communications necessary to support both.

---

Author: Ted Halpin has worked 46 years working toward one mission: keeping people safe. This service has been in local, state, DoD, and international emergency management and emergency services. Work has been on four Continents around the world.  He can be reached at [email protected].

(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading...