Disaster Zone

The fire service is having to adapt to the realities of today’s challenges. In this podcast we hear from one of the national leaders in the fire service. To give you the depth and breadth of his experience I’m including much, but not all, of his biography. How do you measure up when it comes to experience and education? In May 2016, Mayor James Kenney appointed Adam Thiel to serve as the 20th Fire Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia. Commissioner Thiel is responsible for leading the Philadelphia Fire Department’s 3,000+ members in every facet of protecting our Nation’s 6th-largest city from fires and emergencies arising from all hazards. Adam also served as Director of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management from 2019-2022. From 2014-2016, he was a Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In that role, Adam helped provide strategic direction, policy advice, management oversight, and operational coordination for eleven agencies with an overall budget of more than $3.1B and 30,000 employees. Deputy Secretary Thiel was directly responsible for the Departments of: Emergency Management, Fire Programs (including the State Fire Marshal's Office), Military Affairs (Virginia Army/Air National Guard), and State Police, along with the state’s Homeland Security and Resilience portfolios. Commissioner Thiel is currently enrolled in the Organizational Dynamics graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania and he has also completed: doctoral coursework in Public Administration and Public Policy at Arizona State University (ABD) and George Mason University, respectively; a MSc. in Cities from the London School of Economics; his M.P.A. degree from George Mason University; a B.S. in Fire Science from the University of Maryland University College; his B.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government; the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security Executive Leaders Program; the Army War College Commandant’s National Security Program; and the Virginia Executive Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University. Merit is a first-of-its-kind, all-hazards, digital credentialing platform that equips emergency responders with innovative tools to securely manage their personnel on-site, no matter the situation. Merit's platform is relied on in mission-critical situations such as the Surfside building collapse and at secure Health and Human Service facilities and is trusted by a growing network of thousands of partners. Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

Disaster debris is a huge challenge for a wide range of disasters. Debris can come in all shapes and sizes to include cars, houses and hazardous materials. They pile up in front of homes and clog waterways following storms and other weather related events. In this podcast the expert guest is Rob Ray, Senior Vice President, for Operations at AshBritt, a national government solutions provider specializing in emergency management and disaster response. Rob has led major US disaster debris operations across the US including, most recently, Corps of Engineer missions for the 2017 CA wildfires; Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Ian; 2022 Kentucky floods. We explore all the different aspects of debris management and how governments and agencies can become better prepared for disasters by having debris contracts in place before a disaster impacts their community. This episode is sponsored by AshBritt, a national rapid-response emergency management and logistics company. Celebrating its 30th year, AshBritt has led response efforts following 60 federally declared disasters across 30 states and has conducted more than 400 missions, successfully serving over 600 clients. AshBritt is the trusted emergency management contractor for cities, counties, states and for federal agencies, including the Department of Defense where AshBritt holds a pre-position debris management contract which covers 25 U.S. states.  Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

Perhaps you have never heard of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and don’t understand what the implications from one being used as a weapon against the United States or other national powers. That is what this podcast does, looking at the full impacts of such a weapon being used in the future. The guest for this podcast is William R. Forstchen who is a New York Times bestselling author and holds a doctoral degree from Purdue University with a specialization in military history and technology. He is a noted expert historian and public speaker and has been interviewed on FOX News, C-SPAN, and Coast to Coast AM on topics ranging from history to technology and cultural issues, to space technology development, to security threats. And, he has a novel One Second After that is a New York Bestseller that addresses via fiction what might happen following the use of an EMP weapon. Correction: Since this podcast went live a listener provided this link: Top Transformer Manufacturers and Suppliers in the USA. In the podcast as it was recorded, it was mentioned that “there are no transformers manufactured here in the United States.” As evidenced by the link above, there are such manufacturers.  The size and capabilities of transformers offered by these USA based manufacturers is unknown.Dynamis, a leading provider of information management software and security solutions, is a sponsor of this podcast.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) is the largest such organization in the world. It is where people join to meet their counterparts, learn from one another, and make a positive impact in advancing the profession of emergency management. In this podcast, Cathy Clark, the President of IAEM shares a great deal of information on how IAEM is organized, who the membership is comprised of and all the different ways that emergency management professionals of all stripes can become members, including those already working in the profession and others aspiring to become emergency managers. Their Home Page is at this link: https://www.iaem.org/ and if you want to go ahead and sign-up to become a member, go to this page: https://www.iaem.org/join/intro For the record, Eric Holdeman is a member. This episode is sponsored by Bent Ear Solutions which offers comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help you solve the most complex issues of your organization. We advise public and private organizations on an all-inclusive approach to disaster preparedness that addresses governance, planning, operational procedures, technology implementation, training, and exercises in order to achieve a successful and sustainable program.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

Election security has been in the news since 2020. How secure are elections in the United States and what specifically makes vote by mail a secure way to cast your ballot? To get answers from one state, in this podcast we hear from Kevin McMahan, Assistant Secretary of State for Washington State. He is charged with the executive oversight of the Washington Secretary of State's Elections and Information Security & Response divisions. He has held this oversight responsibility since July 2022 and assumed a significant role by informing and educating local leaders on the benefits of various network security capabilities. You will find that he is knowledgeable of the topic area and articulate in explaining all the tools used to protect the integrity of the elections system, both from a physical security and from a cybersecurity perspective. Merit is a first-of-its-kind, all-hazards, digital credentialing platform that equips emergency responders with innovative tools to securely manage their personnel on-site, no matter the situation. Merit's platform is relied on in mission-critical situations such as the Surfside building collapse and at secure Health and Human Service facilities and is trusted by a growing network of thousands of partners.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

The COVID 19 Pandemic has disrupted much of our society for the last three years. There was an arc to the pandemic. Moving through different phases, from a period of uncertainty to a period of Knowledge and then finally a period of Recovery—which we are still in the midst of. In this podcast we explore how businesses and governments can work in concert with one another to, from an economic standpoint, individually and collectively become better prepared for a future pandemic, understand the steps needed to better respond and recover when the next pandemic comes our way. The person being interviewed is Betz Mayer, a Program Manager at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) who led the effort to establish a Multi-Sector Guide to Pandemic Economic Resilience There are certainly many aspects of this guide that can help businesses of all types better survive and thrive after any future disaster. Dynamis, a leading provider of information management software and security solutions, is a sponsor of this podcast.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

In this podcast we will be talking about technology in general and more specifically about data, the use of data and how we can mine it and apply it to a variety of purposes, using tools like GIS.  The podcast guest is Jim Featherstone, He is a native of Washington D.C. and a veteran of the United States Navy, Jim began his public service to the City of Los Angeles in 1986 with the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was later appointed Interim Fire Chief (2013-2014). In 2007, Jim was appointed General Manager of the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department, where he led a successful departmental reorganization and restructuring of Los Angeles’ emergency management protocols and processes. From 2008 to 2018, Jim chaired FEMA’s National Advisory Council. Today Jim is a Principal Consultant at Themata Strategic LLC, a crisis management consultant agency. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), a position he assumed in March 2016 after serving the City of Los Angeles for thirty years. At HSAC, Jim worked to strengthen the greater Los Angeles region’s crisis readiness and resilience by convening and connecting the private, public, and civic sectors through collaborative partnerships and strategic alliances, emerging technology, and research.This episode is sponsored by Bent Ear Solutions which offers comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help you solve the most complex issues of your organization. We advise public and private organizations on an all-inclusive approach to disaster preparedness that addresses governance, planning, operational procedures, technology implementation, training, and exercises in order to achieve a successful and sustainable program.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

Doug Stockham co-founded Emergency Assistance Foundation (EAF) – a 501(c)(3) public non-profit – in 2011 to help companies take care of their team members in need. More than a decade later, EAF administers over 350 disaster and hardship relief funds in partnership with well-known sponsoring organizations on a global scale. In the last three years combined, EAF awarded over $205 million in financial assistance to more than 295,000 individuals and families in need around the world.In this podcast we learn how EAF has been agile and adaptable by harnessing technology, developing scalable platforms and procedures, and constantly evaluating and improving processes. Disasters that have been responded to include devastating hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017, the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and today’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine.This episode is sponsored by Bent Ear Solutions which offers comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help you solve the most complex issues of your organization. We advise public and private organizations on an all-inclusive approach to disaster preparedness that addresses governance, planning, operational procedures, technology implementation, training, and exercises in order to achieve a successful and sustainable program. Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

The guest for this podcast is Jim Mullen, a long-time emergency manager who led the Seattle Office of Emergency Management for 12 years before spending eight years as the Washington State Emergency Management Director…and also being selected by his peers to be the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) President, that ended up being a two-year term. In this podcast we discuss a wide range of emergency management topics, from disaster exercises, the need for disaster recovery planning, to where is the best location for the emergency management function in government. Today Jim has a monthly column, Emergency Management, Once Removed  You will notice I didn’t call him an “old goat” but a Greatest OF All Time “GOAT.”  Merit is a first-of-its-kind, all-hazards, digital credentialing platform that equips emergency responders with innovative tools to securely manage their personnel on-site, no matter the situation. Merit's platform is relied on in mission-critical situations such as the Surfside building collapse and at secure Health and Human Service facilities and is trusted by a growing network of thousands of partners.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.

In this podcast we explore the connection between climate and the weather and how we are seeing significant changes in the frequency, level of destruction and duration of a wide variety of natural disasters. The podcast guest, Ted Buehner worked for the National Weather Service (NWS) for 40 years. His last position was as the NWS Seattle Warning Coordination Meteorologist, a key customer liaison position, with its partners and customers, such as emergency managers. He continues to serve others in retirement various local committees such as the Chair of the Washington State Emergency Communications Committee, and the Vice-Chair of the Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference Committee. Dynamis, a leading provider of information management software and security solutions, is a sponsor of this podcast.Eric Holdeman is a professional emergency manager who is passionate about providing information that can help families, businesses & governments become better prepared for disasters of all types. Hear first hand expert insights from Eric on his Podcast, Blog & EricHoldeman.com.