In recent weeks, Southern California has suffered from a series of devastating fires. The dry, windy climate is contributing to the spread of wildfires throughout the area. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of California is still in a drought or is too dry. This further contributes to So-Cal being so at risk right now for fires.
With any natural disaster, the correct information must be disseminated properly. In these situations, communication becomes a matter of life and death. If the wrong information is given from one party to another, or even if the correct information is given un-clearly, it can make things much much worse very quickly.
Many people mistakenly believe that public relations only relates to celebrities or politicians. In reality, PR plays a role in virtually every sector and industry. The focus on my blog is more of the entertainment side of PR. So it is fascinating for me to examine PR in emergencies.
Throughout high school, I was a volunteer member of my county’s local search and rescue team. This was my first exposure to communication in emergencies. I frequently took the comms. role on searches, meaning I was tasked with managing the radio our team had. Consequently, it was up to me share information between our team and headquarters. At the time, I did not think of this role as having anything to do with public relations. I did not even understand how the skills I was developing at the time would benefit me later in life.
Looking back, however, I got a fascinating window into the world of emergency communications. From the little background I have in that field I can say I think California has handled the fires as well as possible, from a communications standpoint. The article I read went into great length describing all the things the California government did to alert residents of the situation and how to evacuate necessary areas safely and when. All of these details are so crucial in emergencies. And when tensions are high, they are the kind of details that are very easy to confuse or forget.
It would be very interesting to hold a focus group with So-Cal residents from affected areas and hear how good of a job they feel the government did in alerting them of how to say safe.
Have you ever found yourself in a natural disaster? Did you know it was going to happen in advance? What information did you get before, during, and after? Let me know in the comments!
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The Water Drop 