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Local news media serves an important role in resilience, and it’s not one that social media is replacing

The local press—broadcast media, newspapers, and radio—can be a vital part of resilience, particularly during disasters. Local reporters know the local context and appear to be a familiar and trusted voice in a community, in contrast to what opinion polls suggest about public attitudes toward media in general.

Nearly all of the emergency managers, relief organizations, and National Weather Service experts we talked to championed the role of the local media. Routinely during a crisis, emergency experts send real-time information to reporters and editors, which they can then spread to their viewers and readers. During a crisis, it’s exactly what people need: accurate, reliable, and localized information. A question for further exploration is whether local media could do more to report on resilience-building beyond just disaster response.

Social media, on the other hand, was seen as a double-edged sword, one that can complement local media, especially in reaching a broad audience, but is not always a trusted (or fact-checked) source. In worst-case scenarios, social media can take on a life of its own, a vehicle for quickly spreading false information, which can hinder rather than help emergency responders and the public.

“One of the reasons that we have had a lower death rate with tornadoes is because we have such great media presence and push telling people what they need to do. It has become almost normal for people to take cover and know what to do once the sirens go off. And to take it seriously.” —Nicole Hawkins, Director of Regional Preparedness at the American Red Cross, St. Louis, MO

“If Roger [Tulsa’s Emergency Manager] and the TV stations are supported, then the community is supported. We try and understand our role. TV stations reach the public, and we can’t compete with that.” —Steve Piltz, Meteorologist in Charge at the National Weather Service, Tulsa, OK

“We noticed that all our local TV stations were posting the same warning information on their Facebook pages, so we asked, ‘Why aren’t we putting it on our Facebook page?’ We attempt to learn from how broadcast media does this, so that we can not only echo, but reinforce it.” —Gregory Gust, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service

“I think [social media] is the best and worst thing…that’s happened to emergency management in my entire career. Best because I think it’s great that we can get information out directly to people without a filter, and we can actually communicate… The downside of it is once information gets out, whoever it comes from, if it is not true it’s very, very difficult to correct that.” —Mark Diedrich, Director of the St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management, St. Louis, MO

Strong social and professional networks are key to preparing for, responding to, and recovering from weather disasters

It may seem counter-intuitive, but in some ways chronic severe weather has been helpful, at least in terms of building resilience in the locations we visited. Of course, adversity is nothing to wish for, but when that’s the hand a community is dealt, there tend to be battle-tested routines and relationships. What’s more, the emergency responders often have an enthusiastic appreciation for these networks because they have seen many times over that such relationships allow them to respond better and more quickly.

As a result, each of the counties we looked at has multiple ways for partners to communicate and come together. The National Weather Service (NWS), for example, has a chat page where NWS employees, local media, and emergency managers can exchange facts in the lead up to a storm to ensure accurate and timely information. Emergency managers engage in a range of exercises and simulations routinely to practice response but also to bring all the key governmental and community players together. For relief organizations, there are Multi-Agency Resource Centers that collect the assistance-providers in one place as a one-stop shop for those affected by a disaster. And finally, the Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs) and Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COADs) convene everyone who has a piece of the emergency puzzle to coordinate actions and allow for communication in “blue sky time” (i.e., before and after disaster situations, when the sky is figuratively, if not literally, blue).

“I think Red Cross, MEMA [Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency], and our partner organizations realized that we all needed to work together instead of all working separately to the same goal.” —Debra Duxbury, Disaster Program Manager at the American Red Cross, Essex County, MA

“The time to build those relationships is on a sunny August afternoon, not during a disaster. And then you need to work to maintain those relationships.” —Rick Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Norman Office, Caddo County, OK

“If you have trust and understanding going in, then you weather it going out. That’s why relationships are so important and you need to build them beforehand.” —Roger Jolliff, Director of the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency, Tulsa, OK

“Really, relationships is what it comes down to. It’s that we know each other, we talk in blue skies, and then when something does happen we are able to work through it. It is much easier than trying to figure it out at 2 in the morning after a tornado just touched down.” —Mark Diedrich, Director of the St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management, St. Louis, MO

“It was really amazing how we, over time, have learned to work together and to not just say this is our thing, that’s your thing…because it really was like that years and years ago. It was really hard and it was reflected in the recovery of people. So now we have this ability to move faster.” — Nicole Hawkins, Director of Regional Preparedness for the American Red Cross, St. Louis, MO

Public complacency and disaster fatigue can be major barriers to resilience

Public and stakeholder opinion and outreach can be one of the most important—and challenging—aspects of resilience.

First, it can be hard to convince a community to invest in risk mitigation for something that might or might not happen in any given year. In Tulsa, for example, we heard that many area residents seem to believe long-held myths that tornadoes cannot hit the city. Local experts were concerned that this causes a lack of urgency when it comes to preparedness, and said it could be one reason why there seem to be fewer storm shelters in Tulsa than in other areas of Oklahoma. These myths—that tornadoes can’t hit cities or won’t cross water—are not only generally untrue, an unseasonal F2 class tornado actually hit the city of Tulsa the day we arrived in Oklahoma in August 2017. In St. Louis, relief experts we spoke to suggested that communities more recently affected by flooding generally prepare more for future floods, even if other communities are just as much at risk for future floods. Sometimes, it seems like human nature to play disaster roulette, hoping that your number will never come up, but it inevitably will in areas that are at persistent risk for severe weather.

Then there’s resilience fatigue, or the resilience trap, a public perception that resilience and preparedness measures actually remove risks altogether. Again in Tulsa, deadly flooding in 1984 and 1986 led to a series of successful flood control investments, but local experts worry that city residents think that means the danger of flooding is gone. Indeed, we heard that the city is once again allowing construction in vulnerable areas and failing to upgrade aging infrastructure (the American Society for Civil Engineers gave Oklahoma failing grades on dams, levees, and water infrastructure in a , for example). The unfortunate truth we saw in the locations we visited is that it can take another disaster to renew public support for resilience.

So, a key question is: How can cities build physical and social resilience to disasters without becoming victims of their own success? How can communities create an enduring commitment to resilience without generating self-defeating complacency?

“Complacency is our greatest enemy in emergency preparedness.” —Roger Jolliff, Director of the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency, Tulsa, OK

“I think resilience is cyclic. The energy that was here in the 80s and the 90s, I don’t think we have the same level of energy anymore. People will tell you now that Tulsa doesn’t flood.” —Roger Jolliff, Director of the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency, Tulsa, OK

“When it comes to weather, most people have short memories, and unless they have had it affect them, a lot of people don’t take it that seriously, until they see it. And then they tend to change their tune. But then, if it doesn’t happen again for however many years, then it’s like hmm…” —Jim Kramper, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service, St. Louis, MO

“Unfortunately, sometimes it takes an event before they realize they need to do better preparing. Still, a lot of people, even in this area, don’t think that anything is going to happen to them.” — Brent Nelson, Walsh County Emergency Manager, Walsh County, ND

Resilience to severe weather can prepare a community for other types of disasters, and vice versa

When a disaster–any type of disaster–does occur in the United States, there is typically a groundswell of support for the victims in the community, state, and even across the nation. Amid the devastation, that community camaraderie can be a beacon lighting the way to recovery.

Disasters can also leave behind new relationships, practices, and expectations that make communities better prepared for adversity, from terrorism to tornadoes. “Boston Strong” became the local motto after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, for example. Regional emergency managers believe that terrible experience tested their capabilities and taught them, and the community, how to better respond to any disaster. One expert even said the bombing enhanced public trust in the governor, who was seen as making the right emergency decisions. As a result, that expert now has faith that when the next disaster comes, the public will heed the government’s warning (to evacuate from the path of a storm, for example).

Even when a government has lost public trust, a disaster can teach useful lessons. In St. Louis, nearly every local expert or official we met talked about the 2014 protests of the police shooting of a young black man in Ferguson (a municipality in St. Louis County), even when we asked about weather. One emergency manager, for instance, regretted not viewing the civil unrest as a disaster from the very beginning, in the sense that some of the people of Ferguson needed the kinds of relief and support a community needs after a natural disaster. The scramble to help people who were trapped behind the protests helped emergency managers and volunteer groups think differently about preparedness for other kinds of disasters.

Many emergency professionals and volunteers in the St. Louis region also pointed to the risk of a catastrophic earthquake on the New Madrid fault as a helpful driver for area resilience, even though the likelihood of such an earthquake in any given year is relatively low.

“It’s interesting because we have had disasters that are obviously weather, but we also considered Ferguson, so civil unrest, a disaster. But you almost look at it in the same way. It’s like alright, what do we need to do to get the resources and get in there.” —Cathy Vaisvil, Community Partnerships Manager at United Way and St. Louis COAD Member, St. Louis, MO

“We have been warning of this impending doom of the earthquake ever since I’ve been here for twenty years. We figure if we can plan to respond to that, we can pretty much plan for anything else.” —Mark Diedrich, Director of the St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management, St. Louis, MO

“I also think that we generally have, based on recent experiences, a higher level of compliance [with resilience measures] amongst our citizens. It is simply because we are fortunate that our decision makers make good calls at certain times.” —David Woodbury, Hazard Mitigation Grants Coordinator at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, Essex County, MA

Resilience efforts are not one-size-fits-all, particularly when it comes to rural areas

What makes a community resilient may be unique to that community for any number of reasons—anything from demographics to topography to social vulnerability to continental weather patterns. We did observe a significant difference between sparsely populated rural areas and cities, including in risk perception. Tornadoes, for example, have a lower chance of causing immense damage in a rural county than in a city due to lower population density and fewer structures. Indeed, the Fujita scale of tornado severity largely measures the damage a tornado wreaks, rather than just its physical characteristics, such as wind speed. So, if a tornado happens in an open field and causes no damage, it may not even get a “score” or be recorded, no matter how ferocious the funnel.

Rural counties sometimes have little choice but to be self-reliant, if they are remote and dispersed. In Walsh County, North Dakota, for example, the Red Cross decided to focus on preparedness, rather than response, given that flooding and other disasters may compromise their access to affected individuals. Some rural areas, such as Walsh County, also have the advantage of strong social networks, given that their populations can be less transient than many city populations. At the same time, even as these individuals may have different expectations, when it comes to self reliance and assistance, we also heard that in some cases, they may be more resistant to help or instruction from outside experts, organizations, or agencies.

“In a rural area people learn to live on their own, because you have to. You know that if a storm happened you need to handle it. Here we are used to it, we are ready for it.” —Michael Attocknie, Tribal Administrator of Caddo Nation, Caddo County, OK

“There are a couple roads that can get you to Walsh County, but it’s not like the inner city where you can take 15 routes to get to that one destination. So when a certain road is flooded out, it impacts a lot of different services that can be provided. That’s why we do a lot of pre-station things.” —Jessica Kulzer, Disaster Program Manager for the American Red Cross, Walsh County, ND

“We’re for the most part very self-sufficient… A lot of what happens is that a lot of the damage is taken care of by the neighbors, they don’t even bother to report it.” —Brent Nelson, Walsh County Emergency Manager, Walsh County, ND

“[Talking about a sheriff in a rural town.] And he said okay thanks a lot. Then his parting words were, ‘well, you know pretty much the bottom line is most people up here, we tend to take care of ourselves. We tend to take care of our own.’ And that’s about the way they do it, too. You just aren’t going to hear much from them.” —Jim Kramper, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service, St. Louis, MO

Social vulnerability is often tightly linked to disaster resilience

A few experts we talked to felt that focusing on bad weather was missing the point: underlying social vulnerabilities often shape the vulnerability of a community, not the severity of the weather. Indeed, in many of the communities we visited, lower-income, minority, and other at-risk populations were living in areas particularly prone to flooding precisely because the cost of living was lower in those locations. In other words, in these communities, natural disasters are more likely to hit the people least able to afford both resilience and recovery.

Oklahoma’s Caddo County, for example, is a bad weather superstar: Tornadoes, ice storms, floods, and droughts are all part of the landscape. The emergency manager and the tribal administrator of Caddo Nation, an American Indian First Nation, told us, however, that compared to systemic challenges, such as land rights, health issues, and widespread poverty, weather is something they can handle. Indeed, to them, building resilience to the weather meant addressing the underlying systemic social issues. In Tulsa, the chief resilience officer emphasized the importance of looking at resilience holistically, instead of focusing on one kind of threat or hazard or one sector of the local economy, and incorporating social vulnerability.

At the same time, there are often gaps between organizations offering help and the most vulnerable populations. Many of the experts we talked to recognized that there was a gap and expressed a desire to close it. This is an area that may be ripe for better data and analysis and shared lessons learned.

“Honestly, weather is one of the least of our worries. We are still worrying about white encroachment, and social issues like obesity, heart diseases, and food deserts.” —Michael Attocknie, Tribal Administrator of Caddo Nation, Caddo County, OK

“[Tulsa] is not only divided geographically, but also through the lexicon. When you mention resilience to African Americans they think of racial equity. When you talk to people who are white they don’t think of racial equity first. They think of weather and climate.” —DeVon Douglass, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK

“It’s not that weather isn’t a big deal. I was in a tornado when I was a child and our house was one of the worst hit. My mom was hurt, my sister was picked up and blown 100 yards, I was thrown down the stairs with glass in my feet – it was really traumatic. But people rallied behind us. It shook us, it shook us to the core, but people helped us get through it. It’s just not the same as systemic issues that are a constant daily issue.” —DeVon Douglass, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK

“Many people don’t realize that they need to call the Red Cross within 72 hours after their house burns down if they want assistance…When someone is watching their life burn down, they just want to go and heal with their family. But if they do that they can miss the Red Cross’ window and not realize.” —Polly Edwards, Environmental Director and Emergency Manager of Caddo Nation, Caddo County, OK

“The reason a lot of those homes have basement backups and flood issues is because of where the homes were placed. They should have never been built there in the first place. Impoverished people… have been pushed into undesirable housing stock, actively and passively, for generations.” —Lance LeComb, Manager of Public Information and Spokesperson for the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, St. Louis, MO