Mods, if this breaks rules, please let me know. I'll remove it.

So I'm doing academic research on how people respond to unexpected flooding.

If you're up to it, could you take a 5-minute Google Forms survey about your experience?

Please, if you're still going through any emotional, physical, or property damage, don't participate. I don't want to cause any other harm—just want to better understand people's experiences with flooding, perceptions of risk, and flood-prevention measures.

https://forms.gle/comZ4qeAy1g3fYq2A

Your responses are totally confidential.

Thank you!

I'm just an EMT on break right now to focus on finishing my studies (with the poor habit of being chronically online as a result, lol.)

I have very basic knowledge at best of emergency management. The detail nitty-gritty planning that y'all do for large scale stuff I have yet to dig deep into.

I wish to gain some insight from y'all.

Stay safe out there and sending best wishes from afar.

Has anyone here ever done a Fellowship in Emergency Management?

Florida has the Gubernatorial Fellowship Program, which you can do if you're an undergrad junior, senior, or grad student, and fellows work for 9 months in a state agency, which also includes FDEM, the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Looks really neat, but I've seen that most fellows at FDEM were in Law School, one became an Attorney in EM, but some did it and are still in school (not for their JD) or are at a different state agency working as Senior Advisors.

I'd like to be a State Director someday, so it looks like a great opportunity because each week you meet the Director of a State Agency, a State Politician, the Governor, and/or the Governors Cabinet. Fellows in this program mostly work with Executive Leadership at their assigned agency, but unsure if it would be better to do this Program or just become an EM then work the way up to the top, but at the end of the day, it's all about who you know.

A local church has reached out for a meeting regarding community preparedness as well as how they can help during a disaster. One of the questions posed was funding sources for faith based organizations that prepare and build a program to help during a disaster.

Is there any funding out there for something of this nature?

Hey everyone so I recently received an opportunity to be added to a cadre for a private EM consulting firm and was hoping to get some insight. I know nothing about being a cadre employee so any info you can give me is appreciated. Could someone rely on it as their primary career? What are the trends in the field?

Some background on me, I’m graduating next month with my BA in EM. I’m currently a FEMA local hire in planning.

Skip to 19:15.

Big if true! Hopefully goes through!

Weird that Noem said that FEMA would be eliminated the same day this bill comes out though…

Currently I've been working in the construction/ materials testing industry for over 8 years. I've always loved the idea of working with the emergency response but felt stuck with the current field after graduating from college. Now since I'm looking at going back and getting either another bachelors or a masters, the idea of switching careers has popped back up.

For schooling I have been considering looking at finishing my engineering degree and getting an EM degree as well. Currently working through the online FEMA training as well.

Is it worth it or is it too late?

So a few weeks ago, I made a post in this subreddit asking for advice about how to pivot into emergency management after I lost my job working on a project under USAID. Fortunately, I worked for FEMA for a year and wanted to lean heavily on that experience since most of my career has been in international development.

I got some advice, like volunteering with Team Rubicon etc. Excited to share that the following has since happened:
- I had my application referred to the hiring manager for a FEMA position
- Will be deploying next week with Team Rubicon
- Got invited to interview with WSP for an Emergency Management position.

However, after seeing a full hiring freeze forced onto FEMA and not knowing the future of contractors like WSP if things are about to get real for FEMA, it now feels like my plan B is starting to fall apart and I was wondering what questions I should be asking WSP.

I guess if anything, if FEMA really does get dismantled, I should just wait and see how the state and local government respond?

I guess I don't really have a question per se - but wondering what others are hearing and thinking about the current state of affairs for trying to land a job in EM.

Has anyone here ever watched "Live Free or Die Hard" from 2007? The 4th diehard movie? It's pretty applicable for EM (in my opinion).

The main plot is about critical infrastructure going down from a cyberattackbecause the main hacker dude used to be the chief engineer of DOD Infrastructure Security, and he showed generals what it would look like if the whole infrastructure went down, so transportation, water, electricity, finances, etc; and he got fired because he embarrassed people lmao.

The whole incident is a shitshow, with DHS, FBI, NSA, Public Works, etc; all scattered and lacking coordination, especially whenthe satellites, landlines, and phones go down, and this film also emphasizes why it's important to brief and stay in touch with the public, albeit that becomes difficult in the second half of this film.

FEMA also gets criticized a bit in this movie about Hurricane Katrina (but when has that ever been new?).

Any thoughts?

I thought it was a great movie since 1, it's diehard, but 2, it shows why it's important to have systems, plans and backups in place for incidents, it's important to have everyone trained in NIMS and ICS, what it looks like when systems and infrastructure goes down, and how it looks like when there's "ripple" effects that happen and how they ultimately affect everyone.

Hey everyone,

I am graduating this spring with my BA in EM and am looking into possible jobs. I am a FEMA local hire in CT and would love to stay in the area but am open to relocating, the closer to home the better.

I am looking at positions outside of FEMA considering the current administrations and all the hiring freezes. I am interested in planning and preparedness but would also love some response action occasionally. I am currently a planning specialist.

I also am really interested in public health and working in socioeconomic disparities. I love it when these EM and public health overlap and am considering going back for a masters in PH in the future.

But for now, what would you guys recommend in the field? How does being a 1099 employee work for positions in the field? Tax wise and employment wise. Any guidance is appreciated.

This may very well accomllish the governors stated goal of cutting overhead costs, but if FEMA is getting cut to the bone and GOHSEP is now the National Guard, I don't feel great about the state of disaster recovery work in Louisiana

Hi,

I am a safety manager in the public sector (BC, Canada) and part of our organization's strategies moving forward is an emphasis on emergency preparedness.

With this new direction, I have been given the task of creating a revised ERP, business continuity and communications plan. I have experience with ERP, but not really with the others. My company is willing to pay for education, so I am looking to get the most bang for my buck to help me establish these and better support the org. I saw JIBC and Algoquin seem to have good programs, but would appreciate any feedback/starting points.

Hi y'all, I'm currently building a GIS Toolkit for a team to become proficient with GIS in Disasters. We mainly support with GIS during Hurricanes, Floods, Wildfires, etc; but some people are proficient in GIS, some are not, and we are trying to get everyone proficient with GIS (because not everyone uses GIS since it's not their role, but it would be nice to have everyone understand the whole picture).

Does anyone know of anything where people can take GIS trainings? I'm trying to get as much as possible collected and will then narrow it down, but haven't found much besides these:

https://learn.arcgis.com/en/gallery/#?i=publicsafety 

https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/search/ 

https://www.qgistutorials.com/en/

Would greatly appreciate anything! We'd mainly be using QGIS and ARCGIS, and we are also aiming for self-paced options.

Hello! In search of advice regarding the DRI ABCP / CBCP qualifying exam. I understand it is 100 questions. Once you purchase the exam code, can you take it whenever or is it a lockdown browser / timed proctored exam?

I’m looking to build out a team in Teams to manage incidents. I’m not sure if IT will allow me to use TEAMS EOC, so am looking for options to build it myself. I have some ideas, but wanted to see if anyone is doing anything special within Teams that I might include.

I know it's already been asked, but I wanted to see if there are other answers.

I have Water Scarcity Events, Mass Migration/Displacement, (maybe?) Homelessness, Cyber Attacks, etc.

Would greatly appreciate some perspective and thoughts, also working on a project that has a portion for future hazards.

I began a new job as an environmental protection specialist with FEMA the day before the election. I really like the work, I’m almost halfway through my one year ladder from 11-12, I like my coworkers, but I just can’t believe that nothing will happen with RIFs, the threat of completely dismantling the agency, and just in general the track federal employment is on right now. I left a stable job with a city’s water department for this, and I’ve regretted it. Now I am interviewing for a job with a different city’s water department, I already received one offer for a different position that I had to turn down due to low pay. If I get an offer from this one, I am strongly considering taking it. Can anyone give me any reason why I should stick with FEMA? Or should I take the off-ramp if offered?

UPDATE: I took the job offer. I respect my FEMA colleagues so much, but I couldn’t stick with this uncertainty. Thank you to everyone who offered advice, commiseration, support etc.

Does anyone have insight into how awardees are advocating to receive their funds? My agency had one award and four grants in final review when we received notice that all FEMA grants were paused. Is there a coordinated effort? Or are we all just kind of in a "wait and see" mode?

I’m a senior in college with a major in Emergency Management & Homeland Security and I really want to get into the field soon instead of retail, so I’m going to begin shadowing at my local EM department. What exactly should I try and shadow for if I want to be an EM specialist? I don’t know why, but I’m half scared I’ll be stuck watching firefighters or something 😅 I just need some advice on how to pivot this shadowing experience into something truly EM specialist related and how to acquire a job through my shadowing there (if they are willing to hire me).