A year later, Augusta, GA is still learning from an unexpected weather event.
As a national disaster response organization, we have a an opportunity to gain and share experience with our state and local VOAD and Emergency Management partners. While we’re working to develop capacity to support as locally as possible, we will always deploy to incidents all over the country and share our successes and failures across all of Team Rubicon through participation, daily planning reviews, and after action reporting. This volume of activity and lessons learned allows us to develop best practices and standards that help us better serve any community affected by disaster – this varies significantly from the communities we serve, who, luckily, are rarely impacted by them.
Bob Obernier led the team on Operation:Frozen Oak in response to last year’s ice storm, and he was able to support and make an impression on the City of Augusta and Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Our support here started with a simple but powerful thing – an introduction.
There’s a lot we do to assist partner agencies and organizations to prepare. The starting point is simple whether it’s before, between, or in the midst of a disaster – we reach out with our capabilities and introduce ourselves. This starts the relationship and begins to foster trust. Once a relationship exists, we get involved with planning, exercises, training – you name it. We stand to have a huge impact with this simple step if we can incite action before it hits the fan.
Looking for a local leader in your jurisdiction? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll make the introduction.
