Storms Stress Media Relations
Published: May 21, 2006
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FORT LAUDERDALE - Days before a hurricane makes landfall, as residents board up windows, pack bags and evacuate, teams of reporters arrive.
We scour hotels for rooms, drive unfamiliar streets, talk to the stragglers and the stubborn who refuse to leave their homes. We try to get face time with as many local disaster officials as possible, but they, too, are busy - often too busy to spend time getting to know an unfamiliar face.
Therein lies one of the top issues for media and emergency management directors in Florida in light of the increased storm cycles and hyperactive hurricane seasons forecast to threaten for years:
How to bridge the gap of anonymity, build relationships and gain trust before the chaos that accompanies a storm's aftermath? And how to make those relationships work to the public's advantage by generating needed information that is accurate, up-to-date and not sensational.
During a media roundtable at the recent Governor's Hurricane Conference in Fort Lauderdale, six members of the media - three broadcast, two print and one radio - discussed these and other issues with about 20 public information officers from across the state.
The Panhandle, an area pummeled by multiple storms in 2004 and 2005, appears to be taking communication seriously - and innovatively.
Panama City's Jason Kelley, chief meteorologist for WJHG-TV, and Charles Wooten, director of engineering and information technology for Clear Channel Radio, meet each year with emergency managers, law enforcement and other disaster workers from nine Panhandle counties. They exchange contact information, including unpublished home telephone numbers.
Kelley said he also uses the Internet and designated chat rooms to stay in touch with emergency personnel. Instant messaging allows for immediate and constant contact that can be vital in debunking rumors that often arise during and after a hurricane and helps make sure the most up-to-date information is available. Kelley said reporters in the field also can text questions and updates from their cell phones to the chat room.
This is the eighth year the Panhandle summit has been held. Turnover, which is common in the media, makes the yearly event critical, Wooten said.
In Hillsborough County, a media day May 15 at the emergency operations center was the county's first such gathering in about five years, said Lori Hudson, Hillsborough's communications director.
Larry Gispert, emergency management director, and Pat Bean, county administrator, talked about changes to Hillsborough's hurricane preparations, and why such changes are needed following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Gispert and Bean knew many of those in attendance. But if a major storm were to threaten or strike Tampa, reporters from other newspapers and television stations in Florida also would be involved.
That's why The Tampa Tribune, at the hurricane conference, proposed an annual statewide gathering to bring reporters who cover natural disasters together with each county's top emergency official.
By meeting in person, both sides can at least introduce themselves, which is the first step to building a working relationship.
Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, moderated the media roundtable and said she will push for such a yearly meeting.
Hudson said she supports the idea.
"I think there should be an ongoing dialogue between reporters, emergency management directors and public information officers," Hudson said. "It helps to understand specific issues, to talk about some of the challenges and also some of the informational needs that the public might have."
