AUGUST 2024 9GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKIn my experience, the best defense against unplanned chaos is controlling and practicing chaos via exercisesan act of terrorism or weather. They partnered with us at no cost to put us in a large available space they had in their hardened headquarters where all we had to do was provide the furniture, networks and computer systems and Fire and Police presence during actual emergencies. I was able to convince the administration the partner agency's promise was real, and starting at that moment; the city had an actual dedicated Emergency Operations Center. With the Center, the then-mayor appointed the Fire Chief as the City's Emergency Manager. I was the IT member on the Emergency Management committee who assisted in leading the teams in building the centers year after year through a Super Bowl, special events, countless drills, and hurricanes.In my experience, the best defense against unplanned chaos is controlling and practicing chaos via exercises. We had to reduce the dynamics and randomness of situations. We modernized our leases and enlarged our space to handle 19 Emergency Support Functions or ESFs. Our building maintenance division installed permanent furniture, and we dedicated 75 computers and telephone sets along with extensive radio, audio, and video equipment for coordinating and training preparedness. It was expensive and wasted so much time constructing and tearing down equipment for each event. One prior season in 2004, we had three hurricanes all across central Florida within a six-week time frame. For our sanity alone, even if I had to write the check myself, we needed a place we could dedicate to the function of Emergency Management so we didn't have to construct and deconstruct our equipment every hurricane season and special event. Today, our facility is state of the art; utilizing grants and squeezing money from tight budgets annually, we added technology, telephone and radio, and audio and video systems. Our mayor and PIO's office produce dozens of national network news broadcasts onsite during actual activations. I trust many have seen us on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, and other national networks. If you look for us in many of these broadcasts, you can see my team or the back of my head in the background, manning our ESF and doing our part. Our organization has a tremendous emergency management team, and departments are well-trained and motivated and can be activated at a moment's notice. The logistics and dynamics have been reduced to simply showing up with our 72-hour go-kits and turning on the lights. This is the way it should be when we have so many counting on us to be there for them during emergency events. Beginning with full leadership adoption, having a dedicated space for emergency command and control was the key to our program.
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