Chapter Five - Communications: The critical function

Abstract

Communications: The critical function A successful disaster communications strategy is built on a set of basic fundamentals that ensure that emergency managers effectively communicate timely and accurate information to the public and their partners. These fundamentals provide guidance to emergency managers and other officials involved in emergency operations and programs on how to talk to their customers, how to ensure that they can talk to their customers, what to say and what not to say, how to be accurate and timely, when to talk, and how to connect to their customers when you talk. These fundamentals combine basic directions on communicating effectively (i.e., be available, ensure there are adequate resources for communications, invest in media training) with a set of values (i.e., do not lie, be informed, do not make promises you cannot keep) that taken together should effectively guide emergency managers and others in communicating emergency management messages.