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The post-disaster town hall meeting, is the first and most important opportunity for localities to update the community on the status of recovery and set the tone for the entire recovery process. The public information officer will work behind the scenes to ensure that local leaders and federal and state representatives send a unified message to the public at the town hall meeting.

Click here to download a customizable post-disaster town hall meeting agenda template.

Encourage Compassion and Honesty

• Build realistic expectations about when homeowners will get back into their homes. Encourage top level officials to use phrases like, “We’re attempting to build four houses per week, but we can’t guarantee that will happen.”
• Advise local and external speakers not to make specific promises to anyone during a town hall meeting. Promises can cause controversy if later rebutted by a councilman or other elected official.

Facilitate Communications Between Local Leaders and External Representatives

• Facilitate a dry run of the town hall meeting with all agencies that will be present at the meeting to ensure all local and external representatives are on the same page and sending the same message.
  • Presenters at the meeting typically include: a local leader such as the mayor, a chief elected official, city or town managers or county administrator; the local emergency manager; a FEMA and/or the HUD designated communications representative; and a representative from the regional state emergency management agency.
• Property owners are more apt to follow the direction of their local leaders; ensure that the top level local official assist in sending messages regarding FEMA and HUD, such as deadlines or documentation requirements.
• Encourage FEMA, HUD and other external representatives to play a supportive role at the town hall meeting, not an adversarial role.

Use Social Media and Live Streaming

• Use local and social media to notify the community about the time, location and agencies that will be represented at the post-disaster town hall meeting, in addition to what representatives will be available to answer individual questions after the meeting.
• Use your locality’s live streaming equipment if available, or another easy-to-use platform like Facebook Live to stream the town hall meeting to residents who are unable to attend.
  • Click here to watch a tutorial video on how to stream video using Facebook Live.
• If needed, the entire meeting may be held virtually as a Facebook town hall meeting.
  • Check out the press release used by the City of Fayetteville, N.C., to notify the community of a Facebook town hall meeting on damaged roadways after Hurricane Matthew.
• After the meeting is over, have the local official that facilitated the town hall meeting summarize and discuss meeting highlights in a video posted on the locality’s website and shared via social media.

Rely on Local Organizations

• Build relationships with leaders of local organizations, such as homeowner and neighborhood associations, prior to a disaster event and maintain an up-to-date list of phone numbers and email addresses for their leadership groups, boards officers and board of directors.
• They can use their communications networks to assist in notifying the community about the town hall meeting and sending important messages throughout disaster recovery.