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Throughout the disaster recovery process, local governments must ensure that all communications efforts send a consistent, accurate message to citizens, the media, vendors, the business community, volunteers and internal departments. This is much more easily managed with a single point of contact for communications.

This contact will typically be the designated Public Information Officer (PIO), however in instances when there is no PIO – particularly in  small and/or rural communities – a trusted advisor should be selected to coordinate with senior officials and relay this critical information. These tips offer guidance for identifying the right contact in these scenarios, as well as how he or she can help manage consistent communications:

• The single point of contact should be able to oversee communications from all departments.
  • Staff members such as an executive assistant, deputy city manager, clerk to the city council, county clerk or even the director of the financial department are good options for this role.
• Staff new to the role of PIO should review Basics for New Public Information Officers
• The designated point of contact should focus on keeping verbal and written communication clear, concise and consistent — it should repeat the same message to all audiences.
• The staff member assigned to the role should consider sending weekly or daily project status reports and tracking efforts in a spreadsheet.
• The single point of contact should maintain a record of all communications from the media and the public — logged according to date, time and message — from the initial disaster response phase up through long-term recovery.