Ready New York: Reduce Your Risk outlines steps New York City property owners can take to prepare through — cost-effective and sustained actions taken to reduce the long-term risk to human life or property from hazards. The guide covers preparation for all types of perils that can impact New York City and identifies additional resources.… Read more
Download this fillable PDF, created by Ready New York, to identify essential business functions, contacts and resources that will allow your business to stay open during a disaster or quickly reopen after the incident recedes. Ready NY Template: Plan to Stay in Business — Key Business Functions (PDF) *PDF provided created by Ready New… Read more
At the scene of an incident, the news media’s most basic needs are access to information and images. Use these tips from FEMA to help anticipate what the media will want and to setup a media staging area that enhances communications to help guide information flow between the public information officer (PIO) and the media. … Read more
This course covers basic information about the role of a State or local Public Information Officer. The goal of this awareness course is to provide an orientation to the public information function and the role of the Public Information Officer (PIO) in the public safety/emergency management environment. Use this link to take the interactive web-based… Read more
Communicating with the public is one of the most important aspects of disaster response and recovery planning, yet in the wake of disaster public communications often get overlooked for the sake of getting other essential tasks completed. Make sure you have enough Public Information Officers (PIO) trained and on hand to keep residents and… Read more
Local elected and appointed officials play a key role in keeping citizens informed and building confidence in the community’s ability to recover and build back stronger. Work with incident command’s chief Public Information Officer (PIO) and use these tips to maximize the effectiveness of your messages to impacted residents. Communicate the efforts that are being… Read more
One of the public information officer’s (PIO) essential functions is to handle media requests and communications, preventing them from distracting the incident commander. Use these tips to prepare for and respond effectively to the media. Have media contact lists. Develop a media contact list with after-business hours contact information, email addresses and websites. Have multiple,… Read more
Use this document from FEMA to find contact information for your regional FEMA Office, NFIP State Coordinating Agency and State Hazard Mitigation Office. Reach out to your contacts before a disaster hits; the first time you exchange business cards should not be during a disaster. FEMA Regional Offices, NFIP State Coordinating Agencies and State… Read more
Social media is typically the most immediate way to reach large numbers of constituents at one time — Public Information Officers (PIOs) and emergency managers can post messages from the field as the situation unfolds, or direct staff at the to quickly send out messages via Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and other available platforms. Use… Read more
A Go Kit is a mobile response kit that allows public information officers (PIOs) to function in the event that they are working at a remote or off-site location. The individual serving as incident command’s PIO can use this FEMA Go Kit checklist before a disaster hits to ensure they are prepared with the essential materials needed… Read more