Other Specialist Managers
This unit group covers Specialist Managers not elsewhere classified. It includes Airport Managers, Correctional Facility Managers and Emergency Management Officers.
Storm warning at the operations centre
You are an emergency management officer in a regional operations centre as a severe storm approaches a river town, with the first rain due by evening. It is 2pm. The weather service has raised its warning for tonight. You have a plan, a few tired volunteers and several agencies who each want your attention at once.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I can have crews sandbagging the main street or clearing drains near the aged care home, but not both before dark. You are coordinating, so you tell me. Where do you want them?
Send them to the main street, because it is the busiest and the most visible
The street looks well prepared, but the drains near the aged care home back up overnight and staff have to move residents in a hurry. Visible is not the same as most at risk.
Ask the aged care home and the flood map which site is more vulnerable, then decide in ten minutes
The map and a quick call show the home is lower than it looks. Crews go there first, then move to the street when they can. You made a call on facts, and told Rob why.
Split the crew in half so both places get some help
It feels fair, but neither site is properly finished by dark. Splitting resources often leaves two half-done jobs where one finished job would have mattered.
We are live in five minutes and everyone is asking what to do. Can you give me something for the listeners? Even just a line would help. People are starting to panic.
Give clear advice: what is happening, what to do and where to find updates
Dee reads it out word for word. Calls to the centre drop and people begin to move vehicles to higher ground. Plain, calm and specific wording is a tool in an emergency.
Say it is too early to tell people anything and ask her to wait for an official update
You avoid saying something wrong, but rumours fill the gap on social media and your phone starts ringing. Silence in an emergency is rarely neutral.
Tell her the storm will probably miss the town so people do not worry
It sounds comforting, but the rain arrives heavier than you said. People are less prepared and less willing to trust the next message you send. Never promise what you cannot know.
My crews are tired. We have been up since four this morning on a fire call. I can send six people tonight or hold back and have a fresh team for tomorrow. What do you need from us?
Ask for all six tonight, because the storm is the immediate risk
You have people on the ground when needed, but by midnight they are exhausted and tomorrow's clean-up is short staffed. Today's urgency can cost you tomorrow.
Ask for a smaller team tonight and a rested crew for the morning
Sam agrees. You have cover tonight, a rested team tomorrow and a roster everyone can see. Looking after the responders is part of looking after the town.
Tell Sam to use his own judgement and call you only if something comes up
Sam is stretched and unsure what you want. Nobody is quite sure who is covering the northern road, and a call comes in an hour late. Coordinating means being clear about who does what.
How it went
The storm passes with wet streets and a few evacuations, not a disaster. Emergency management is mostly planning, talking and making the next decision clearly for other people to act on. Would you find the quiet preparation or the pressure on the night more interesting?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The evacuation route nobody had walked
A fictional case set in a fictional regional emergency management office preparing for storm season.
The situation
Tessa Okonkwo was the emergency management officer for the Harrow Valley council. A cyclone season warning came out, and the evacuation plan for the low-lying caravan park looked fine on paper: leave by the east road to the high school. Tessa had never driven it. Her manager said the plan had been approved two years ago and there was no time to review every route before the season started.
What they did
Tessa spent a Saturday driving the route with a local volunteer. She found that a creek crossing on the east road went under water in heavy rain, which the old plan did not mention. She asked the council works team and the volunteer fire service to meet her. Together they agreed a second route, put up signs and updated the plan. She also rang the caravan park owner so she could brief guests.
How it turned out
A few weeks later a heavy storm closed the east crossing. The park was cleared by the second route without confusion. Tessa still wished she had checked sooner, and added a yearly drive of every route to the planning calendar.
What would you do?
- Why might a plan that was approved still be wrong?
- Who would you want in the room when you checked an evacuation route?
- How would you feel about doing careful work that people may never notice?