Lucia Velotti, Ph.D., researcher and Assistant Professor in the Department of Security, Fire, and Emergency Management, taught students an invaluable lesson this past spring. “Disasters do not happen as we exactly plan for them,” says Velotti, who teaches a course on Response to Large Scale Disasters and Mass Casualties, as well as introductory courses on Emergency Management, Preparedness, and Mitigation. In these classes Velotti conveys to her students the importance of working collaboratively during a disaster response, the need for honest and consistent communication, and how adaptability during a crisis can make all the difference. “They learn skills that are essential for work in all fields, but especially those working in public service,” she says. And during a national health emergency like the Covid-19 health crisis, many of her students found themselves on the frontlines of the pandemic and put her lessons to good use.
“Disasters do not happen as we exactly plan for them.” —Lucia Velotti
Preparing Students to Collaborate
The global pandemic provided a model for how collaborative communication on local, national, and international levels is needed to effectively respond to large scale disasters. And, it validated the importance of collective work inside and outside of the classroom. For Velotti, understanding the importance of working together is a fundamental skill for handling a crisis situation, but it’s only part of the equation. “My students need to learn about leadership,” Velotti says, stressing the connection between leadership within communities and how it informs public response during a crisis. “We needed—and still need—a lot of leadership during this pandemic. From the government perspective, we could have had much more,” she says. “People ended up confused because of unclear leadership. You don’t have to be the president of a nation to know how to be a leader. Very often in a lot of our professions, especially on the frontlines, they need to take the leadership initiative. There are some situations where they have to come up with a solution in a limited amount of time.” Learning how to step up to better serve the community is a skill she hopes to impart to her students who will be challenged to react when faced with the question, “What is the right thing to do right now?”
“Events unfold in ways we cannot anticipate. The important question is: how do we depart from our plans without feeling that we are failing?” —Lucia Velotti
Planning for a Disaster
Even the best-laid plans cannot predict how a disaster will unfold. “It is normal for human beings to have this idea that we will have a plan for everything and that we will know exactly how to respond to the next disaster or catastrophe. Sometimes we get very close,” Velotti says, speaking on how crisis management plans can help prepare us but do not offer infallible solutions. In 2004, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) developed a hypothetical natural disaster exercise centered in New Orleans called Hurricane Pam. “Many of the things that were discussed during the Hurricane Pam exercise happened during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To some extent, we already knew some of the things that would happen. But events unfold in ways we cannot anticipate. The important question is: How do we depart from our plans without feeling that we are failing?” Velotti says. In those situations, she finds that “being curious and being able to adapt and innovate can be the difference.”
Examining how an innovative, spontaneous response can impact the effects of a disaster, Velotti turns to 9/11. “A large part of Manhattan was evacuated by boats and ships on 9/11. The first thing that happened was a spontaneous evacuation that was run by regular people. Everybody with a boat felt that it was their moral responsibility to go and rescue people.” Velotti explains. “Having that kind of intuition, the ability to step up at the right moment, is important.”
“I think one of the mistakes happening during this pandemic is that we are not, altogether, delivering the same kind of information.” —Lucia Velotti
Communicating A Consistent and Honest Message
What makes Covid-19 unique is not only its ability to spread quickly from person-to-person—that’s why social distancing is so necessary—it’s also the mixed messaging coming from those responsible for providing guidance during this turbulent time. “One of the problems here is communication. What kind of message are we delivering to people?” says Velotti. “People are confused because there is nobody clarifying information for them. I think one of the mistakes happening during this pandemic is that we are not, altogether, delivering the same kind of information. In emergency management, we have a public information officer because we don’t want to confuse people. We want the same message to be played over and over again so that the message is consistent. So that people can start to believe it and the message becomes credible. The minute people feel that the source isn’t credible, they won't trust that source anymore. And, we are losing people fast. This is a crisis of communication and a crisis of trust.”
But can giving people the straightforward facts lead to panic? Velotti doesn’t believe it will, and she teaches her students not to rely on disaster myths. “One of the disaster myths is that if we provide the public with information, the public will panic. There will be chaos. The city will be better if we do not alarm them. That is just wrong. This idea comes from movies. A lot of people do not have an experience of disaster on their own. They experience it through the mass media,” she says, confirming that arming people with facts lowers their anxiety and helps them better prepare. “I don’t think we spare people from anything by withholding information. In fact, it makes things worse. I don’t want to say that in the U.S. we’re trying to hide anything, but we’re definitely trying to convey the idea to people that we are in control of the situation when, in reality, we were not in control.”
