OEM Fails to Deliver leaves lives in peril
Jul 11th
There is a problem with Boulder OEM. They won’t send out media releases during an emergency. They won’t install a media email feed to their website. They have stopped the information flow during disasters and Boulder OEM is playing a dangerous game. Something must be done to change this culture of ignorance.
Offices of Emergency Management , OEM, are set up nationwide as part of American sheriffs departments. They are supposed to co ordinate efforts in disasters such as the recent forest fires here in Colorado. But often times they are the last to know. During the
Boulder Office of Emergency Management in action, but what action?Four Mile fire here in Boulder in 2010 they were essentially clueless as to what was going on in the field. Their media relations was terrible or non existent and their ability to deliver information about the fire did not exist. Information had to be gathered the old fashioned way, sneaking up onto fire lines, phone calls to fire, and sheriff, scanner traffic.
In 2012 during the near disastrous Flagstaff Fire the information from Boulder OEM was better, but still late and it was never distributed. There was no flow to media and the public. OEM did not send out media releases during this life threatening crisis. So for media organizations who depend of media releases sent to their news email, there were none. Why not? OEM decided that they would send tweets to twitter to alert media of new information. The problem with that is that a tweet is not a news release and only 20% of the population including media check twitter. OEM demanded that everyone go to their site instead of having a simple feed to everyone elses email for media updates. The move proved to be incredibly thoughtless and narrow minded. In an attempt to become “new media” Boulder OEM killed it’s ability to get out information.
They then insisted that they were the only ones with correct information thereby putting censorship on all fire information. Being that OEM is usually the last to know and the last to tell you, they are useless is a raging inferno like the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs. Only the Fire Department and Sheriffs department officers on the ground can help. For news media it means getting in there to get the story or listening to Emergency scanners.
Boulder OEM tells me that they no longer send out press releases nor do you have the ability for media to sign up to get updates. So they are essentially useless. OEM should have a feed to media. It is a common practice. The city of Boulder and Boulder County made huge mistakes with the Flagstaff Fire by not sending out media releases neither. They make an even bigger mistake by not having an email feed. On top of that their media relations designate KIm Kobel didn’t return phone calls during critical times. An email feed is dead easy to install and can be done on any website. The fact that they didn’t and won’t do it is pure negligence. No one from the city, county or OEM media relations staff would return our phone calls regarding this story. Tells you something right there.
from a city where nanny knows best
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
US fire fighting Air Attack fleet terribly inadequate
Jul 7th
This is nothing new. The condition of Americas fire fighting fleet has gone from horrible in the 1990s to terrible in 2012. The United States government has let us down. They have not provided the air attack fleet necessary to protect the American people from the 200 devouring Forrest fires that are destroying the USA this summer.
In the 1990s and early 2000’s America used old WWII bombers to fight fires. Many of them crashed. In 2012 the US has less than 250 aircraft contracted and some of them sit while fires rage across America. They sit because the US Forest Service refuses to pay them. In other cases Air National guard C-130s now sit because of the poor training given guard pilots to fight forest fires. They have been crashing too.
The US has thousands of big airplanes capable of being retrofitted to carry water and retardants to wild land fires,but the government has completely lost it’s way.
Sitting here typing at a computer in a smoke filled room in Boulder Colorado, this week I have seen first hand the devastation cause by forest fires to Colorado cities. Where was the air attack in the early hours of these fires? Parked in hangers 1000’s of miles away.
The US needs at least 100 air tankers It has 32. They need them on the tarmac in Denver ready to in 10 minutes not two day latter after the fire has destroyed 100’s of homes as happened in Ft Collins Colorado in June. We need another 300 air attack panes of all sizes. We need 400 helicopters ready to go. We need an air fleet of 1500 aircraft capable of carrying water to fight fires. We have 232. Just terrible.
What’s left when the air attack does not come. America is burning and our government has let us down. Shame on them.The Department of the Interior, FEMA USFS, Congress, Senate, Air force, National Guard have all let America down. This is Katrina all over again and it is happening on president Obama’s watch. It is also happening in my state and I am sick of watching it burn. Obama needs to take responsibility and get us the air fleet we need. End all the buck passing.
from fire ravaged Colorado
Jann Scott
Boulder, Colorado
Flagstaff fire; How the media did Jann Scott’s Journal
Jun 29th
KUSA channel 9 had extensive coverage during all newscasts, but best of all they were the only Denver media with live stream news casts and extended video news coverage online. For an web city like Boulder that is paramount. Channels 2, 7, 4, 13 lacked in all these areas especially online which was essentially non existent.
In the opening hours of the fire KGNU Radio went right to coverage and information of the Flagstaff Fire. They were telling Boulder automobile commuters exactly what is was they were seeing from the front seat of their car. Local radio is so important in a crisis like this. This is the first time in 30 years that I have heard KGNU be on top of a local crisis with wall to wall reporting. And they should be. That is their job during a city emergency. In the past they were disconectted from the community needs.
Even CU radio 1190 with their goofy college kid DJs actually managed to read the OEM news releases with out sounding like complete stoners. That is how the usually sound in the afternoon. On the second day the afternoon girl and her side kick boy did get off track by talking about their favorites in TV news and how hard reporters work. Trust me , they don’t work hard. Try ad sales. Try firefighting. But at least KGNU and radio 1190 were on the case telling Boulder drivers what the hell was going on.
KOA radio was terrible. Between Rush Limbaugh insulting us and baseball they were of little help with random 15 second reports. KOA is owned by Clear Channel the same conglomerate which owns KCOL. My last report ripped those idiots for not reporting the High park fire. Look , I am just saying , if you are a local radio station in Boulder Colorado and we have a major life threatening crisis, you damn better well drop your scheduled programming and get on the ball.
Boulder Police and Fire media relations still need a lot of work. The city didn’t send out any media releases at all. They depended on Boulder OEM who didn’t send out any news media releases either. The city mistakenly thought that all news media would get the word from the city psychic. Instead of mass press releases the city assumed that media would magically know to go to Boulder OEM. The city also tweeted every 30 seconds. The problem with that is that only 10 to 30 percent of Boulder uses twitter. So for the general population, isolating information flow to twitter on a threatening wildfire is a terrible mistake and lack of good judgement. They should have sent out press releases. And OEM needs a better signup.
Boulder OEM website makes it difficult to receive press releases. They hide the place where you sign up by covering it in a mush of graphics. When you finally get there, you have to go through 15 steps just to get a damn email sent to you. Unlike feedburner or our site which take two steps. I mean, there is something very screwed up about that. Then OEM does not have a media contact or phone listed. When you finally do get to the right person ( after calling everybody else) she won’t return your phone calls. wtf?
Facebook had zero coverage worth noting. Twitter behaved themselves better that they did in 2010. They were notoriously rude. But twitter is still just a plain ole forum with pictures, stories gossip and OMGdz. Twitter is a small club of well educated house wives and office workers. They represent 30 percent of Boulder at most. But they are not mass media. What about the main body of Boulders population?? How do m you reach them immediately in a crisis.
Real mass media in a time of crisis comes from good old fashion AM or FM radio. In Boulder there are only two. KGNU 88.5 FM or CU’s radio 1190 AM. But the city nor the county plan around them. They pretend they don’t exist which is another dumb thing they do. These radio stations should be the first to know.
As far as Boulder Channel 1? As soon as we found the press releases on OEM, we published them. We did a live TV internet cast for one hour on the first evening of the fire from Fairview high where all the fire crews were staged. Citizens were there too. We could see the air assault, the fire, everything. In the past two days we ran live Fire scanner feeds on TV so the entire community could listen in. It was compelling. Now, with a little more rain, hopefully this thing is over.
Jann Scott’s journal
where it just keeps on burning
Boulder colorado
