Disaster Zone

Disaster Zone

Disaster Zone is hosted by Eric Holdeman, an emergency manager with over 30 years of experience at the federal, state and local levels of government. Disaster Zone is a podcast that focuses on all facets of disasters; the before, during and after of events that are increasingly impacting communities around the world. Podcasts run between 35-45 minutes with a mix of guests covering a range of disasters and issues that flow from them. Sponsors of this podcast include: Dynamis, a leading provider of information management software and security solutions. The Blue Cell, a by-design crisis and consequence management consulting firm. Bent Ear Solutions offers comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help you solve the most complex issues of your organization. T-Mobile for Government provides innovative connectivity solutions that help government better serve citizens by enabling agencies to work more intelligently, efficiently, and securely. Story topics and suggestions for people to interview are welcomed. You can contact the host via email.

Episodes

Destroying FEMA

July 16, 2025 • 56 mins
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been in the news for months. Both President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security have made remarks that FEMA should be abolished, perhaps moved out of DHS and physically out of Washington, D.C. A council has been established to examine how the federal response and recovery efforts to disasters should be accomplished moving forward. The current status and future of FEMA is t...
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Communicating About the Weather

June 17, 2025 • 58 mins
One of the few constants in our everyday life is the weather. It is likely something we check on frequently, even on sunny days. Today we will be talking with a veteran weather forecaster who has specific advice for those who deal with severe weather and its impacts on people and property. Communicating weather warnings will be a specific topic, along with the partnership between private forecast operations and the National Weather...
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What the LA Fires Taught Us About Disaster Recovery

June 10, 2025 • 47 mins
The Los Angeles fires will likely be the costliest natural disaster in our history. While they started as wildfire, they changed into an urban conflagration. Thousands of homes were destroyed along with other building structures, including businesses. In this podcast we’ll look at these impacts fires their destruction from the perspective of a private business that specializes in disaster recovery efforts.  

The podcast guest is Joe...
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An Overview of The Disaster Community in Europe

June 4, 2025 • 58 mins
In this podcast we will be learning about disaster community in Europe and more specifically in Switzerland. That will be in the first half of the podcast. In the second half, we will be talking about a more focused conversation about data and its role in integrated disaster risk management. During the podcast we review Emergency Meeting Points (EMP) in Switzerland. The link provided will give you more information.  

The podcast gue...
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Predicting Damages Before a Disaster

May 19, 2025 • 54 mins
In this podcast we look at a new technology being developed and fielded to help people and organizations, public and private better understand climate risks of all types. From wildfires to floods, climate fueled natural disasters are becoming more and more prevalent.  

The podcast guest is Sarah Russell, Managing Director of Bellwether who speaks to the ways that advanced machine learning can help improve disaster response as these ...
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When Projects Implode and Cause Financial Disasters

May 1, 2025 • 62 mins
There are all sorts of projects, large and small. I’ve advocated that all work is usually done in the form of a project. Really large projects require a huge investment in time and other resources to be successful. No one plans on failing, but there have been some very public failures in the past. In this podcast we’ll examine some general themes for those failures and also solutions you can put to use for your own projects to hope...
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Volunteers Assets or Liabilities

April 22, 2025 • 51 mins
Disaster volunteers come in many shapes and sizes. They can be individual citizens but typically are aligned with an organization that is offering aid to their fellow citizens. However, sometimes emergency managers have found that these well-intentioned volunteers seem to cause more headaches than they solve. Donated goods, for example can cause a mountain of work with many of the donations eventually going into a landfill.

In this ...
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Self-Imposed Barriers to Technology Adoption

April 15, 2025 • 59 mins
Technology is a driving force in public safety today. There are multiple challenges that come with considering which technologies should be adopted and fielded within an organization. Before that can happen, we need to collectively overcome self-imposed barriers to technology adoption, which is the subject of this Disaster Zone Podcast.  

The podcast guest is Garry Briese who has had a distinguished career in the fire service. Only ...
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Examining the Changes at FEMA with Craig Fugate

April 3, 2025 • 60 mins
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been predominantly in the news for many months. Most recently as both President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security have made remarks that FEMA should be abolished. More recently a 20-person council has been established to examine how best the federal response and recovery efforts to disasters should be accomplished. This then is the topic for this podcast.

Craig Fugate the...
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Handling Layoffs with Empathy

March 27, 2025 • 45 mins
Personally, I have had to inform employees that their jobs were being eliminated. Sometimes because of a budget cut, sometimes due to their performance. How we handle these events is important to the people directly impacted and also to those who remain behind. This podcast will be addressing both topics and how to better structure a layoff scenario—and do it with empathy.  

Jim Cichanski, the founder, and Chief Human Resources Offi...
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Long-term Disaster Resilience

March 19, 2025 • 45 mins
We continue to see disasters increase in size, frequency and impact. What are we doing wrong when it comes to disaster resilience, especially as it impacts our ability to adapt to the climate impacts that are experiencing and take a longer view to disaster resilience.  

The podcast guest is Jeff Schlegelmilch an Associate Professor for Professional Practice in Climate. He is also the Director of the National Center for Disaster Prep...
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3D Printing Buildings

March 13, 2025 • 48 mins
As we look to the future of making for a more disaster resilient future, there are new building technologies that are ready for prime time. One of those is the use of 3D technology for the construction of all types of buildings and other structures.  

In this podcast we learn from one leader in 3D construction, Ziyou Xu, Founder of RIC Technology. 3D printing using concrete uses less labor and is very flexible in how the materials c...
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Disaster Accountability Project

March 11, 2025 • 45 mins
As this is being written the firestorm in California is continuing. It is not only government that responds to disasters and the needs of disaster survivors and victims. The Disaster Accountability Project was created to help coordinate nongovernmental organizational efforts. To date, the site has more than 900 organizations registered worldwide. Following a stringent review process, organizations are presented with information tha...
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Communicating Effective Emergency and Disaster Warnings

March 4, 2025 • 53 mins
In this podcast we explore what makes for effective alerts and warnings with one of the preeminent scholars and researching these topics today. 

Jeannette Sutton, Ph.D., specializes in disaster and risk with a primary focus on online informal communication, and public alerts and warnings disseminated via short messaging channels. Much of her research investigates the evolving role of information and communication technology, includi...
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Updated - What is Next for FEMA

February 20, 2025 • 60 mins
UPDATED EPISODE! As you may have noticed, we accidently posted Pete's last episode, equally good and worth a listen but you should also check out today's episode talking about the future of FEMA.

The new Trump Administration has started out with a slew of news impacting emergency management. There were two trips to disaster areas. One in the Southeast and North Carolina, where the President stated that the Federal Emergency Manageme...
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Forecasting the Future

February 4, 2025 • 56 mins
I don’t know if you have noticed, but things are changing fast. Change is happening at every level of our society, in government, business and culture. Nothing is immune from the extent of change that is occurring.

In this podcast we explore the topic of forecasting the future in order to better prepare ourselves and our organizations. You will find this topic engaging and thought provoking.

The podcast guest is Donna Dupont the Fo...
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Combating Misinformation and Disinformation

January 30, 2025 • 44 mins
The modern media world we live in today is nothing like we have experienced to date. Legacy media is fading and we have an entire new suite of information channels sharing good and often time distorted information. Add to that, we now have “machines” that can generate the information without any human interface. This podcast addresses these challenges and some solutions all organizations, public and private need to avail themselves...
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A Crisis Athletes Interview

January 14, 2025 • 69 mins
This is a different type of Disaster Zone Podcast. The host, Eric Holdeman becomes the interviewee and Kim Guevara, is the interviewer. Kim has been researching different aspects of what it means to be an emergency manager. In her words, “a crisis athlete.” This is not about push-ups, but rather what does it take to be successful in becoming prepared for disasters, responding to them and then the disaster recovery.

The podcast Guest...
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Legal Issues for Volunteers Responding to Disasters

November 27, 2024 • 45 mins
Elizabeth Van Nostrand is an associate professor in the Department of Health Services Administration and Policy at the Temple University College of Public Health. Van Nostrand is an expert in legal epidemiology—the study and application of law as an intervention to prevent disease and injury. She is the co-author of three public health emergency law bench books for health departments in the District of Columbia, Louisiana and Penns...
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Conversation with a Documentary Film Maker about Volcanic Risks

November 19, 2024 • 47 mins
As individuals we are the sum total of all our experiences. So it is with Michael Lienau. From a childhood interest in film to a career as a documentary filmmaker, he has left his mark. A close encounter with Mt. Saint Helens eruptions set him on a path to study and document volcanoes. On the way he has translated science into videos that inform and educate generations of people. During the podcast several video productions focusin...
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