Bonus Episode: A Break Down on Debunking Misinformation about FEMA

[00:00:12] Welcome to The Break Down with Brodkorb and Becky, a weekly podcast that breaks down politics, policy and current affairs. I'm Michael Brodkorb. Becky Scherr is out sick today and she is missed and we hope she recovers soon. She will be back next week. We're here today to talk about a flood of misinformation surrounding FEMA and hurricane relief. And we have a very special guest to clear up some of the information. We're pleased to be joined by Brian Strasser, Principal and CEO of Bright Path LLC and an expert on emergency management and

[00:00:40] disaster response. And someone who's been on this podcast multiple times in a variety of capacities. Brian is without a doubt, one of the trusted sources in the sea of misinformation out there. Brian Strasser is a trusted calm source. I'm so glad to have him on today to talk with us. Brian, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, Michael. I'm happy to be here. Give us a little give our listeners a little explanation of your background and then go into a little bit about the role of FEMA and dive into this subject of the misinformation. So just in,

[00:01:09] in terms of background, I've spent most of my career in and around emergency management, continuity of operations and resilience. Prior to starting my company a decade ago, I was at Target. So a Fortune 30 company where I built and led their business continuity crisis management and intelligence capabilities worldwide and dealt with everything from Hurricane Katrina, Rita Wilma in 2005, up through significant terrorist attacks and other

[00:01:39] countries. Typhoons and tsunamis in other countries. Typhoons and tsunamis in Japan and Indonesia. And now more hurricanes as we're seeing now, even cyber attacks and that type of thing. So we've spent a lot of time in this space. And as a consultant, that's what we do is help companies, government agencies and large nonprofits prepare for, recover from and respond to disasters.

[00:02:01] How, how, how does response work in, describe if you can for a minute, in a perfect world. And we know it's not, how response should work before we get into some of the misinformation. Just give us our listeners a little bit of the land of how it works.

[00:02:14] So I think it's important to point out that response is entirely dependent upon how you have prepared over time for these things to happen, right? There are long-term investments we make locally at a state level and with the federal government towards preparing Americans and infrastructure and local communities for these kinds of disruptions. And that happens across the private sector. It's making sure that your, your local retailer, for example, can recover their operations.

[00:02:43] All the way up to how we fortify against disaster and prepare capabilities to respond. That requires investment sometimes years in advance. When something bad happens, the way that, you know, we describe this in emergency management is locally led, state managed and federally supported because emergency management is a local function.

[00:03:06] So it is that local leadership, your city or town or township or county are those first responders. It's your local fire department. It is your city or county head of emergency management. It is the sheriff and other resources managing that initial response, EMS and others.

[00:03:26] At the state level, the governor is really the governor is really the one accountable for how a state responds. It's about providing support to local government. It is about using your state resources, the state patrol, the DNR, the health and human services, the state homeland security, emergency management, as we call it here in Minnesota, the national guard. Those are all state resources controlled by the governor. And the governor is the decision maker.

[00:03:53] FEMA's job, FEMA's job, the federal government's job is to support that response with the kind of funding and logistical resources that only the federal government can bring to bear.

[00:04:02] A lot of what FEMA does is work with the military, after duty and reserve components to bring significant logistical capability to bear. So it's meals. It is debris management equipment and capability. It is bringing in mutual aid in terms of search and rescue and medical capabilities and such across the country.

[00:04:26] And it's funding. Congress had long ago in the 1970s decided the federal government should pay a large portion of major disaster fees for response, the cost, I should say, for response and recovery.

[00:04:40] And a lot of what the money that FEMA provides to states and then to citizens and tribes and others for recovery comes from federal appropriations that they have to go back to Congress for every few years.

[00:04:53] So really high level. That's what that response should look like.

[00:04:57] We are in the midst of a presidential election, and I'm someone who operates from the premise that politics is always a part of stuff.

[00:05:06] And but we are in the midst of a presidential election. We are less than 30 days out from a presidential election.

[00:05:10] And one of the issues we've had you on before to talk about misinformation, and that's something that's been really prevalent in since the expansion of social media and the spread of it, misinformation can absolutely spread like wildfire.

[00:05:23] And so I'd like to go through from your perspective, some of the misinformation we've seen in disasters, whether it's hurricane responses or other type of misinformation.

[00:05:34] You can identify some of those examples. I have some, but I know you have some yourself.

[00:05:38] And how does that information spread that way? And how do we get here?

[00:05:44] I think that this is a trend that has accelerated as social media has grown because it's enabled folks to sometimes echo chamber the news that they see.

[00:05:55] Right. So if I only follow people who espouse conspiracy theories, I'm going to be more likely to believe in those theories.

[00:06:04] And I think there's other trends that have factored into this with the lack of trust in mainstream media, with the rise of Trump as this alleged fountain of truth, so to speak.

[00:06:15] I think all those things factor in.

[00:06:17] We can start with some basic disinformation.

[00:06:20] One piece of disinformation in Hurricane Helene was that FEMA is seizing supplies from voluntary organizations or citizens that are bringing supplies into North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, Georgia to these affected areas.

[00:06:37] That's something that was being spread by Elon Musk on his own platform, that FEMA was doing this.

[00:06:43] FEMA does not seize supplies. They have no statutory authority to do so.

[00:06:47] They don't, that's not something that actually happens, but that caught fire.

[00:06:51] You saw that as a trend early in the response.

[00:06:54] So I think that's just one example that comes to mind.

[00:06:57] Where is everything, is everyone looking at a crisis tragedy right now?

[00:07:03] Is this everything that comes up, I think, in a presidential race or in an election time, particularly in October of an election cycle,

[00:07:11] people will misinform and share and spread without any desire for it to be accurate or true.

[00:07:18] And when provided with information, they are unwilling to change their perspective on it.

[00:07:22] I remember in kind of prep for this show, I remember there was some misinformation that was spread about George W. Bush in the Katrina response.

[00:07:30] And I remember some of that misinformation and some of those allegations.

[00:07:34] But ultimately, what's so compelling, what's so interesting to me and I think so disappointing and sad is to the extreme in which it goes.

[00:07:41] Saying that FEMA is seizing misinformation, FEMA is seizing recovery supplies, that they're impeding the role that's going on in the ground.

[00:07:52] That's a level of misinformation that I think is so dangerous.

[00:07:56] And correct me if I'm wrong, but FEMA has had to set up a website or webpage on their website to push back on misinformation in response.

[00:08:06] Has that ever occurred before in your experience of where a federal agency has had to do that?

[00:08:12] FEMA's done this before.

[00:08:13] I think some folks have said this is the first time, but that's not accurate.

[00:08:16] They've done this in hurricanes going as far back as I can remember.

[00:08:19] I think the first time I remember seeing it was Katrina.

[00:08:23] Because I think that one of the pieces of misinformation that came out during the Katrina response was that George W. Bush ordered the levees to be bombed.

[00:08:32] Or explosives were set on the levees so that New Orleans would flood or what?

[00:08:37] It was something along those lines, which obviously is not what happened.

[00:08:40] They were just overwhelmed by the amount of rain and flooding that went on with the storm surge in that case.

[00:08:46] But it's not the first time FEMA's had to debunk rumors.

[00:08:49] Okay.

[00:08:50] Thank you for debunking.

[00:08:52] Thank you for clarifying my misinformation that this is the first time that was done.

[00:08:56] And I appreciate.

[00:08:57] And that's how easy it can be, folks.

[00:08:58] You can just say, hey, thank you for correcting me on that.

[00:09:01] And that's how easy as it goes.

[00:09:03] A FEMA running out of money.

[00:09:04] That's also been a discussion point that's gone on.

[00:09:08] That's not credible.

[00:09:10] That FEMA's running out of money.

[00:09:12] There's a lot of interesting funding disinformation going on.

[00:09:15] And part of this is just folks not understanding how FEMA is funded and how the disaster relief from Congress is funded.

[00:09:23] I'll talk about that in a second.

[00:09:25] But I think what happened here is folks took the Secretary of Homeland Security statement a few weeks ago that FEMA would – the disaster relief fund would need to be replenished before the next major hurricane.

[00:09:39] I think it was something along those lines.

[00:09:41] So FEMA has two major sources of funding.

[00:09:45] One is FEMA's day-to-day operational budget, which is how they fund their employees, the training they do, all of their missions across FEMA.

[00:09:54] There's a ton of things that FEMA does.

[00:09:57] That is a regular appropriation in the regular budget cycle that Congress has to fund as a component of the Department of Homeland Security.

[00:10:05] That's how FEMA works.

[00:10:06] I'm sure – I don't know what it is.

[00:10:08] I'm sure it's several billion dollars to fund all of that.

[00:10:11] FEMA also manages a disaster fund, a disaster – I forget the actual name of it.

[00:10:17] But it is the large fund that when FEMA starts paying for a response – so that is money going to states, tribes, counties, cities as reimbursement in a federally declared disaster, a presidentially declared disaster.

[00:10:32] And when they're paying to citizens for individual assistance, public assistance, the $750 emergency fund that they do, all of that comes out of that separate appropriation.

[00:10:44] That is the only thing that money is used for.

[00:10:47] And it does have to be replenished.

[00:10:49] And if you have major – multiple major disasters, FEMA is going to go back to Congress and say, we need more money to keep paying out of this.

[00:10:58] I assume they'll get it.

[00:11:00] But you never know.

[00:11:01] It's political as some of this gets nowadays.

[00:11:04] But that's how FEMA is funded across their two major appropriations.

[00:11:09] We have also heard a number of disturbing claims that it's been amplified by political figures that FEMA diverted disaster relief funds to support immigrants rather than using them for U.S. citizens.

[00:11:22] This has spread across a lot on social media platform.

[00:11:26] And immigrants, immigration reform has been a very volatile subject in the race for president.

[00:11:32] But specifically, introducing it into the FEMA response and aid that's given.

[00:11:38] Your response to some of that misinformation.

[00:11:41] So FEMA is responsible for administering what's called the Shelter and Services Program.

[00:11:48] This was a congressionally directed program set up in the 2023 budget year.

[00:11:54] The money for this comes not from FEMA.

[00:11:58] The money comes from Customs and Border Protection.

[00:12:01] Looks like it was $650 million for this fiscal year.

[00:12:05] FEMA administers those funds, but it's not their budget.

[00:12:08] It's Customs and Border Protection.

[00:12:10] So if anyone's saying FEMA ran out of money because they're funding migrant shelters, that's not accurate and not even close to how that program works.

[00:12:19] I want to remind our listeners or bring attention to our listeners of a particular thing.

[00:12:24] Brian tweeted out a couple of days, I think a day or so ago, a picture.

[00:12:28] I believe it's a bumper sticker that says everything is a conspiracy theory when you don't understand how anything works.

[00:12:35] Now, what's interesting about that is it's hands down one of my favorite tweets.

[00:12:39] And as I noted, I'm going to be retweeting it every single day to the election.

[00:12:43] And I'm going to be retweeting you, Brian, because you brought it to my attention.

[00:12:46] My wife brought it up to me and said, my goodness, that's a really powerful message.

[00:12:52] Again, Brian on X or Twitter retweeted, I think it's a bumper sticker.

[00:12:57] It looks like it says everything is a conspiracy theory when you don't understand how anything works.

[00:13:03] That is perfect.

[00:13:05] Expand on that kind of message because I think you really encapsulated that picture in that bumper sticker about how this works.

[00:13:13] Because what you're explaining and talking about is a level of knowledge and expertise about how government functions.

[00:13:20] And Republicans and conservatives, and not to say there's not misinformation on both sides, but I think they loathe governments so much.

[00:13:28] They think of them as the enemy that they're so unwilling to understand how things work.

[00:13:32] And I think a lot of misinformation comes from, and conspiracy theory comes, from people not understanding how things work.

[00:13:39] Yeah, let me, here's a good example.

[00:13:41] There was, there's been some criticism I saw on Twitter from people who don't know, or I think they should know better about Minnesota did not send aid to North Carolina like Florida did.

[00:13:54] Okay.

[00:13:55] And it really, it torqued me because that is not how mutual aid works in an emergency.

[00:14:02] When you're in an emergency, the governor decides, usually this is done through at an operational level by emergency management.

[00:14:11] But you decide, like I, here are the resources I need to augment my state capabilities for response.

[00:14:18] So North Carolina, and actually I'll give you a real example.

[00:14:21] We just had a state this week ask Minnesota for some resources.

[00:14:26] They specifically asked for some National Guard capabilities in terms of helicopters.

[00:14:31] They also asked for what's essentially known as an ambulance strike team or an EMS task force.

[00:14:38] These are words that mean things because we know if you ask for an ambulance strike team, we know exactly what that means because that's something that has been defined for response.

[00:14:50] You go into a system called EMAC, which is the mutual aid system.

[00:14:54] You ask for an ambulance strike force.

[00:14:57] And then EMAC sources that from other states that have this available.

[00:15:01] An EMAC task force or an EMAC, oh gosh, I'm saying this wrong, an ambulance strike team is five paramedic and BLS ambulances with a certain amount of people with self-sustaining capabilities for a two and a half week deployment to a state.

[00:15:16] Think about the work that has to happen from a preparedness standpoint to be ready to be able to deploy something like that.

[00:15:22] Minnesota's fulfilling that request.

[00:15:24] This was for Florida because that request came in several days ago.

[00:15:28] They sourced what EMS agencies or firms were able to meet that need.

[00:15:34] They're assembling that strike force.

[00:15:36] I think they were left, but there will go to Florida for response.

[00:15:39] That happened because Florida asked for that capability.

[00:15:43] Minnesota said, hey, we've got it.

[00:15:44] We can deploy it.

[00:15:46] And all that's happening through a very well-defined process that has worked well for many years.

[00:15:52] You don't just get up in the morning as the governor of Minnesota and say, hey, I see North Carolina had a hurricane.

[00:15:57] I'm going to send a battalion of helicopters.

[00:16:00] Who knows if North Carolina needs helicopters?

[00:16:03] And you don't just show up and self-deploy in an emergency.

[00:16:06] You've got to do this through a structured way so that you're getting the resources you need, that you're sending trained personnel that have this capability.

[00:16:13] You don't just decide for political reasons to do it tomorrow morning.

[00:16:17] So I think that's a good example of just folks not understanding how something works and trying to make political hay out of something that's not a political issue.

[00:16:26] It's a really good point.

[00:16:27] I want to ask, explain the relationship that states have.

[00:16:30] So one of the things that I sometimes will hear from people is, why is Minnesota sending anything?

[00:16:36] Minnesota is not a coastal, they're not impacted by the hurricane.

[00:16:39] And you can talk about economic and other type of reasons, but physically Minnesota isn't impacted.

[00:16:44] So explain, I view it as a good neighbor thing.

[00:16:48] Somebody needs a cup of sugar, you give them a cup of sugar.

[00:16:50] But explain to our listeners a little bit, what's that relationship between the states and why a state like Minnesota, who's not directly impacted by the hurricanes because they're not on the coast, why they would play a role in helping a state like Florida or other states recover in this situation?

[00:17:11] There's a couple of reasons.

[00:17:12] I think one is we are a part of the United States and we are all here to help each other in the good neighbor way that you outlined.

[00:17:20] Part of this also is if you look at the just history of how the National Guard has been set up over our 260 some year history as our country, different states have different units that have different capabilities.

[00:17:34] Minnesota, for example, has two thirds of has an infantry division, the Red Bulls based here that and two thirds of that division is housed within the Minnesota Guard.

[00:17:46] I think the other third is in the Iowa Guard.

[00:17:48] So we have more leadership capability than some state national guards do.

[00:17:53] We have more deployable air assets than some guards do.

[00:17:57] So Minnesota sent resources to Puerto Rico, for example, during Hurricane Maria in 2017 or 18, because we had those ability, we had that capability to spare at the time.

[00:18:09] And we had folks that were willing to go to active duty and respond to that.

[00:18:14] So it is a bit it is part of being part of a bigger country and being a part of being a good neighbor to other states.

[00:18:21] And part of it is just historically how some of these resources have been divided up.

[00:18:26] I'll give you one other example.

[00:18:28] There are a number of federally funded teams that are managed by states that deploy in some of these situations.

[00:18:37] For example, several states have an urban search and rescue team or some states actually have multiple urban search and rescue teams.

[00:18:45] These are specialized teams of several dozen people.

[00:18:49] Their training and equipment is primarily funded by FEMA, but they're managed by the states through their emergency management agencies.

[00:18:59] For example, a friend of mine who is a captain on the Phoenix Fire Department is a leader on the Arizona on what's called Arizona Task Force One.

[00:19:08] They're the urban search and rescue team for the state of Arizona.

[00:19:10] They're responding presently there and they were deployed for Hurricane Helene in advance of impact and then responded and are currently in response and recovery mode.

[00:19:21] But there are firefighters and EMTs and paramedics and other trained rescue workers who literally go house to house.

[00:19:28] They bring their own boats.

[00:19:30] They bring the agency's boats and other capabilities to be able to get around and make sure that folks are safe in these situations.

[00:19:36] And there are other types of teams out there, everything you can think of from EMS groups to mortuary affairs to even states that have incident management teams that can deploy and assist other states in these kind of situations.

[00:19:50] I'm going to put you on the spot here.

[00:19:53] Brian, can the federal government control the weather?

[00:19:57] Not to my knowledge, no.

[00:19:59] So based on, and let me say this, you have the longest list of credentials, I think, that anyone that we've ever had on our podcast.

[00:20:07] So this isn't under oath, but do you believe, does the federal government control weather?

[00:20:11] Got to help me out on this one.

[00:20:13] Do they control it?

[00:20:14] Where does this come from?

[00:20:15] Because I don't believe they can.

[00:20:18] No, to my knowledge, and I'm not a meteorologist.

[00:20:20] This is definitely out of my will.

[00:20:22] Thank you for clarifying.

[00:20:24] Make sure that you know that you're not a meteorologist.

[00:20:26] Yeah, there are, there's obviously been some studies about cloud seeding and some things to cause rain and some other effects, but no one's guiding a hurricane to take out the state of Florida or other areas where Republicans are voting.

[00:20:40] And the reason, yes, and that is a piece of information that a member of Congress not from Minnesota was spreading, that the federal government can control weather.

[00:20:50] And I'm, that's a head scratcher for me, because if the federal government can control weather, my goodness, I don't want to have a snowblower then.

[00:20:59] Because it'd be great if we didn't have to shovel as much snow and I didn't need a snowblower, because those winters can be tough up here.

[00:21:04] So I'm going to put a plug in for my members of Congress, if they do control the weather, to do a little better job in having it be a little warmer in Minnesota in the winter.

[00:21:12] But we know that's preposterous.

[00:21:14] How did, how to explain to our listeners, do you have a pool of where you assign where this misinformation is coming from?

[00:21:21] I don't want to ask you to tattle on people, but are there some information as to where you think a lot of this is stemming from?

[00:21:28] And can you assign an origin or an origin story as to why it's stemming from there?

[00:21:34] Sure.

[00:21:34] I think there's a couple pools of this that are prevalent.

[00:21:38] One is some of the misinformation that is out there is being deliberately done by other countries in order to cause unrest and fear and uncertainty in the United States.

[00:21:51] So we know that Russia did this to some extent in the 2016 election.

[00:21:55] We know that they interfered in the 2020 election.

[00:21:58] We know they're doing it again.

[00:22:00] There's also Iran, North Korea, China.

[00:22:03] All of them have vested interests in having the United States have uncertainty and doubt and internal unrest that makes us less unified as a country because that makes us less of a danger on the international stage for them.

[00:22:17] So that is definitely part of this.

[00:22:19] You can go back and look at the first volume of the Mueller report, the investigation into the 2016 election, and look at how they articulated Russia's approach to misinformation during the 2016 election as an example of this.

[00:22:34] And there were indictments even recently of some intelligence community folks in other countries.

[00:22:40] We'll never get our hands on them.

[00:22:41] They're in other countries, but they have attempted to do this kind of misinformation.

[00:22:46] So that's definitely a component of that.

[00:22:48] Those groups are deliberately preying on low information voters and folks who are very online and are very responsive to that kind of propaganda and intelligence operation.

[00:23:00] I think that's part of it.

[00:23:01] I think part of it is just it's the direction our politics has gone.

[00:23:05] And both sides do this to different extents.

[00:23:08] But I think this kind of misinformation we're seeing in the hurricane response is primarily coming from elements on the right.

[00:23:14] You've got the Republican candidate for president who has spread a bunch of disinformation about the hurricane response.

[00:23:20] I think there's plenty to legitimately criticize.

[00:23:23] We always want to be better.

[00:23:25] We want to make new original mistakes in the next disaster.

[00:23:28] But that's not what's happening here.

[00:23:31] Absolutely.

[00:23:32] What is the best?

[00:23:33] Give a recipe for our listeners or a checklist on how to combat some of this misinformation and what they can do to not spread it or believe it in some instances.

[00:23:43] I think you have to want to know the truth.

[00:23:48] Some people don't want to know the truth.

[00:23:51] They don't want to take the time to know the truth.

[00:23:52] So I would start there.

[00:23:54] If you want to know the truth, then I would take anything anyone tells you on social media that seems like it reinforces your biases or your point of view, and I would go find the facts about that.

[00:24:07] For example, there's a legitimate argument to be made that the United States is spending too much money on dealing with the issue of illegal immigration and migration from other countries.

[00:24:19] Okay.

[00:24:20] Totally get that.

[00:24:21] That is a legitimate political debate we're having.

[00:24:24] Let's have it in a rational way.

[00:24:26] So when you tell me FEMA's out of money because we've spent it all on migrants, I found the answer in that in about 30 seconds.

[00:24:34] But you have to want to know the truth.

[00:24:37] So if you want to know the truth, then you will be open to reading the facts about something.

[00:24:42] If you're not open to the truth, I don't know what to do with you.

[00:24:46] I have not.

[00:24:48] Even in the academic side of my life, I haven't come up with a good answer to that.

[00:24:52] And you have an extensive academic life, and you're well-versed in the subject of misinformation.

[00:24:58] And our listeners to know that will link to a previous episode we had Brian on talking about misinformation.

[00:25:04] This is, I would consider, Brian, you to be the resident expert in this state and potentially one of the most identified in the country in terms of just pushing back on misinformation

[00:25:13] and helping our listeners understand the complexities of these issues and the desire to seek the truth.

[00:25:20] This is a very complex subject.

[00:25:22] You heard in this episode, when I'm having an episode on to talking about misinformation, that I flubbed a little bit and said,

[00:25:29] I thought this was the first time that FEMA had done a website, had a dedicated section of a website like this.

[00:25:34] And Brian quickly corrected me and said, no, they've done it before.

[00:25:37] And so it's easy for someone like me to make a mistake.

[00:25:41] And I'm committed every day to trying to put out truthful information and having really smart people on this show like Brian to help.

[00:25:49] And so if it's easy for someone like me to just hear something and say it, I know it's probably a challenge for others.

[00:25:55] And so that's why it's so good to have someone like Brian on because he's such a tremendous resource, except when it comes to baseball, because he likes the Boston Red Sox.

[00:26:05] I am a Red Sox fan.

[00:26:06] It's been a rough year.

[00:26:07] And you're also a Patriots fan.

[00:26:09] This is true.

[00:26:10] It's been a really rough year on that.

[00:26:12] Yeah.

[00:26:12] Oh, let me just say something.

[00:26:13] We got more time in the show.

[00:26:14] I'm not letting you get one second of complaining about you having a bad season, you having a bad time.

[00:26:21] You guys have more separation parades.

[00:26:25] The least amount of sympathy I have for you is anything related to sports, my friend.

[00:26:29] You have more parades, more championships, more anything than anyone else.

[00:26:34] And I'm not going to tolerate it.

[00:26:37] Not in this show.

[00:26:39] Not in this show.

[00:26:40] Six Super Bowl rings, four World Series.

[00:26:42] Come on, man.

[00:26:44] The NBA titles.

[00:26:45] This is, you're a guest, buddy.

[00:26:47] Come on.

[00:26:48] Because you just, yes.

[00:26:50] No.

[00:26:50] And do you, let me just ask about how you process misinformation in this election cycle.

[00:26:55] Walk people through a bit how you take in information.

[00:26:59] Because you are an incredibly smart person, which is why you're on the show.

[00:27:04] But you're incredibly smart about very complex subjects.

[00:27:07] And the way you rattled off information about the intricacies of how FEMA is funded and knowledge about these types of responses.

[00:27:15] You're talking about having an understanding at the state, at the local, state, and national level.

[00:27:21] And you also delved into some international issues related to the spreading of information.

[00:27:26] How do you filter and how do you process what comes across your desk?

[00:27:32] And how do you kick the tires on it to make sure that it's true?

[00:27:36] Yeah.

[00:27:36] So that was very good to say.

[00:27:37] Let me just specify.

[00:27:39] I'm only an expert in a couple of things.

[00:27:40] You just happen to ask me about what these things are.

[00:27:44] Yes, but you're not an expert on sports.

[00:27:45] We know that.

[00:27:46] Okay.

[00:27:46] I am not an expert on sports.

[00:27:47] Don't ask me about how healthcare works.

[00:27:49] I have no clue.

[00:27:50] Okay.

[00:27:50] But yeah, like I take in information from a wide variety of resources.

[00:27:56] So I look at mainstream media.

[00:27:58] I look at social media.

[00:28:00] I Twitter, I think despite its flaws, is a great place when situations are unfolding to learn a lot about what's happening.

[00:28:09] You just have to really filter through what's true here and what's not.

[00:28:14] And then I think I just, I have a number of trusted resources, people in my network or others that I'll reach out to if I want to know more about something that we're working through.

[00:28:26] I think it's also, I live at the nexus of crisis management because it's what I do for a living.

[00:28:32] So we have clients that we're supporting in a crisis.

[00:28:34] So we're getting information from them and we're getting information from FEMA and DHS and federal law enforcement states and others that are in that space.

[00:28:45] We're getting some good factual information there.

[00:28:48] And you have to just put all of that together and figure out what's, assess what is and isn't true.

[00:28:53] Diving into those, looking at something and understanding what are the other sources that tell me that this is happening.

[00:29:01] I think here's a great example.

[00:29:03] The hurricane, I saw this morning, not long after I got up, that Hurricane Milton had torn the roof off of Tropicana Stadium.

[00:29:12] Now, that seemed reasonable to me given what the strength of this hurricane was.

[00:29:19] But I looked at the first source, which I think was Deadspin on Twitter, and I went looking for a local news source to see if it was true.

[00:29:27] Right?

[00:29:27] That I wasn't falling prey to some AI generated image.

[00:29:31] When I saw multiple news outlets reporting this all with different photos and video, okay, I assess that as likely true.

[00:29:38] And then I shared it with my team.

[00:29:40] We use Slack for inter-team communication so that they could get a view of what this might mean for our clients on the ground.

[00:29:46] They're in eastern and central, or western and central Florida.

[00:29:51] You tweeted out today a story that someone was refusing all FEMA help because they had been listening to Trump.

[00:30:00] That's where this can really have danger.

[00:30:02] Yes.

[00:30:03] Is that if someone, and explain a little bit of that context, because this is where I want to get to before we close here, is this has real world implications.

[00:30:12] Explain a little bit about, this was someone who had said that their father-in-law had refused all FEMA help because he was listening to Trump.

[00:30:20] He doesn't believe FEMA.

[00:30:21] He believes Trump.

[00:30:23] And I guarantee you, that was a tweet that was sent out, I believe, by the Harris campaign about it.

[00:30:27] But they're talking about people on the ground.

[00:30:30] And you have a federal agency there to help, and they're not taking the help because they're listening to a politician.

[00:30:37] Yeah.

[00:30:38] Yeah.

[00:30:39] This apparently was someone who had called into Dan Abrams' show on MSNBC talking about their father-in-law being outside of Asheville and was refusing all aid from FEMA.

[00:30:50] And I assume that this means he's refusing the various funding assistance that's available through FEMA.

[00:30:58] But it was hard to tell exactly what all he was refusing.

[00:31:02] FEMA's brought pretty similar resources in North Carolina, likely being distributed by state and local organizations in terms of food and other resources.

[00:31:11] But apparently this guy is refusing all of that because of something he's hearing from the former president.

[00:31:16] But, yeah, this is where this really hurts people is if they choose to listen to folks who are spreading disinformation.

[00:31:23] They're not going to take advantage of the help and resources that are on the ground.

[00:31:27] Because I know that a lot of Republicans who remember Ronald Reagan or have read about him know that Ronald Reagan famously said one of the – I'm paraphrasing, but it was, in essence, the most terrifying phrase is, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

[00:31:42] So – and I know it's not an exact quote because I don't want to misquote when I'm with an expert of misinformation on the show.

[00:31:48] But that's the premise that a lot of Republicans have and a lot of conservatives have is that there's nothing good that the government can be doing and that the response just lies in the private sector.

[00:31:58] And honestly, there are some things that the government can do and do it well.

[00:32:02] And I'm sure my inbox is going to fill up with a number of people criticizing that.

[00:32:07] But in an emergency like this, I believe that there needs to be good information and the government can play a role working with state and local partners in a collaborative way to help people.

[00:32:19] Give a message, Brian.

[00:32:20] I don't know that we have a ton of listeners that are in the path of the – or in the aftermath of the hurricane.

[00:32:25] But more are going to happen.

[00:32:28] Give some practices and some tips and information about what people should – how they should interface and interact with government agencies who are there to literally try to help.

[00:32:37] I'll divide this into two things.

[00:32:39] I think just an important bit of history.

[00:32:42] During the Obama administration, when President Obama came in, he appointed Craig Fugate as the head of FEMA.

[00:32:49] Craig had been the state emergency manager in Florida for about a decade.

[00:32:54] Craig immediately laid out a vision for FEMA that carries to this day.

[00:33:00] And that was this concept of emergency management is about the whole community.

[00:33:04] Or as Craig put it, nothing about you without you.

[00:33:06] And he did a really good job of repositioning FEMA to incorporate the entire community in response.

[00:33:15] So he reinforced what you just outlined, which is it is a collaborative effort between state, local, tribal, and the federal government.

[00:33:24] But it also involves the private sector.

[00:33:27] And Craig was the first leader at a federal level to say, look, if we can help other companies recover their capabilities, that is the sooner people get back to work.

[00:33:38] It is the sooner that we get food and water and medical capabilities and others flowing into that market.

[00:33:45] And that takes the response off of government to have to bring in food, water, medical capabilities.

[00:33:52] Because the hospitals are working.

[00:33:53] Because Target and Walmart can do that.

[00:33:55] Because Home Depot has supplies available to help people clean up.

[00:33:59] It required everybody at the table working together.

[00:34:01] And I think Craig brought the emergency management community along to where the states already were, which is that everybody has to work together in a collaborative effort in a major response and recovery.

[00:34:12] So that's one part of that over the last 20 years that I think has changed.

[00:34:17] For individuals, look, the first thing I would tell you is it's important to think about what you will do at an emergency and that you take a look at your own state of affairs in terms of supplies and your plans.

[00:34:28] So as we say it in emergency management, have a plan.

[00:34:31] So how are you and your family staying in touch?

[00:34:35] Where will you evacuate to if you have to evacuate?

[00:34:38] Have a kit.

[00:34:39] How do you make sure that you and your family can sustain yourselves and your pets and your friends and neighbors if necessary for three days?

[00:34:46] That's about the longest period of time you may have to go without help.

[00:34:50] So that's a lot of water, food, shelter, clothing, those kind of things that you might have to have.

[00:34:56] And then have a plan, make a kit, and stay informed with trusted information.

[00:35:02] What are those sources of information?

[00:35:04] The Red Cross, your local emergency services, state emergency management, FEMA, that you can learn about what's going on, that you can get the truth about what's happening, and then make the right plans.

[00:35:16] In September every year, we just came out of National Preparedness Month.

[00:35:19] It's FEMA's reminder of thinking through those things and making sure you and your family and your local community are ready.

[00:35:27] I'm going to update my plan.

[00:35:29] You know what my current plan was?

[00:35:30] To come find you.

[00:35:31] My plan was to come find you.

[00:35:33] My plan was to just map quest where you were and print it off as we used to do with map quest.

[00:35:40] Find you and rob door.

[00:35:41] That was my plan.

[00:35:42] That was my safety plan for my family.

[00:35:45] Break in case of emergency, and it's the cell phone and address and where we can find Rob Door and Brian Strausser because that's where I want to be if an emergency is happening.

[00:35:53] But I'll change my plan.

[00:35:55] Now, that's good advice.

[00:35:56] I probably should.

[00:35:56] Have your own plan.

[00:35:57] I should probably have my own plan that doesn't involve invading your space.

[00:36:00] Brian, you are a wonderful resource.

[00:36:03] I want to give a shout out to your, on Twitter, at Brian Strausser.

[00:36:06] I wanted to say a couple more things before we end.

[00:36:08] Brian, you are one of the few people I have on social media that I have notifications on for because every time you speak on social media, except when it's about sports, I want to hear.

[00:36:19] You are a trusted resource.

[00:36:21] And one of the things that this podcast is so dedicated to is having conversations, putting out good information, and amplifying responsible voices.

[00:36:30] You are a grownup on social media.

[00:36:33] And I want to thank you just for the profession that you've shown, your accessibility to come on and share information, but also how you approach your use of social media.

[00:36:42] You are very wise, and you are someone that I've leaned into to follow you to the point where, of all the followers I have, you're on my list, and I get notifications every time you tweet because you're always putting out good information.

[00:36:55] And I think, I want our listeners to know that one of the things I like about Brian, setting aside his horrible sports takes, is his sense of judgment.

[00:37:06] I have always found Brian to be a calm voice and someone that I could go to and get information from and help explain really complex issues.

[00:37:15] Your approach in coming on and how you just handle yourself just exudes confidence and a sense of calm.

[00:37:22] And I just want to compliment you for that, and I really thank you for coming on and taking time, which I'm sure is a busy time for you, election, misinformation, but also these responses, and just share information because it's so valuable to our listeners.

[00:37:36] And it also helps extend the goal of this podcast, which is to share good information and truthful information.

[00:37:42] So I just want to thank you for that, okay?

[00:37:43] I appreciate that.

[00:37:44] I'll have to remember this the next time I say something snooty to somebody on Twitter.

[00:37:48] Yeah, that's fine.

[00:37:49] You can, you still got to live.

[00:37:51] I'm sure it's tough.

[00:37:52] People are going to chime in about young sales.

[00:37:54] By the way, I see you commented on the twin sales.

[00:37:57] Just stay out of the business.

[00:37:58] Just stay out of it.

[00:37:58] Okay.

[00:37:59] We don't need to hear a Red Sox.

[00:38:02] I think though, that this could be a good thing for the team.

[00:38:05] The pole hats are great people, but they run this like a business and you need an owner that wants to win.

[00:38:10] Yes.

[00:38:11] Yes.

[00:38:11] Spoken like a Red Sox.

[00:38:13] And Patriots fan.

[00:38:15] Okay.

[00:38:15] I have owners that want to win.

[00:38:17] I have owners that all that's just sticking the knife in one time before you go.

[00:38:21] What a show.

[00:38:22] Becky, we look forward to having you back next week.

[00:38:25] We certainly miss you on the podcast.

[00:38:26] But Brian, thank you for filling in, coming on, explaining, being a guest, putting up with me.

[00:38:31] At Brian Strausser on social media.

[00:38:34] We're going to link to him in social media when we promote this episode.

[00:38:38] Brian, thanks again so much.

[00:38:40] Appreciate everyone showing up for another episode of The Breakdown with Broadcom and Becky.

[00:38:44] Before you go, show some love for your favorite podcast by leaving us a reel on Apple Podcasts or the platform where you listen.

[00:38:50] We're available across all social media platforms at BB Breakpod.

[00:38:55] And The Breakdown with Broadcom and Becky with Becky will be back next week.

[00:38:59] Thank you so much.

[00:39:00] Thanks for having me.