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Dr. Samantha Montano Profile picture
Dr. Samantha Montano
@SamLMontano
Working on disaster justice & the climate crisis. Emergency Management PhD. Author of 📚DISASTEROLOGY 📚 she/her #EMGTwitter
John Bujnoch Profile picture 2 subscribed
Sep 29, 2023 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
With the flooding in NYC, many people are rightly concerned about how FEMA will be involved in the response given the (seemingly) impending shutdown.

I'm going to try and explain this as simply as possible based on my current understanding. #EMGTwitter The Disaster Relief Fund is the pot of $ used to pay for response & recovery when a community receives a Presidential Declaration.

For months, FEMA & White House have been asking Congress to refill the Disaster Relief Fund because it was very low.
Aug 17, 2023 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
People keep sending me this article so it's time for an uncomfortable thread about emergency managers. There is some really important context needed here. #EMGTwitter

civilbeat.org/2023/08/was-ma… I have found that in the midst of a response most people reveal they have a misperception about what and who emergency managers are...

The majority of emergency managers in the United States are only part-time. They usually double as the fire chief or are a retired firefighter
May 15, 2023 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
I'd like to share the final list of movies for the Disaster Film class I'll be teaching in the fall! #EMGTwitter

Before I do... some of you are going to be in a huff about certain movies not being included but I need y'all to be chill. (Some of you were not chill last time.) I assure you have given this a lot of thought and this is what's best for this particular course and my particular students. This is set in stone so there's no negotiation that needs to happen.

Okay, here we go.
May 15, 2023 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
I have never seen US emergency managers panic over anything as much as they do when someone suggests cutting EMPG funding.

So, we thought we should probably do a bit of research on it. #EMGTwitter

@Gerber_Chavez_ @amsavitt @tbcorbin & @DowneyDavia Image The Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) is a ~$355 million annual grant program that gives a few million dollars to each state for preparedness-related needs.

This is not a perfect program but for now, it's what we have.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/Z…
May 8, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I want to highlight this Frontline from @yessfun.

A fire in New England (or the northeast, generally) is one of the future disasters that keep me up at night. It's not just the conditions changing but that we don't have the capacity to respond.

atmos.earth/wildfires-nort… We've done very little to prepare. The population has no clue how to respond, we don't have the people, or equipment to fight effectively. We don't have people with a depth of knowledge. We're not mitigating.
Oct 6, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This disaster article is so terrible (and dangerous, frankly) that I'm going to use it as an example of what not to do in my media & disaster course.

nytimes.com/2022/10/05/us/… First of all, it's immediately clear that they have zero understanding of what FEMA does or how the US emergency management system works. As a result they're just parroting what a random group of people think FEMA should be doing... okay???

Oct 3, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
🧵Here's a thread of important things to keep in mind as this disaster unfolds.

#EMGTwitter 1. This wasn't a "natural disaster". Disasters result when there is an *interaction* between a hazard and us to the point that the impacts/ needs overwhelm our communities. There's always more than one factor that creates our risk.

Sep 30, 2022 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Inspired by this NYT article -- What's the difference between "declaration cost-share" and "supplemental aid"?

We love an early morning disaster policy thread!

nytimes.com/2022/09/29/us/… Declaration Cost-Share.

When a state gets a Presidential Disaster Declaration (PDD) from the White House (at governor's request, through FEMA and per the Stafford Act) the usual agreement is that FEMA pays 90% of relevant costs for Public Assistance...
Sep 18, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Fiona is the latest reminder that storm category does not tell you what the damage will be -- it's the geography & vulnerabilities of the communities. Also, that when communities are kept from the resources needed to rebuild *quickly* they are more vulnerable to the next hazard. This is why we need comprehensive emergency management reform at the federal, state/territory, and local levels. The Biden administration could do this. Members of Congress could *start* this conversation.
May 14, 2021 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Folks, it's time. I'm watching it. A little solo Disasterologists At The Movies.

#DATM #EMGTwitter Whew. A pretty graphic opening wildfire scene, an explosion, and the classic 'family having breakfast together' to reel us in...
May 12, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Sigh.

Everything old is new again. *stares in the entire body of emergency management research* Image
Feb 18, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Hi.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE US MONEY TO STUDY HOW CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

We don't even need that much money to do this! ok. I know I'm screaming but I'm actually 100% serious.

@BillGates -- I hear you're into climate adaptation now. Great! Give us money!!
Feb 17, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Among the many horrific things Rush Limbaugh did and said he was also a persistent disaster denialist.

It's a long list but in the past few years, he actively encouraged people not to follow hurricane evacuation orders (while evacuating himself). buzzfeednews.com/article/davidm… He persistently lied about climate change and their relationship to disasters.

nytimes.com/2020/09/15/bus…
Feb 17, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This is another disaster where the needs are so geographically widespread that my best advice on giving is to just pick a person/group/ organization and give them money. My personal approach in a situation like this is to do the following:
1. Help anyone I know personally who needs help
2. Donate to any groups I've worked with before/ know they're effective
3. Local groups that serve marginalized people that haven't gotten many donations
Feb 17, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
They're also not connecting this to broader issues with our approach to emergency management.

If you're new around here (hi, welcome) and here's a thread on how democrats (including Biden) love to ignore emergency management. I often get comments about how my criticism of various democrats re: disasters is unfair because "at least they aren't Trump". 😅

Sure, democrats are not chucking paper towels at people but they also are not doing an effective job of meeting disaster-related needs.
Feb 17, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A common genre of disaster tweet is someone making a snarky comment that blames disaster survivors for the disaster because of their state’s political affiliation.

A short thread. This is a problem for several reasons but the big one is that generally the same communities that tend to be most impacted by disasters are the same ones that are most likely to be kept from voting.
Feb 16, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
I’ve been thinking about how in the mid-sixties (or so) “the public” became disillusioned with the civil defense preparedness efforts as their inadequacies in the face of the nuclear threat became so obvious. It seems to me something similar is occurring now. The public is looking for information on how to be prepared and what emergency management has to offer is, frankly, little more than “tips and tricks” about writing down phone numbers, etc.
Dec 9, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
IAEM released some recommendations for the first 100 days of the Biden administration related to emergency management.

#EMGTwitter

iaem.org/Portals/25/doc… "The President-Elect should announce his nominee for FEMA Administrator before the end of this year."

IAEM has strong "hurry the hell up" energy.
Dec 9, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
I appreciate the point of this graphic and I do not want to in anyway minimize the horrific number of COVID deaths however... we have got to talk about where y’all pull death toll numbers from and how yall choose which events to include... 🤦🏼‍♀️👀 Okay, real quick because this is a learning opportunity.

Comparing death tolls between war, terrorism, pandemics, and acute disaster/ catastrophes is wildly problematic but let’s say you want to do that, fine but there are some things to be aware of…
Dec 8, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
The Maine Climate Council released it's four-year plan for climate action in Maine.

"It might be easier to put off climate action until
calmer times. But Maine can’t wait. Maine shouldn’t wait. And Maine won’t wait."

maine.gov/future/sites/m… Emergency Management was included as one of the working groups so on that alone Maine is leaps and bounds ahead of some other places.
Nov 16, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Oh, I'm fine. Just having a near daily meltdown over the lack of integration between public health and emergency management research. Sry to my colleagues who specialize in bridging the two. Whew. Y'all have your work cut out for you!