On March 1, 2007, one of the most powerful tornados in Georgia’s history decimated Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus. Charles N. Hayslett, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based public relations firm The Hayslett Group, was called in to help manage the overwhelming communications challenges that followed the loss of the area’s only major hospital. Hayslett shares these best practices that can be applied to any weather-related crisis:
- Ensure disaster management plans are up-to-date and include communications plans. You should be able to answer in the affirm4ative to all these questions:
- Does your plan include a phone tree with necessary post-disaster phone numbers divided among staff?
- Is everybody on staff carrying cell phones? Are everyone’s numbers programmed into everyone’s phone?
- Are key telephone and e-mail contacts backed up at an offsite location?
- Has your plan been updated often enough to take into account personnel changes and resident move-ins and move-outs?
- Designate one person to be the spokesperson for media requests. If your community is hit by a tornado, in most cases, media will come to you and can be a powerful ally in getting necessary information out to family members and other community stakeholders. Having one person who is properly trained to speak with media can make that process run more smoothly and reduce misinformation, Hayslett says.
This person also will act as a liaison to connect media with company leadership, and brief that leadership before interviews on key points to communicate to the press. In a larger company, that person will likely be someone in the corporate public relations office. In a smaller firm, it could be the sales and marketing director or any other staff member who meets these qualifications. The key is to select a spokesperson before disaster strikes. - Cooperate with the media; it’s generally the best strategy. “In my experience, the general public is not going to blame responsible management for a natural disaster, an act of God,” Hayslett says. “But they will blame them and hold them responsible if they don’t think management acted responsibly in taking care of the people who are in their charge. Part of the way the public arrives at that judgment is in processing the way that management has responded to it publicly.”
- Only provide information you know and avoid speculating about what you don’t. Almost always, initial media coverage after a disaster contains errors in the rush to get information out to the public, so try not to add to that confusion, Hayslett says.
- Prioritize direct communication with your constituencies. In addition to direct contacts and public meetings, your community Web site can be a “great venue for updating the public generally on what’s being done to deal with the situation,” Hayslett says.
- Continue communicating with the media even after the immediate crisis has passed. Ongoing communication can highlight the ways you are acting responsibly to manage the situation over time, including that the “building will be back and open for business and ready to provide good care just as it did prior to the tornado,” Hayslett says. Times to contact the media can include tearing down the damaged property, groundbreaking, completion, and reopening.
- PR isn’t what you say but what you do. No amount of public relations training is going to help if management does not have a strong disaster plan and follow it to the best of their abilities, says Hayslett.
Finally, Hayslett suggests that a trade association can be a great source for help in putting together a crisis communication plan and may even be able to step in as a spokesperson. Download ALFA’s Disaster Planning Guide and Tool Kit, free to members.
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