A tornado has recently touched down in your county. Its path of destruction has resulted in significant damage to properties, injuries of citizens, and likely fatalities. Your organization/agency has been called to respond to the incident and has been on scene for less than an hour when the local news crew arrives to get updates. What is your plan? Who do you have to handle this situation? What are you going to say to the news crew? 

Enter in the role of the Public Information Officer (PIO). The PIO is a vital function in disaster operations that contributes greatly to saving lives and protecting property. PIO functions include: 

• Advising the Incident Commander, Unified Command or EOC director on public information matters 

• Gathering, verifying, coordinating, and disseminating accurate, accessible, and timely information

• Handling inquiries from the media, public and elected officials

• Providing emergency public information and warnings

• Conducting rumor monitoring and response 

However, you don’t have to wait until disaster strikes to utilize your PIO. In fact, the PIO often falls under the 95/5 concept of preparedness. This means that about 95% of the work a PIO will perform will be completed in non-emergency times, while the other 5% will be directly related to incident response and/or recovery. The activities the PIO performs during non-emergency times can have a significant impact on how successful they will be during their other 5% of job performance.  

So what kind of things can a PIO be performing during their non-emergency time? Well, they can… 

• Create, monitor, and maintain a social media presence 

• Create a public awareness campaign 

• Get involved with the local coalition

• Develop materials/messages 

• Develop and exercise an action plan 

• Identify intended audiences

• And much, much more…