The Art of Talking About Disaster – Times-Standard

The past six months have given us a taste for confronting the unfamiliar. Coronavirus has affected us all, creating uncertainty and anxiety about the economic and physical health of the family and society. Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone who could clearly spell out what’s going on, provide guidance as to where we’re headed, and who we can all believe?

I don’t think anyone could fit this law. COVID is new and we are in the midst of a pandemic. But I have many examples of really good communication in other areas that give an idea of ​​what we can use.

Hurricanes are a good place to start because they are more visible than many other disasters. Hurricanes have a season, occur frequently, and have large, measurable impacts. It also aids in their formation and travel in the atmosphere, making it easier to monitor compared to other parts of the Earth system. But they still pose significant challenges in communicating risks.

All disasters, whether you can see them coming or not, involve uncertainty. Humans are really bad at handling uncertainty. We spend billions on the lottery with a low probability of success, while at the same time engaging in high-probability risky activities like smoking. The exact path and strength of a tornado includes uncertainties. The primary mitigation technique for hurricanes is to keep people out of harm’s way. There are many reasons why it can be difficult to get people to evacuate and the uncertainty increases muddy water.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) was formed in Miami for 65 years. The center has always had a strong advocacy effort and nothing can sum it up better than Dr. Max Mayfield. Mayfield spent 34 years with the National Weather Service and headed the NHC from 2000 to 2007. He was nicknamed “Mr. Hurricane” for his frequent television appearances and his ability to clearly convey what was happening and motivate people to evacuate. He has worked hard in the off-season to communicate readiness to both officials and the public. It became a familiar and reliable sound that people in hurricane country expected to appear on television screens whenever a hurricane approached. He instilled it as a tradition that his successors continued to in the NHC.

Earthquakes are different from hurricanes. We can’t see them coming and devastated people are not frequent. This means a greater focus on being prepared before long and more communication skills to get people to pay attention to something they don’t care about. No one has done a better job than Kate Hutton to do this. Kate, the astronomer by training, turned to earthquakes when she realized the job market was better. I arrived at USGS in Pasadena in 1977 to work on data analysis and strengthening of the seismic network. As a sideline, she fell into the earthquake communication role in Southern California because her predecessor had this responsibility.

Unlike a number of scientists I’ve known, Kate has never thought that communication is a lesser duty. She understood her importance, and although an introvert by nature, she was really good at it. She became the first “Earthquake Lady”, explaining to the audience on radio and television what happened after each tremor she felt and strengthening preparedness between them. When Lucy Jones arrived eight years later, Kate had already created the formula. They’ve become the Kate and Lucy Show, and like Max Mayfield, millions expected to bring a calm, educated, and clear perspective on anything that vibrates.

Not all great callers are scholars by training. Agencies like the National Weather Service and the USGS have long recognized that the media can be an important ally, and are often able to persuade and motivate the public in ways that can be difficult for scientists. You can find these powerful journalists in all areas of the media and I have had the pleasure to work with so many. They have many things in common – they work closely with scientists and scientific agencies, they are aware of what they do not know and assume no answers, and they try hard to resist the sensational pressures of their employers.

There are too many great science writers out there who can’t even mention the word “hearing,” so I’ll let one of them represent the group. If you lived in the greater Los Angeles basin between 1986 and 2008, you probably know the name Jack Popejoy. Popjoy spent more than twenty years as a radio commercial and broadcaster in the Los Angeles area and was also slated to be the next astronaut prior to the Challenger disaster that knocked out the program. Earthquakes were his passion and he was known among seismologists for his questions and encyclopedic knowledge of past events. Kate Hutton remembers him as “among the best”.

My friend and colleague Kate Long, who was previously with the OES State Seismic Program, had this description of Bobbyjoy, which sums up an extraordinary scientific interlocutor.

“Jack Bobbyjoy was all good about the news reporter: curious, intelligent, as well as citizen-learned scientist, great listener and intelligent question seeker. He was able to explain science in a way that everyone could understand. But Jack was also a generous teacher. Speaking to the audience is a completely different language than Scientists talk to each other. If Jack was recording an interview, he would stop the recorder and guide you through short sentences that clearly expressed the point you were trying to make. Lucy Jones attributed him as her mentor in science communication to the public, as many of us do. It was his energy and creativity. Infectious… Jack was the opposite of “fake news.” I summon his calm wisdom and sweet smile every time I had a microphone in my face. ”

Max, Kate, and Jack have many things in common. They all spent years developing a relationship with the public and gaining their trust as honest mediators – anchored on scientific consensus and able to explain what was known and unknown. COVID is more challenging in its newness and with more uncertainty, and has become a thunderbolt political factor. Jacques Bobbyjoy passed away in 2011. If he’s still alive, I’m sure he will do his best to separate the reality of COVID from the fiction, but it may even scare him the challenges of the current communications landscape.

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