Dr. Matthew Smith joins the show tonight to talk about WMD response and the management of pediatric patients exposed to chemical, biological, or radiological agents. Matt is a former US Navy Medical Corps Lieutenant Commander, and served with the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, where he qualified as a weapons of mass destruction medical specialist. He got the opportunity to go to USAMRIID, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Oak Ridge, and many other places to train for that responsibility. Time after time, he saw that the most overlooked patients in preparing and training for those scenario ..read more

We start off the discussion of recent active weather patterns across the U.S. with cold rain and snow in California, windy red flag fire warnings across the plains, tornados from Oklahoma up through the Ohio Valley, and an extremely wet start of the month of April on the east coast and mid-Atlantic region. We also touch on the recent earthquake in Taiwan which was the worst they had in the past 25 years. We remarked on the amazing pictures of leaning buildings that did not completely collapse. Becky DePodwin, our emergency management expert, made note that after the last bad quake, local build ..read more

We welcome meteorologist and disaster incident command system expert Kyle Nelson on the show. He checks in from Florida where he’s traveling to a training event to help him in his roles with his county incident command system, especially when they deploy to other states during distant events. Then we check in with Dr. Joe Holley about his upcoming training events with Paragon Medical Education Group. He reviews training he’s conducting around the country for various jurisdictions, including the U.S. military. In addition to our guest this week, we had co-hosts Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis. Than ..read more

Dr. Joe Holley examines some of the key take aways from the verdict against two EMS providers in the Elijah McClain homicide trial. The team goes over lessons that can be learned from this case. This tragic situation, which resulted in the death of the patient, offers opportunities for all EMS and other medical professional to learn from what occurred. Key challenges start with how protocols are written and how providers are expected to handle situations where patient care is being assumed from police officers. Check out the additional resources below including an earlier episode of this podca ..read more

This week features a rare follow-up episode where we looked back at last week’s episode on Geohazard Mitigation with Colby Barrett from GeoStabilization International. This week we brought back Dan Zehner from The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). Dan talks about some of the ways NHERI centers research aspects of geohazards and natural disasters that cause them. We talk about public-private partnerships that impact response to disasters and change zoning and building codes in areas likely to be impacted by geohazards. NHERI has some great media partnerships and event ..read more

Colby Barrett is our guest this week on the Disaster Podcast. He is the son of the one of the founders of GeoStabilization International and currently is the vice chair of the Board of Directors for the company. He’s a Marine Corps veteran, lawyer, engineer, and describes himself as a philanthro-capitalist. The company focuses on bringing new technologies to the critical infrastructure and geohazard repair industries. They work to remediate landslides with technology they’ve developed to mitigate future land and rockslides. They are the leading geohazard mitigation company in North America. On ..read more

This week on the Disaster Podcast it’s time to discuss recent wintery weather trends. That also means it’s time to stump our meteorologist, Dan DePodwin. The wintery weather terms we try out on him include freezing fog, polar vortex, graupel, hoar frost, frost flower (ice ribbons or frost beards), and rime ice. We shift gears and continue talking with Kevin Reiter about ways to stay prepared for wintery weather as a traveler. We discuss what to carry in the car or van when making long trips in the winter time. Also on the show are preparedness expert Kevin Reiter, emergency management expert B ..read more

This week Dr. Joe Holley drops in after attending the NAEMSP (National Association of EMS Physicians) annual meeting in Austin, Texas. The leadership of our EMS docs discussed a multitude of important topics for the prehospital care environment. Here is one of the topics Dr. Joe shared on this week’s Disaster Podcast. One of the hot topics revolved around the verdict in the Elijah McClain homicide trial. In that trial, two paramedics were found guilty in the death of the individual while he was in police custody. Dr. Joe talks about how EMS providers must make their own independent assessments ..read more

We invite Robert LeHeup on the Disaster Podcast this week to talk about his nonprofit initiative for veterans called Bullets and Bandaids. Bullets and Bandaids uses art therapy to assist veterans deal with trauma from their experiences in the military. The group connects authors with writers and artists who take the veteran’s story and transform it into written and physical forms of art. This helps a person express themselves in ways that may not come naturally to them as an individual. The group accepts contact from all artists including: Writers Interpretive Dancers Sculptors Painters Digit ..read more

The whole team of regulars at the Disaster Podcast wrapped up year number ten with the podcast. We take a look back at a decade of episodes with our Meteorologists Kyle Nelson and Dan DePodwin, Emergency Management expert Becky DePodwin, and co-hosts Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis. They all share their favorite episodes over their time with the show to cap many years with the crew. Becky’s Choices Human Trafficking in Disaster Situations Report From Surfside Condominium Collapse Resilience in the Face of PTSD and other Stress Injury Hurricane Ida’s Aftermath Dan’s Choices Disaster Family Liais ..read more