By Brian Bethel
The Abilene Reporter-News
ABILENE, Texas — The events of Sept. 11, 2001, are still fresh in the mind of Jim Bryan, emergency management coordinator for the city of Abilene, as well as other officials who spoke Tuesday to the Abilene Public Relations Organization.
Speaking after the meeting, Bryan, along with Greg Goettsch, technical services administrator and public information officer with the Abilene Fire Department, said increased awareness and better communication have come about in the wake of the terrorism attacks.
“Everything we do is an impetus of 9/11,” Bryan said.
Changes include everything from basic organizational structure to technical equipment, such as statewide critical instant management software, to the city of Abilene’s CodeRED, an emergency warning system initially funded by Department of Homeland Security grants, to standardized training, he said.
“It’s a lot of training — and we exercise according to that training,” Bryan said.
Goettsch said many communications barriers between police, fire and other emergency professionals have been broken down successfully since the attacks.
“On the fire side, there’s a just a whole lot more awareness,” he said, including “looking at the actions of people, recognizing your surroundings, looking at what kind of environment you’re in.
“You’re just trying to be a lot more aware of your environment and your surroundings,” he said, from trying to determine if there is “something out of place” to looking for secondary devices in the event of an explosion.
And again, more training has provided the department with tools to handle potentially life-threatening scenarios, Goettsch said.
“We’ve had a lot of training for individual responses, such as CBRNE,” he said referring to an acronym for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive events.
Goettsch and Bryan, as well as George Spindler, public information officer for the Abilene Police Department, were APRO’s guests at the group’s first scheduled luncheon of the year at Hardin-Simmons University.
Bryan and Goettsch recounted for the group of professionals and students particularly difficult days on their jobs - in Bryan’s case a 2007 flood, in Goettsch’s a 2005 train derailment - and how they juggled getting proper information to media and the public while working to ensure safety for emergency personnel and others.
Hendrick Medical Center spokeswoman Lynne Bruton, APRO president, said that hearing from first responders was an opportunity for those in the group, especially the students, to learn to appreciate the role of such professionals and understand how they coordinate emergency situations.
Bruton told the group that those who work as public information officers for police, fire, emergency response groups and similar entities “deal with life-and-death situations and people at their hardest times.”
“Our major role is to make sure that the right people get the right information at the right time so they can make good decisions about how to protect themselves and their family,” Goettsch told the group.
APRO’s schedule, tied to the school year, made Sept. 11 stand out as the appropriate date for the presentation, Bruton said.
“We thought: Wouldn’t it be appropriate to go ahead and have that be our first luncheon and program?” she said, in light of the essential role of first responders during the crucial moments initially following the terrorist attacks.
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