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Know the structure of your state's disaster response plan and the local players' plans, and understand how they fit together. (You don't want to start trying to figure it out in a pandemic.)
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Start making yourself known to people in the disaster response network. One strategy is to build goodwill by doing a series of small stories about how the network functions. The ultimate objective is for officials to trust you, see you as a partner in getting information to the public, and of course, return your phone calls.
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Get the names and cell phone numbers of people in various positions of responsibility.
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Make a map pinpointing sites such as physicians' practices that have been designated as triage centers.
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Start compiling a list of acronyms, definitions, and IDs that can be pasted into stories.
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Educate your editors about pandemic issues, advocate in your newsrooms for time to start covering them and prod management to create a plan for getting out the news if a third of us don't show up for work.
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Start to mention to hospital officials and PIOs that in an emergency, the public will not be reassured by messages filtered through the communications staff. Readers will want to hear directly from the medical director of the ER or the infectious disease doctor. Start talking to health care contacts about the power of people's stories, how stories can inform the public and how the health care point people can help by connecting me with patients.
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Set up a Google News alert and subscribe to media lists for CDC, WHO, and other national/international organizations to stay current on what's happening outside your area. These sources may come in handy when news happens in your area as well.
