Crisis Communication Project (Part 2)

I have been working on my research for the flooding communication that occurred in Valley City during the flooding. I have found that most people listened to the radio as their main source of getting valuable information from the people i have talked to. They found that radio was something that almost everyone has and is easily accessible almost anywhere you go unlike TV, newspapers, and internet. A lot of them also enjoyed hearing the news from the mayor herself or from the Army Corps of Engineers Rich Schueneman on the cfs levels of Baldhill Dam and what to expect for output levels. They felt the radio really connected them to people in their own environment that knew exactly what they were dealing with and made them feel more comfortable. After analyzing the situation and from what people have told me i am thinking that the radio was the most popular medium used. Due to it being localized, accurate, and updated on what was going on at all times in Valley City.

Crisis Communication Project

The community I am going to look at for the crisis communication project is Valley City. I chose Valley City because I live there and know what and how the communication was being handled for the most part. I was going to choose Fargo, but since I was not there during the flood it would be harder to find and determine what the best methods were. The spokesperson for Valley City in my opinion was the Mayor, Mary Lee Nielson who would inform the city on the radio about what was going on with the dikes, Baldhill Dam output, and any other news related to the sewer problems. Although she was not always the one saying or giving the information, she was the main spokesperson. The mayor was the spokesperson because she is in charge of the town and the people of Valley City know who she is and would most likely listen to her. She is one of the first to receive information on what is going on with the river and what the town needed to do. Twitter, Fargo Forum, News Dakota, and the Times-Record were all channels of communication during the flooding situation in Valley City. Each of these helped keep the public informed as best it could on the situation on hand and as what was to come. I am going to talk to people in the community and get a general consensus about which channel was they mostly used. Then ask which they thought was most effect and was the best method that should be used. The channel I will probably go with will be the radio I think, since that is what I used and many other people I have already talked to also used.

Evacuation of Elim Care Center

I agree with our text book saying, "You don't have to be involved in a dangerous business to encounter a crisis". A nursing home is not a dangerous business, but is there to help care for older residents of a community. Yet on April 26, 2009 133 residents had to be evacuated due to the rising water in the Red River. Because of good communication with the state officials Elim was prepared to deal with the evacuation adequately. The faculty and staff had a crisis plan and followed it to minimize chaos and confusion. The nursing home had to make sure that families were called and that all the residents had a safe destination along with their medicines, medical records, and a safe way to get there. The Emergency Operation Center along with the Long Term Care Association worked together to get the names of the residents and the types of transportation they needed compiled. They helped find open spots in the state to house the residents that were to be evacuated. Social Services at Elim contacted the families regarding the evacuation. Some loved ones chose to take them home, while others had no choice, but to send them to other facilities. Each resident was issued a triage tag with an identification number. Belongings, medicines, and medical records were packed in a pillow case labeled with each resident’s name. The triage tags and personal belongings bags were separated depending on where the resident was going. Staff volunteered to accompany the residents on their travel to other facilities. This shows how well a crisis situation can be handled. Coordinating for 133 residents takes a lot of time and work by all the faculty and staff to make sure all residents were safe and had their belongings. They used the help of government agencies such as Social Services to help with the crisis in contacting the families. If Elim did not have a crisis plan things could have been much worse and very difficult without the communication of all the agencies and faculty and staff.

Cars.com

Looking for a new affordable vehicle? With the economy the way it is more people are shopping at cars.com. Looking at this article it shows 32 percent of car owners who were once thinking of buying a new car are now looking into a certified pre-owned vehicle instead. That might not seem like a lot to some people, but i am sure the dealerships are definitely noticing. Instead of them being able to sell their new vehicles off the lot they are better off selling a pre-owned vehicle. Consumers at this point are focused on cutting costs to help with the poor economy. This is just one of the many ways to cut costs in our current economy right? Well like it states in the article, the vehicle may end up costing them more money in the long run over time depending on how many months they want to make payments. Currently the average time length acceptable for a loan is 60 months, which is up from 48 months just five months ago. By looking to save and extending loans it will help by making car payments lower and the overall monthly payments as well. But the car might not be worth it in the end, unless it keeps its value. Later in the year depending on how long this trend continues they could write a feature story about this for the paper. If enough attention is attracted to the buying of old cars rather than buying new ones it may be a great feature story to cover. I have looked for a vehicle on cars.com, which was started in 1998 and it is a great site when looking at prices of any type of vehicle. Even though I never found a car I wanted to buy it still lets you know what is out there and what prices vehicles are being sold at and bought for. Not only are there reasonable prices, but you can also get extended warranties or certified inspections with the purchase of a used car. I do however have friends that have bought a car from cars.com and got a great deal in the process, so it can be worth it. Cars.com is the leading online car seller, because it is good at getting information from consumers and experts to help buyers when purchasing a vehicle. Not only that but with good public relations, they can sell lots of cars, while advertising millions on their site at one time.

http://www.prnewswire.com/

Retire on a Cruise Ship

Retire on a Cruise Ship
Waterfront Lifestyles International is a lodging company that is currently taking reservations for their mid-sized ship retirement condos. They claim it will cost less than most senior independent-living facilities. The ship they are building first for condos is named Algeria and is a 300-foot ship. Other perks that come with living on the ship is that each month it will make weekend cruises each to regional attractions. Some of these include trips to the Bahamas, shuttle launches, or shopping centers at Palm Beach.
The company feels that with the depressed economy cruises are the future of retirement. Not only because of the prices, but due to that retirees are usually looking for viable beachfront property to settle down once they are done working. The appeal of living on a ship has a certain appeal to some retirees because they would have to pay exorbitant prices for a demanded water front view, which is what you end up paying for when buying a lake front house. That and Algeria will be the first ship that actually allows purchasers to own a room on a mid-sized ship for under a half-million dollars. With anyone being able to buy a room now, and rent it until they are ready to retire. One major difference with Algeria is that living on there, is that residents actually own the ship. So, they will have a say where they travel. The ship will have a lot of stuff that regular larger vessels have including spa, workout room, gift shop, cigar bar, night club, dining room, beauty shop, and library.
Waterfront International also plans on locating additional retirement ship in Tampa, Jacksonville, Palm Beach, and Sarasota in the future. The concept is not new for condos on ships, but just has not been under half a million dollars until Algeria. Most of the other retirement ships that have been built usually are too expensive costing over one million dollars and remain unaffordable for most people. I personally think it would be really nice to retire on a ship. However, I do not know how easy it would be to visit family and then try to plan in advance when and where the ship will port next and try to get there. This article relates to our book because it shows how values are always important to us. As people age they become even more important to us. And what is more important than when people retire. When I retire I hope to find somewhere affordable and fun like this boat, only with a little less traveling.

http://www.prnewswire.com/

McGraw-Hill Companies

McGraw-Hill Companies

For the 36th year in a row, McGraw-Hill Companies had another increase in quarterly cash dividend. I found this article on the prnewswire.com website. For those not familiar with McGraw-Hill Companies they are a global information service provider. For them to be having gains in profits is saying something in today's economy. Even with our economy dropping in the United States they somehow managed to produce yet another profitable year. They are one of the few companies in the last few years that have managed increase its' dividend annually, and they have been able to not only do this just the last few years, but have increased it for the last 36 years in a row. That is a long time for any company, especially a large company to not have even just one bad year in there having had 36 consecutive good years. If I had money to throw around in the stock market today, this would be one of the stocks I would be buying. When looking at the stock market page today, which is 1/29/09 the rest of the stocks, have a negative sign by them. So what has made them so successful? They have been able to be successful for years due to their planning, monitoring, and protecting their credibility. These are major areas of concern when playing a role in a major business such as the McGraw-Hill Companies, and I think that other businesses should take note and try mimicking some of the methods they have to help bring back our once booming economy, and in the long run help increase their own profits once again.
This announcement came from the PR department at McGraw Hill Companies and they just wanted to get the message out that its’ doing well despite our economic crisis that is going on. Now it is up to the other companies now to see if they can copy McGraw-Hill Companies to become as successful in the future. I know it sounds a lot easier than it really is. I mean trying to turn an entire company around will take some time and changes, but even if just a few are willing to try what McGraw-Hill has done it might pay dividends in the long run. Through this article I have written, it relates to our text book we use by saying, how the PR of the organization served both the organization and the public interest, by trying to show there is some positive in our economy.

http://www.prnewswire.com/