Crisis Communications: Hurricanes

Introduction

Hurricane season lasts from June to November every year, and poses a very real threat to campus activities, university operations, and our facilities across the state –- not to mention the families of our 54,000 students.

Challenge

The university has an emergency management team (Environmental Health & Safety - EHS) has certain protocols in case of a direct hit from storms, but was lacking a cohesive and collaborative communication strategy for when hurricanes impact the state.

Research

In working with my team, we did a SWOT analysis of past hurricane seasons communications and looked for opportunities for improvement and synergy.

Process

Before hurricane season began, I worked with EHS to make sure policies were up to date and determined order of operations for various scenarios.

We outlined the different audiences and the messages needed for each. I created a phased approach and message templates that could be easily customized depending on the situation.

I worked closely with EHS and UF Strategic Communications and Marketing to determine chain of command in crises and when message frequency needed to increase.

I provided art direction to my video production team to create an evergreen video of precautionary steps for on-campus residents. My team generated universal digital signage and social collateral (Instagram stories, banners, etc.) so that all departments had a similar look/feel to their message.

Product

The final product consisted of messaging and pacing for a multi-channel plan that included a Monitoring, Preparation, Closure and Recovery Phases.