Lisbon - Flood 2009

I have decided to do my crisis paper on my hometown of Lisbon, ND and their flood fight. I was unable to help fight the flood because I was in Valley City. Then, when we were evacuated I went to my ranch which is 20 minutes from Lisbon and went right to work helping my dad with the cattle. I kept Lisbon in my thoughts and hoped they made it out in one piece and for the most part they have fought the flood excellently. In the next couple of weeks I will be researching the exact things Lisbon and its officials did to make the city safe and how they communicated with those who lived in the danger zone and surrounding areas.

I am excited to find out everything the city did to inform the community. All the lines of communication they went through. I went to the high school prom grand march to watch and at the end they talked about how the students were a huge impact during the flood fight there just like in every other community fighting the flood. The gym gave a standing ovation to the prom goers and it was really touching. You could feel how much the community has bonded together in this time of need. Lisbon has always had a small town family feel to it and this crisis just brought the family a little closer together.

I have started looking at articles that were printed in the Ransom County Gazette. I plan on interviewing some people that live in Lisbon as well. I am going to get an idea of how they felt the information that was given to them was distributed. In my research I will see what good things Lisbon did during crisis and see if there are any things that the city could have done to make their communication better.

Hometown Crisis

The flood has been top news all over North Dakota. Every night you see stories about roads being washed out and dams breaking. Today I am going to write about my hometown and how the flood has affected them. Lisbon, ND is a small town in south eastern North Dakota. All the water that flows through Valley City eventually flows right through Lisbon in the Sheyenne River. The flood stage in Lisbon is 15 feet. This spring a record crest of 23 feet rose in Lisbon. In my opinion the rising river crisis was handled very well. The communication between the city officials and the community was excellent. When a dike leaked and parts of the city needed to be evacuated it was fast and there was little chaos.

The city came up with a crisis plan and a way to communicate to the town. The evacuations were planned out and they let the people know in advance which evacuation area they were in. They also closed bridges and roads to keep people safe where needed. The mayor was the town’s spokesperson. Ross Cole did a great job keeping the town informed and he brought the town together in order to fight the flood. They had updates on the local TV stations and the local radio stations.

There is one aspect of the flood crisis that I think the town could do better on at this time. That is the crisis communication of the town’s water conservation. In my opinion I don’t think most of the town is taking this seriously. The city has put porta-potties all over town and had a message out to conserve water for over a month now. However, the schools have remained open and are still using the restrooms and dishes. This is not conserving the water at all. I am afraid is the town doesn’t make it clearer that things need to be done soon; the sewer system will break just like Valley City’s did. I don’t know what the city officials should do to better communicate this to the people, but they should really try harder.

The flood of 2009 was devastating for many people and is still affecting many today. I think for the majority the crisis communication of every area was well executed. So many homes were saved due to the caring people of this area and the fast thinking of our area leaders.

Public Relations for the Web

Today I found an interesting article called Director of Internet Marketing demystifies Facebook. The article is all about how the Public Relations Association of Western North Carolina is trying to help its business use the web and social media to its greatest extent. They have scheduled a luncheon with a guest speaker, Jessica Cook. Jessica Cook is the Director of Internet Marketing at ADOC.

Cook will be speaking on the issue of social media and advertising. Most businesses will join Facebook or other forms of social media and then have no idea what to do next. In her speech she will give advice and help businesses learn how to use these Medias effectively.

Jessica Cook is the Director of Marketing of a strategic marketing, creative design, and interactive media agency called ADOC. Her job is to lead the team at ADOC to come up with new ways for their clients and industries to use the web. She also focuses on helping clients include social media into their marketing plans. She gives lectures and writes articles on empowering people to get on the web and get going.

I think the Public Relations Association in North Carolina is doing amazing strides to help their businesses within the state. I use Facebook very often and it is now full of advertisements. You can’t help seeing them with every click and every new page that comes up. It is a very effective tool that I believe only has room for advancement. I am sure other forms of social media are no different. I have even become interested in products because of these advertisings. Netflix for example does a very good job getting its advertisements seen on Facebook. I am now a Netflix user and it’s great.

I think Jessica Cook and the other employees at ADOC have the right idea in getting the effectiveness of the Web to the businesses known. Cook seems to really care about her clients and helping them use all their resources so they can get back the most for their money. The web is constantly expanding and we need more people teaching others to use it to their benefits.

United We Sand

The recent flood of Fargo Moorhead and surrounding areas has had a huge impact on our lives. Every day on the news we see people working together for complete strangers. They are filling sand bags and working the lines to get the dikes up and save as many homes as possible. Well I have recently become aware of one way a group of people is making a difference in more of public relations way. It is called United We Sand. They are making products to sell with different logos on them such as United We Sand Flood 09. It’s a great way to bring the public closer together and raise money to help with those who have lost homes.

The profits from the products sold will go to a few different places. Thirty percent are donated to the Impact Give Back – Red River Valley Flood Fight. This foundation is supporting The American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and First Link. The rest of the profits will go to creating the shirts and also donations to organizations that help the students of the area. United We Sand has realized the amount that students in the area have come out to volunteer. It is amazing to see record numbers willing to help in this time of crisis.

United We Sand is selling shirts, hats, mugs, aprons, cards, buttons, and pillows; basically anything you can think of. All of them have logos on them about the Flood. Phrases like Proud to be a Bag Lady, Never Give Up, and of course United We Sand. It’s really sad that so many people lost their homes, but without the help from the masses of volunteers so many more would have. This is a great way to give back and help those still in need.

This isn’t the only PR thing that I have noticed. Valley News KVLY has a new commercial about Togetherness. The commercial shows how the community is working together and how hundreds of strangers came together. The slogan ends with Valley News Watching Together. It’s really a moving commercial that they are using to support their news channel.