Student Workbook to Accompany Crisis Communications

A Casebook Approach

Kathleen Fearn_Banks, Kathleen Fearn-Banks

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134972814
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Studi sulla comunicazione

No company, organization, or individual whose livelihood depends on public reaction can afford to function without a crisis communications plan. This student workbook reviews the critical terminologies, processes, and skills needed for understanding and responding to crises. It prepares individuals for responding to crises in a variety of contexts, and reinforces strategies and tactics to be used during a crisis. Chapters include instructive case studies of public relations professionals in crises: what they did, what they wished they had done, and what hampered their progress. The exercises provide students with the opportunity to respond to real-world crises, sharpening their own skills and practicing response behaviors. This workbook will serve as a useful tool for all future practitioners.

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Chapter 1
Crisis Communications Today

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Case: Thirteen People Die as I-35W Bridge Collapses

The normally eight-lane I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis was very central to the city and was built in 1967. Two lanes were closed on August 1, 2007 for construction and cars were bumper-to-bumper at 6 p.m. with peak business traffic.

A worker on the bridge said there was suddenly a jolt, like on a roller coaster. The bridge buckled and totally collapsed. Fifty cars were in the river. News media and emergency services workers heard there was a bridge collapse and thought it was perhaps a footbridge. A biker approaching the area said a cloud of dust headed toward him, reminiscent of the dust cloud that spread swiftly after the World Trade Center buildings collapsed in New York in 2001. All found it incredulous that the second most traveled bridge in the city had collapsed.

One female survivor spoke about her car being submerged and how she kicked and hoped to survive; she came to the surface and was pulled to safety by a man who somehow found a broom nearby. Many other survivors were knocked unconscious briefly but came to and were rescued. A bus of schoolchildren was on the bridge and all were rescued.

After the dust settled, 190 persons were found to have been on the bridge when it fell, 13 died, 145 were injured. Around 30 miraculously walked away with no injuries.

A determination was made later that construction materials stockpiled on the bridge may have been a cause. As bridges go, it was not extremely old. The average life of a bridge is 42 years. President George W. Bush visited the site and talked to some heroes, those who effectively pulled others from danger.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) identified 19 bridges in the U.S. out of 607,380 that are “most structurally deficient.” These are considered the worst. Others not listed are slightly less deficient:

• I-10 in Los Angeles at I-110

• I-25 in Denver

• I-76 in Camden, New Jersey

• I S-695 in Baltimore, County, Maryland

• Halma Street over Kapalama Canal in Honolulu

• I-95 Jacksonville, Florida

• I-278 approach to Verazano Bridge, Staten Island, New York

• I-93 over Riverside Avenue, Medford, Massachusetts

• I-290 over Salt Creek, Addison, Illinois

• I-95 over Jefferson Blvd in Warwick, Rhode Island

• I-35E over Pennsylvania Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota

• I-15 over US 95 in Las Vegas

• I-70 over Fisher Road in Columbus, Ohio

• Second Blvd. over I-94, Wayne, Michigan.

• I-65 ramp at River Road in Louisville, Kentucky

• I-65 over City Street in Birmingham, Alabama

• I-95 over state route 745 in New Haven, Connecticut.

• Route 395 over George Washington Memorial Pkway, Arlington, Virginia

• Pennsylvania Turnpike at S. York Road, Hatboro, Pennsylvania

All bridges must either be constantly maintained, replaced or closed to be safe.

Discussion

1. Have there been any disasters of collapsing bridges or structures in your city?

2. Has there been any structural work done on bridges to maintain them recently?

3. Could this crisis in Minneapolis have been a prodrome for having this work done?

4. In Chapter 10, there is a case study about the Oso mudslide in the state of Washington. What were the prodromes there?

5. What recent crises in the news spoke about prodromes after the crisis?

Case: Rick Rescola and 9/11 Rescues

The tragedies of 9/11 marked a turning point in the perception of the word “crisis,” especially to people in the United States who had never experienced such an attack on their own soil. The attacks were also a turning point in the perceptions of crisis management and crisis communications.

A crisis management/communications plan saved the lives of numerous people in the World Trade Center (WTC) on that fateful day. Rick Rescola was head of security for Morgan Stanley, which occupied 40 floors in one of the WTC towers. After the 1993 terrorist attack on the WTC, Rescola formed a crisis management team to try to avert an attack or to help employees survive another attack. The team members were in agreement that another attack would occur, and that it would probably occur at the WTC because of the symbolism of the towers being the tallest in the United States.

Team Rescola, as it was called, determined that the next attack would not be a ground attack, because the garage was protected after the 1993 incident. They eve...