While many readers likely will never need to react to the type of crisis described below, the principles discussed can apply to a wide variety of crises. These include having crisis procedures in advance, updating and practicing them regularly and keeping emergency information handy, including third-party contacts, media and influencers. While the author works in a part of the country that is prone to the natural disasters described below and so raises the importance of crisis preparation, surveys show brands large and small lack plans for management of any kind of crisis. They do so at their peril.

An annual disaster drill, involving the Preston E. Smith State Prison Unit and all local emergency agencies, will be held next Wednesday morning, April 12, at the prison about two miles east of Lamesa.

    “We want to let the public know ahead of time because there will be radio traffic as we simulate a disaster involving an explosion in the boiler room at the prison,” Sergeant Jay Porterfield, PIO (public information officer) for the Smith Unit, said last week. “There could be reports of people who have been ‘killed’ or ‘seriously injured’ from the ‘explosion’.

    “We know a lot of people have scanners and listen to law enforcement channels, so we don’t want to start a panic and have people thinking some major disaster has happened.”

    The final planning meeting for the disaster drill will be held this Thursday, Porterfield said, but he expects the drill to get underway just around 8 a.m. or a little before 8 a.m. on April 12.

    The drill not only will involve Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) personnel, Porterfield said, but also the Department of Public Safety, the Dawson County Sheriff Office, the Lamesa Police Department, Lamesa Fire Rescue, Medical Arts Hospital EMS and Medical Arts Hospital.