Disaster Podcast

Dr. Matthew Smith joins the show tonight to talk about WMD response and the management of pediatric patients exposed to chemical, biological, or radiological agents. Matt is a former US Navy Medical Corps Lieutenant Commander, and served with the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, where he qualified as a weapons of mass destruction medical specialist.

we jump into an in depth look at what goes into a long range hurricane forecast. With such a distant outlook, how do forecasters make their decisions about the whole season this far ahead of time. Our meteorologist, Dan DePodwin, joins us to share his expertise about distant forecasting.

On the Disaster Podcast this week, co-hosts Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis are joined by disaster emergency management expert Becky DePodwin to look at the upcoming Hurricane Season Forecast. Accuweather released their predictions for the 2024 hurricane season, set to officially begin on June first.

We welcome meteorologist and disaster incident command system expert Kyle Nelson on the show. He checks in from Florida where he's traveling to a training event to help him in his roles with his county incident command system, especially when they deploy to other states during distant events.

Dr. Joe Holley examines some of the key take aways from the verdict against two EMS providers in the Elijah McClain homicide trial. The team goes over lessons that can be learned from this case.

This week features a rare follow-up episode where we looked back at last week's episode on Geohazard Mitigation with Colby Barrett from GeoStabilization International. This week we brought back Dan Zehner from The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI).

Colby Barrett is our guest this week on the Disaster Podcast. He is the son of the one of the founders of GeoStabilization International and currently is the vice chair of the Board of Directors for the company. He's a Marine Corps veteran, lawyer, engineer, and describes himself as a philanthro-capitalist.

This week on the Disaster Podcast it's time to discuss recent wintery weather trends. That also means it's time to stump our meteorologist, Dan DePodwin. The wintery weather terms we try out on him include freezing fog, polar vortex, graupel, hoar frost, frost flower (ice ribbons or frost beards), and rime ice.

This week Dr. Joe Holley drops in after attending the NAEMSP (National Association of EMS Physicians) annual meeting in Austin, Texas. The leadership of our EMS docs discussed a multitude of important topics for the prehospital care environment. Here is one of the topics Dr. Joe shared on this week's Disaster Podcast.

We invite Robert LeHeup on the Disaster Podcast this week to talk about his nonprofit initiative for veterans called Bullets and Bandaids. Bullets and Bandaids uses art therapy to assist veterans deal with trauma from their experiences in the military.

We kick off the 11th year of the Disaster Podcast with a look at the winter weather patterns for the coming year of 2024. Meteorologist, Dan DePodwin, joins us to share his expertise. We then shift gears a little to talk about winter weather preparedness needs.

The whole team of regulars at the Disaster Podcast wrapped up year number ten with the podcast. We take a look back at a decade of episodes with our Meteorologists Kyle Nelson and Dan DePodwin, Emergency Management expert Becky DePodwin, and co-hosts Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis. They all share their favorite episodes over their time with the show to cap many years with the crew.

The podcast team got together with our picks from the last year's episodes as we wrap up the podcast's year. There was a general consensus on the best episode. The whole group chose the Mark Dickey Cave Rescue Episode as one of their favorites.

Dr. Joe Holley joins us for a clinical episode on Crush Syndrome and injury. The issue represents a broad spectrum of situations affecting the body. The disease process can be from becoming trapped in a collapsed structure or something as simple as passing out or becoming immobilized to lay on a hard surface for a significant period of time.

Jason Friesen from TrekMedics International joins us again on the Disaster Podcast. He is the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization. He recently sent out an update to those who support the organization about their Beacon software for first responders.

Mark Dickey, an experienced caver and cave rescue expert and trainer, became a patient during a recent cave expedition in Turkey. The Morca Cave is one of the deepest in Europe, going over a thousand meters below the surface. While near the camp deep inside the cave system at approximately one thousand meters of depth, He began experiencing gastrointestinal distress symptoms that were ultimately determined to be an internal GI bleed.

In the aftermath of the Maui wildfire disaster that struck the state of Hawaii, Dan Zehner from NHERI (Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure) comes on the show. Dan shares with us the post-disaster lessons learned by looking at the effect of the fires on community and residential infrastructure.

Meteorologist and disaster emergency management expert, Becky DePodwin joined us for a special early episode this week. We wanted to get out with a discussion on preparations for the inbound Hurricane Idalia to hit the west coast of Florida. Becky covers the expected storm track and weather-related impacts predicted for the coming 24-48 hours in Florida as well as up into Georgia and the Carolinas.

Douglas Stockham from the Emergency Assistance Foundation (EAF) joined us this week on the Disaster Podcast. EAF is a U.S.-based, public non-profit administering employer-sponsored disaster and hardship relief funds worldwide.

A line of storms with high-winds and severe weather warnings struck sections of the mid-Atlantic states earlier this week. One of the places struck with some remarkable damage was the home town of host Jamie Davis. Straight line winds of hurricane strength toppled more than a quarter mile of wooden power line poles along a major roadway in Westminster, Maryland.