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Crisis Communications Triage: Learning from Joplin’s Case Story

By: Christine Luelf | 08/23/2011

What do you do when the unthinkable happens? Despite having a carefully constructed crisis communication plan, do you act on it? Do you get the binder off the shelf?

Mercy had the unfortunate opportunity to test its crisis communications plans first-hand at approximately 5:30 p.m., on Sunday, May 22, 2011, when a tornado ripped through Joplin, Mo., and disabled Mercy's local hospital.

During last week's PRSA St. Louis meeting, Barb Meyer, Mercy's vice president marketing communications and Brad Herrick, director of digital marketing shared their story. For their "Case Story," Meyer and Herrick described what they learned in Joplin, including the importance of involving top levels of management immediately; hitting the key point right out of the gate; using and recognizing the value of text messaging and having the best spokespersons come to forefront organically.

With Mercy's hospital destroyed, many staff left homeless, and a patient base in shock, the core of any communication was and is Mercy's commitment to Joplin and its people. Mercy's President and CEO Lynn Britton confirmed that commitment the night of the disaster with a simple message, "We will rebuild." It's this simplicity that resonated with media and coworkers alike.

Mercy's centralized communication team mobilized immediately following the disaster. Within 48 hours, the team assembled a communications war room in a hotel in Joplin that had weathered the storm. Having a command center is one of the only "typical" crisis communications tools that the team used.

According to Meyer, Mercy handled approximately 1,000 media calls in the first 24 hours following the disaster. The team resorted to hand-delivering updates during those first hours; a seemingly "old-fashioned" tactic that nobody had planned for.

Another critical audience was employees. Mercy not only wanted to determine their safety and whereabouts, but also provide important information regarding basic operations, benefits and wages. Many communication towers were destroyed in the storm, and the communications group quickly found that text messages were more effective.

Mercy also discovered that in times of absolute disaster, social media is not the best way to push out public information. It is far more effective to plug into organic communities that already exist. Mercy used other Facebook communities such as "Joplin Tornado Recovery," as listening posts, helping the team inform audiences based on real-time concerns.

Many of Mercy's key spokespersons came to the forefront organically. As key spokesperson training was not possible at the time, the team depended on communication briefings and their own staff's understanding of Mercy's core messaging.

Incredibly, a temporary hospital opened only seven days after the disaster. Last week Mercy announced they will break ground on a new 327-bed hospital in January. The hospital is expected to be open in 2014.

Mercy offered a great example of crisis communications triage: You do what needs to be done, help your team and support your community in their time of need.

I want to thank Christi Dixon, Standing Vice President, crisis communications veteran and PRSA St. Louis Board Member, for her thoughts and insights in developing this post.

Posted in Issues and Crisis Management