Show Notes

Five Minutes to Chaos has reached its 52nd episode, marking a significant milestone in the success of the podcast. The podcast has featured a diverse range of guests and panel episodes, covering various crisis events and innovative approaches to crisis management. For this special episode, Steven Kuhr discusses the topic of heat emergencies, which he believes captures the essence of emergency management. Key elements of managing heat emergencies include interagency collaboration, communications, public information, and the establishment of cooling centers.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Milestone

00:56 Conceptualizing the Podcast

03:21 Monologue Episode

04:14 Choosing the Topic: Heat Emergencies

08:08 History of Emergency Management in NYC

09:29 Heat Emergency in Chicago

11:25 Jerry Hauer and the Task Force

12:53 Interagency Collaboration

18:42 Reducing Heat Deaths

19:09 Monitoring and Intelligence

20:04 National Weather Service and Regional Calls

21:46 Emergency Operations Center

24:36 Communications and Public Information

27:27 Unity of Effort and Shared Situational Awareness

29:53 Cooling Centers and Transportation

32:17 Summary and Gratitude

About Steven Kuhr

Steven Kuhr has spent his career in Emergency Management, building a diverse portfolio of leadership positions across multiple sectors. Mr. Kuhr served as Director of Emergency Management, Enterprise Continuity, and Security Operations at Colorado Springs Utilities. While serving in this position, Mr. Kuhr oversaw crisis, risk, and resiliency operations for energy and water utilities, as well as dam operations for Colorado’s second largest city. During this time, Mr. Kuhr also served as a Director with InfraGard-Denver and co-founded the Colorado Critical Infrastructure Alliance.

Earlier, Mr. Kuhr served with the New York City Office of Emergency Management as a founding Deputy Commissioner where he led emergency operations and multi-risk emergency planning. Prior to that he served with the New York City Fire Department as EMS Deputy Chief and Special Operations Commander.

Mr. Kuhr is a trusted Crisis Management Leader. He has advised elected officials, CEOs and “C-Suite” Leaders during complex emergencies, major disasters, and terrorist attacks. Mr. Kuhr is also a respected consultant, having served as Managing Director and Emergency Management Practice Leader at Kroll Inc., and President and Chief Operating Officer at Strategic Emergency Group LLC.

Mr. Kuhr has advised a variety of organizations in several business industries and government sectors to include federal, state, and local government agencies, transportation (rail, aviation, seaport, and surface), financial, energy (electricity/natural gas), water/wastewater, dams, major league baseball, cable news, commercial properties, defense, justice, law enforcement, and an agency serving people with disabilities and special needs.

Mr. Kuhr Hosts “5 Minutes to Chaos – A Podcast”, a weekly podcast available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, where he and guests explore the complexities of crisis management.

Mr. Kuhr holds a Master of Science in Homeland Security Management and a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Management Administration. He is a Colorado Certified Threat Liaison Officer and held a certification as an Advanced EMT-IV Paramedic.

Contact Information

https://www.linkedin.com/in/skuhr/