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When the sun rose over the Patapsco River on March 26, it unmasked a shadow of tragedy and despair. The historic Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed, the M/V DALI sat immovable in the Fort McHenry Federal Channel, six lives were lost, thousands were out of work and the flow of commerce into and out of the Port of Baltimore was brought to a halt. Knowing the mission to come, it was that morning when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District Public Affairs Office would rally its extensive communications capabilities.
THE CALL UP
Like many crises, the first day of the response effort was a gathering of dozens of federal, state, and local agencies and hundreds of responders who would partner with one another for the months to come in what was known as the Unified Command.
The first day was like try-outs for a sports team’s new season. Based on the immediate size and scale of this response effort, it was evident we would need to assemble our own office and call in some of the best public affairs professionals around USACE.
The team fully integrated into the Unified Command’s Joint Information Center, consisting of about a dozen U.S. Coast Guard public affairs personnel and communications specialists from each entity of the Unified Command, and began participating in daily press events with Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
THE STRATEGY
After the first week, leaders from the Unified Command expressed an immediate need for multimedia communication products to depict better the reality of the response, mission and priorities and illustrate the phased technical dynamics through visual information. So, two additional personnel from the visual information community were requested to integrate within the more extensive public affairs operation, which became a primary communication strategy throughout the response.
"By integrating with our visual information counterparts, we successfully developed informative products that could be easily absorbed and understood by anyone," said Joshua A. Voda, chief of Public Affairs for the USACE, North Atlantic Division. "These visual products would demonstrate the full complement of a crisis communications strategy."
After the first two weeks of the response, Voda deployed to the Baltimore District. He led the visual information integration efforts, which resulted in highly praised and sought-out products that ultimately put all the efforts into a digestible perspective.
In addition to the visual information integration, another communication strategy involved enlisting the support of key leaders to serve as the voice for the USACE response efforts. USACE, Baltimore District commander Col. Estee S. Pinchasin served as the local USACE voice; USACE, NAD commander Brig. Gen. John P. Lloyd was the regional voice; and USACE Commanding General Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon was the national and international voice.
“We were fortunate to have such incredible USACE leaders as the voice of this response,” said Cynthia Mitchell, deputy chief of Public Affairs for the Baltimore District. “I saw how serious they took every media engagement. These leaders made it their purpose to get the right information to the right people throughout the response in a manner that was digestible to our various audiences.”
Mitchell led a notable initiative during this period when she recognized the critical need to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking communities. Since all six victims and their families were Spanish-speaking, her efforts to engage Spanish-language media were immeasurably critical in ensuring inclusive communication.
Another primary communication strategy was leveraging an active social media presence on the Baltimore District’s platforms to provide the latest information to direct stakeholders during the crisis, consisting of at least three daily posts on each channel.
“From day one, the overall online sentiment toward the Baltimore District remained very positive, especially as efforts to clear the federal navigation channel concluded,” said public affairs specialist Thomas I. Deaton, social media manager for the Baltimore District. “It was remarkable to see the community so dedicated to following our efforts and supporting every step, from footage of the biggest lifts to the latest sonar imagery.”
THE RESULT
The social media strategy proved to be particularly successful. From March 26 to June 26, 2024, it’s estimated that USACE, Baltimore District’s social media platforms reached approximately 59.06 million user accounts. This engagement translated to about 3.4 million interactions and a substantial increase in followers, with an estimated 88,500 new followers gained across various platforms — an increase of approximately 1,000% from the status quo. Because the Baltimore District played a crucial role in the release of information from the Unified Command, approximately 570 posts were shared from Baltimore District accounts during this period.
The public affairs team engaged extensively with the media, conducting more than 100 media engagements and managing more than 1,000 media queries. This proactive approach led to about 10,000 online stories that mentioned the Corps of Engineers and the Key Bridge, all maintaining a neutral to positive public sentiment. The factual and strong USACE presence in the news ensured the public remained well-informed.
The multimedia products from the visual information specialists incorporated imagery from
USACE photographers, summarized information from public affairs planners, and created appealing graphics designed to catch the public's attention. These products reached some of the highest engagements on social media posts. Many senior leaders across the Department of Defense and the Maryland communities widely recognized them, and the news media regularly shared these products directly.
The USACE Public Affairs Office integrated seamlessly with the Unified Command’s JIC, which included dozens of Public Information Officers from the U.S. Coast Guard and state, local and other federal agencies.
Bobby Petty, a public affairs specialist from the Galveston District, Kasey Thomas, a public information officer for Anne Arundel County supporting the JIC, and Rauschenberg all reunited after recently completing the FEMA Certified Master Public Information Officer Program, which played critical roles in the JIC’s integration.
"The positive coverage and feedback we received during the 12-week response effort reaffirmed my belief in the effectiveness of transparency with the media," said Petty. "While we emphasize openness with the media during public affairs training and exercises, occasionally I’ve observed a tendency to not be forthcoming with media for fear of negative coverage.”
Petty noted the numerous reporters who praised the public affairs team for the unprecedented access to the incident site, commanders and subject matter experts involved in the recovery process. He served as a “Go-To” for all information and synchronization across the extensive line of partner agencies. His deployment to Baltimore, lasting almost three months, assisted the JIC in managing the distribution of dozens of news releases and thousands of products across public-facing online platforms, creating a unified and efficient communication strategy.
“I am very pleased with the positive media coverage of Unified Command’s hard work in clearing the Federal Channel,” Petty said.
During the FSK Bridge response, the public affairs team's efforts achieved unprecedented engagement and reach within the Baltimore District, a testament to the 18 USACE Public Affairs Specialists, including 11 deployers over the course of the response, who logged about 6,500 hours throughout the three-month period. They produced impressive content, including 61 videos, 1,036 images, six stories, 15 graphics and five news releases.
These efforts resulted in about 6,300 downloads and 283,000 views from external news outlets and the public on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. The published materials, shared on thousands of social media accounts, in countless media reports and on interagency governmental platforms, including the President of the United States’ social media pages, significantly amplified its reach. DVIDS reports reflected the FSK Bridge response as the most significant volume of quality content ever published by the Baltimore District.
Throughout the FSK Bridge response, the Baltimore District’s Public Affairs Office set many new benchmarks for crisis communication, demonstrating the power of coordinated, transparent and inclusive public information strategies.
“Throughout this response, I saw the true value and reaffirmed my strong belief in our Public Affairs capabilities,” said Pinchasin. “In times of crisis, especially in today’s ever-evolving new media world, it’s the work that these professionals perform that can make the organization’s trust and transparency with the public a true success, and I can’t thank them enough for their accomplishments.”
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2024 12:37 |
| Story ID: | 479749 |
| Location: | BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, USACE Public Affairs - Ensuring Trust & Transparency During the Key Bridge Response, by Kurt Rauschenberg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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