
EP81 Hot take: Orange County chemical incident - crisis communications review
From The Leading in a Crisis Podcast by Tom
May 30, 2026 · 28 min · Episode 81
About this episode
The episode reviews crisis communications during a chemical incident in Orange County, focusing on evacuation decisions and communication strategies.
Send us Fan Mail A storage tank starts heating up, pressure builds, and suddenly Orange County is staring down a worst-case scenario: a thermal runaway that could end in a catastrophic explosion or a dangerous vapor release. Over Memorial Day weekend, that risk forces rapidly changing evacuation decisions, including a massive evacuation affecting about 50,000 people in Garden Grove and Anaheim. We dig into the pieces that worked: frequent, casually shot video updates from incident comm...
People in this episode
Host: Tom
Topics covered
- crisis communications
- emergency management
- evacuation procedures
- public safety
- incident response
Keywords
- crisis communications
- Orange County
- chemical incident
- evacuation
- public safety
- incident response
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Orange County, Garden Grove, Anaheim
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