EP81 Hot take: Orange County chemical incident - crisis communications review

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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