The  reporter  without  an  official,  authoritative  point of contact has no ready way to distinguish truth from rumor  or  speculation.  In  addition,  those  people  involved in the disaster and the personnel taking part in the relief efforts  do  not  know  who  is  receiving  and  coordinating disaster  information  for  subsequent  dissemination.  The result is that current and meaningful information which should be continually passed to the press may never be released at all. The individuals in charge of the relief efforts do not have the time or training to cope with the specialized requirements  of  the  media.  When  contacted  by  media representatives,  they  may  become  uncooperative  or even abusive. This can only make a bad situation that much worse. A Navy PAO (a captain with more than 20 years of public  affairs  experience)  had  vivid  memories  con- cerning the crash of a Navy airplane. In regard to a specified releasing authority, he said the following: “There was a plane crash in a civilian housing area near Philadelphia several years ago. Many civilians were killed in their homes. With the Navy rescue and salvage personnel on the scene were members  of  the  civilian  fire  department  and  local police.  No  one  had  the  authority  to  release information, assist photographers, and so forth. With no such authority established, the naval officer in charge of the relief efforts prohibited photog- raphers from taking pictures, expelled reporters from  the  scene  and  ordered  no  one  to  answer questions, thus making the worst possible out of a bad situation.” Incidents  on  federal  property,  but  outside  the  fence, pose  other  unique  problems.  Your  plan  should  include how the base police/security handle the media if they arrive  before  the  public  affairs  team. Normally, the director of the CIB that is established to  cope  with  a  particular  incident  is  appointed  official spokesman or releasing authority; or, it may be the PAO on the staff of the officer in charge of search, rescue/ relief or disaster control operations. In some instances, it will be the PAO on the staff of the naval district commandant  within  whose  jurisdiction  the  disaster occurs. Release authority can be spelled out in the com- mand disaster plan. INITIAL ACTIONS Immediately  following  an  accident  or  disaster, operational personnel are involved in containment and control-survivor rescue and treatment, damage control, protection  of  classified  information,  and  so  on. Meanwhile, public affairs staff members obtain the facts to  release  information  as  well  as  consider  the establishment  of  the  CIB. To  gather  information  successfully  for  release, position   members   of   your   staff   in   the   following locations: . At the command post or emergency crisis control center/CIB  of  the  installation l At or near the accident scene . At the public affairs office In the public affairs office disaster plan shown in figure 2-4, specify that at the first word of a major accident,  office  staff  members  report  to  the  assignments made in the Watch, Quarter and Station Bill. Then take five  or  10  minutes  to  locate  all  of  your  forms  and samples for disaster use and get the office ready. This time will prove to be well spent during the high intensity of answering telephones and writing initial and ensuing reports or statements for the disaster situation. After this is  done,  instruct  them  to  establish  communications  with the command post or emergency crisis control center or CIB.   Regardless   of   the   location   of   the   accident, communications  must  be  established  rapidly  between the public affairs representative at the scene of the accident  and  at  the  command.  This  provides  the coordination  necessary  to  release  information  on  a timely  basis. Appoint  one  of  your  staff  members  to  keep  a running  log  of  the  following  information: l l l l l l l The time of the accident and a basic description of  the  occurrence Important   developments The times news releases are issued Policy as it was passed to you and how and when you implemented it Copies of OPREP-3s, unit SITREPs and other pertinent  messages Query  log  that  includes  Time/Date/Reporter/ Media  outlet  (see  the  sample  query  sheet  in Chapter  4) Other  important  information This  will information assist you in giving timely and accurate to  the  news  media  and  for  writing 2-22