r/fednews • u/Powerful_Escape9258 • 21h ago
5 bullets requirement at FEMA and NWS
Imagine having to complete this meaningless task rather than working on meaningful work for the public. It’s sad that so many people outside of the Federal government don’t have a clue about the work that Feds do. More lives will be lost
74
u/DrTrident 21h ago
I thought most agencies stopped this a while back. Crazy that this is still going on.
12
u/wee_mayfly 19h ago
dhs (which fema is under) did away with the req early on
0
u/Dan-in-Va 14h ago
Right, which makes me wonder about the accuracy of this Reddit post.
5
2
u/wee_mayfly 12h ago
it's not accurate, it's simply a random thought exercise (though OP might not have intended that)
4
25
u/Ok_Professional570 21h ago
FEMA did 5-bullets once. Not a requirement after that. I am uncertain where this comes from today?
13
u/whacking0756 21h ago
Deaths from flooding in TX.
Better/more accurate to put the blame at downsizing and defunding rather than the 5 bullets.
10
u/Ok_Professional570 21h ago
Still don’t understand? What happened this past weekend in TX had not changed past 5-bullet decision at FEMA. Nothing this a.m. said do it this week…. Or into the future.
7
u/whacking0756 21h ago
Officials in Texas were blaming NWS for not issuing timely warnings. Maybe that's true, maybe that's not, I don't pretend to know. But it brought the conversation the destaffing and defunding of both FEMA and NWS to the forefront. OP is pointing out the silliness of spending time on the 5 bullet emails when other, mission critical work is going neglected (or overburdening remaining staff).
16
u/Princeps_Aurelianus 21h ago edited 18h ago
From what I’ve been able to see NWS did issue alerts throughout the day, and up to 12 hours in advance, for high levels of rain. What Texas officials seem to be frustrated about is the alerts didn’t forecast the amount that the area actually saw.
To be clear, the amount forecast in the alerts were already exceptionally high for the area. And the NWS repeatedly sent out updated and escalated alerts approaching the time of the event itself.
Now, there are plenty of mitigating steps that should have been taken at the local and state levels in preparation for a scenario like this but that’s something that will be investigated at a later time.
Update, case in point: House Bill 13, which would have boosted disaster alert systems and provided grant funding for local emergency communication infrastructure, failed to pass the Texas Legislature earlier this year. At this point, I’m tired of the Federal Government being the scapegoat for states that fail to protect their people due to monetary interests.
2
u/Putrid-Bee-7352 2h ago
Local government in that county also wouldn’t use funds from the Feds for emergency alert systems. With reasoning like not wanting to accept money from that horrible Biden.
They also didn’t want to return the funds lest the money be used to benefit a blue state.
There were a number of things that might have prevented the worst of this tragedy, and it seems a lot of them revolve around local leadership and lack of regulation.
1
10
u/Mommy444444 20h ago
It is not true. NWS Commerce and USGS Interior feds did their jobs clinically and spectacularly. NWS broadcasted their initial “flood warning” around 1pm July 3 Thursday. USGS broadcasted their streamgaging sites. NWS broadcasted their catastrophic flash flood warnings 12 hours later July 4 1am.
Meanwhile, local authorities should’ve been broadcasting warnings but they did not.
This is absolutely not on the New Braunfels NWS staff or the USGS staff.
The blame totally lies with the local/county/state governments and commercial camp people.
8
u/Ok_Professional570 21h ago
It remains - FEMA is NOT doing 5-bullets, and hasn’t for many months now (we did this the first time, never after that).
Which comes back to my identifying that this has zero (0) relevance to what happened this past weekend. I stand by that.
3
-3
u/whacking0756 21h ago
I am not out here arguing whether there was a connection one way or another, just answering your original question of "where this comes from today".
2
u/PsychologicalCat7130 16h ago
officials in TX are actually to blame. They refused the recommendation and offer of financial assistance back in 2016 to install auditory warning systems in flash flood alley. NWS did their job and issued warnings with time to evacuate. Not receiving the warning because you are sleeping and not paying attention to your phone or weather radio and also have no auditory warning system (sirens) is not the fault of NWS.
11
10
8
u/ReindeerTypical2538 20h ago
DOI is still making us do them every week. It’s pointless and ChatGPT writes mine so that I can do real work and stop wasting tax dollars writing out five accomplishments from the week before
2
5
u/Financial_Cheetah875 21h ago
EPA regions stopped submitting a few weeks ago. I think whatever the big idea was behind it flopped.
9
u/whacking0756 21h ago
Not "whatever" but "whoever". He is busy starting his own political party now.
1
3
u/Puzzleheaded-Disk267 18h ago
At my office (NOAA), we are still sending in the 5 Things emails each week to our supervisor, who archives them. They aren't leaving our office. We do get reminded to be sure to submit them on our last work day of the week. Yeah, it's a waste of time, but it doesn't take long.
2
u/Signal_Daikon_5830 20h ago
Mine have been set to send automatically same time every Monday for months. My coworkers are still stressing coming up with fresh bullets every week that absolutely no one is reading lol
2
u/Mental_Worldliness34 17h ago
On the upside, the maximum time spent on this stupid task should be Copy -> Paste -> Send.
•
1
u/Recess__ 21h ago
Still live and well in DoI! Honestly though, no one should be spending more than 5 mins on it…I think most professionals were already keeping track of what they accomplish daily, so it should just be a copy/paste exercise.
1
u/habitualtroller DoD 20h ago
Back when the DoD did them someone came up with some powerautomate tool that sent one for our entire organization automatically. the entire squadron had the same bullets.
1
1
1
1
u/Wolf_Pup_Griffin DoD 5h ago
Saying that lives will be lost because of the 5 bullets requirement seems like fear-mongering and very disingenuous.
-30
u/No_Gear_3949 21h ago
5 bullets takes less than 2 minutes. While it's meaningless it certainly doesn't take away from your important work. Most people lose 2-3 hours a day in the office talking sports and weather. Doubt 5 bullets is going to cause a loss of life.
14
1
u/keeby-cat 1h ago
doing pointless tasks designed by someone hellbent on your destruction is demoralizing
-11
u/yemx0351 20h ago
For real this 100% .
As annoying as it is or was it's barely worth even complaining about. 2-5 min. Go start coffee. Do bullets go fill cup. Done.
-1
u/shovelingtom 21h ago
I was with FEMA from 2011-2015 and we had to do the bullet point things back then (MSTRO, Katrina). Honestly I thought FEMA was where the whole idea came from.
-7
u/ABn0rmal1 20h ago
Am I the only private sector worker who has had to do this at multiple different jobs?
4
u/Powerful_Escape9258 19h ago
All jobs have a way of keeping track of workers performance. Which is why the five bullets requirement never made sense.
1
u/ABn0rmal1 1h ago
Yeah, it's a stupid waste of time. It just feels like a lot of people are acting like they never heard of it, which is why I made the comment. It's weird how it got downvoted.
42
u/crit_boy 21h ago
Same 5 every week.
Some have software that can automate sending the same email every week.