Where’s Waldo? Building an Incident Command System in Coney Island
In July 2017, I created and led the Coney Island SAREX, a large-scale CERT exercise built around a simulated search for a missing vulnerable senior. With nearly one hundred participants, multiple radio nets, a formal Incident Command structure, medical support, and my stepfather playing “Waldo,” the exercise turned FEMA classroom concepts into practical experience. It was hot, complicated, occasionally funny, and a powerful lesson in why ICS has to be practiced—not merely studied.
The Night New York Went Dark
During the 1977 New York City blackout, a 13-year-old in Brooklyn helped relay radio traffic for REACT and the NYPD—an early glimpse of the role emergency communications would play throughout his life.
These journal entries are written with assistance from ChatGPT.
The thoughts, experiences, and final editorial choices are my own.