A Dust Storm Emphasizes Why Gila River Television Station Needs Emergency Management Training

By Kyler Edsitty

Patrick Breen/The Republic

[Chandler, AZ, August 21, 2025] – Sitting on the outside of Phoenix, AZ, rests Gila River Broadcast Corporation (GRBC), a television station committed to serving the Gila River Indian Community through programs that educate the public and enhance awareness. According to the GRBC website, the station is “the first Low Power Television station in Indian Country with both English and O’odham language programming.” GRBC serves as a critical way for its communities, across the seven (7) districts of the Gila River Indian Community, to get cultural, language, public safety, education, news, and children’s programming. To ensure its vital programming stays on the air, the GRBC participated in Native Public Media’s (NPM) Emergency Management Plan (EMP) training. The goal for NPM’s EMP training is to keep stations on the air during catastrophic events.

While NPM was onsite for the EMP training, a disastrous event took place at GRBC. Heavy winds affected the station’s South Mountain tower, which halted its broadcast in the area. GRBC Acting Director, Alyse Marrietta, quickly mobilized her team to address and resolve the issue. The broadcast was back on the air in less than 8 hours. These efforts demonstrated the team’s ability to effectively respond to service disruptions due to weather, which is the exact purpose of establishing an EMP. As a result of these swift actions, citizens continued to receive GRBC’s vital programming.

Using the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) approach to emergency planning, the two-day training results in a comprehensive EMP for GRBC that protects station staff members and the station’s facilities from natural and human-made disasters. The station learned about the Emergency Management Cycle, an approach to emergency planning that encompasses preventing/mitigating hazards, preparing for hazards, responding to hazards, and recovering from hazards.

During the EMP training, the station completed a Capabilities Assessment, which audits the station’s ability to respond and recover from potential disasters. The assessments covered items like training, drills, and access to resources. During the assessment, the station determined they had a lot of safety measures in place, but could make more connections with local first responders. With the South Mountain tower affected by the heavy Phoenix winds, GRBC was able to enact the invaluable NPM EMP tools to get the station back on the air and to strategize on ways to address this type of disruption.

“The assessment helped me understand the needs for our stations and what roles are needed to make our plan work,” Marrietta stated.

Another part of the training was the Hazard, Threat, and Risk Assessment, which analyzes the station’s location to determine potential threats to station operations. Given the desert landscape, the station had concerns over monsoon flooding, heavy winds, and intense heat, which could halt broadcasting. Given the station’s urban and industrial setting, it faced problems with other human-made disasters, such as intruders and chemical hazards. After identifying these hazards, the station was tasked with creating hazard-specific plans to address each of these concerns.

Marrietta spoke to the importance of having an EMP and her plan to establish an EMP as soon as possible.

“Creating and staying consistent with the EMP and adjusting where needed is going to be very important,” Marrietta stated. “The lack of planning has shown me the areas that need preparation, such as delegating roles and identifying essential items. However, I feel confident to have the resources from NPM to complete the EMP and train my staff.”

By the end of the training, GRBC had a draft EMP that was ready for further review and input from GRBC’s administration and local first responders. By creating this plan, GRBC demonstrates its commitment to ensuring staff safety and enabling them to continue broadcasting their informative content.

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