Ep 06: George Building Collapse - You can't surge trust

On 6 May 2024, a five-storey building under construction collapsed in George, Western Cape. This triggered a complex multi-agency response involving emergency services, disaster managers, government, technical specialists, volunteers and the local community. In this episode of But We Had A Plan*, Jess sits down with *Lavenia Nicholson*, former Deputy Director at the Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre, former UNDAC member, and founder of *ADAM: Advanced Disaster And Mitigation Solutions*, to unpack what that response revealed about one of the most important and often overlooked parts of disaster management*: relationships. Using the George building collapse as a real-world lens, Jess and Lavenia explore what effective coordination actually looks like when plans meet reality. They talk about why trust built before an emergency can make the difference between friction and function, why a beautifully written plan is useless if nobody understands or owns their role in it, and why exercises need to test more than procedures; they need to test people, relationships and decision-making under pressure. The conversation also looks at consultation, leadership, ego, institutional culture, informal networks, and why the person with the most useful piece of information is not always the most senior person in the room. Because when a crisis happens, nobody is running around with a 300-page disaster plan under their arm - they are calling people they know.* *You may be able to surge resources, but you definitely can’t surge trust.