In a few weeks, I’ll be in Fort Lauderdale for the 2026 Community Associations Institute (CAI) National Conference and Exposition — the largest annual gathering of community association managers, board members, and industry partners in the country. This year’s conference runs June 3 through June 5 under the theme “Community NOW.”
I’m honored to be co-presenting on Friday morning, June 5, from 8:30 to 9:30 AM in a session titled “Who’s Flying the Plane? Guiding Community Associations Through Crisis, Catastrophe, and Recovery.”
My co-presenter is Suzie Popielec, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, of Willowsford Homeowner’s Association in Virginia — a veteran of community association communications and one of the strongest voices in the industry on leading people through difficult moments. The session pairs her communications expertise with my operational background, which includes my work at Eclipse and my prior experience as a firefighter, paramedic, and certified fire investigator. Between the two of us, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t when a community is in crisis.
This week’s post is a preview of the session for the boards and managers across Ohio and Northern Kentucky who may not be able to make the trip to Fort Lauderdale.
Why This Topic, and Why Now
The range of emergencies a community association may face has expanded considerably. The list now spans:
- Fire and flood events that damage common elements and displace residents
- Severe weather — tornadoes, ice storms, derechos, and the increasingly volatile patterns that have hit the Midwest in recent years
- Water loss events from burst pipes, failed mains, and HVAC system failures
- Utility failures affecting heat, power, water, and elevators in winter or summer extremes
- Security threats including hostile intruders and active threat events
When chaos strikes, the question is immediate and critical: who’s flying this plane?
In aviation, that question has a clear answer because the system is designed for it. Pilots are trained on a hierarchy and on a mantra that has saved an enormous number of lives: aviate, navigate, communicate. Fly the plane first. Figure out where you’re going second. Talk to anyone else third.
Community associations rarely have that kind of clarity built in. Boards turn over annually. Managers may be new to the community. Vendors and emergency responders don’t know the org chart. In the first 30 minutes of a crisis, the absence of pre-established authority and process is what turns a manageable incident into a catastrophic one.
The session is built around bringing aviation’s discipline and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework that emergency responders already use to community association crisis response.
The Framework: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
Aviate — Stabilize the Situation
The first job in any crisis is to stabilize the situation. For an aircraft in trouble, that means keeping the plane in the air. For a community association, it means three things in immediate sequence:
- Life safety. Every decision starts with protecting people. Accounting for owners and residents, identifying immediate hazards, and supporting emergency responders.
- Incident stabilization. You will not have complete information. Make decisions based on what you know, reassess continuously, and document your key actions as you go.
- Property conservation. Five decisions define the outcome here: securing the site, preventing further damage, controlling access, initiating documentation, and activating vendors.
This is also the phase where command structure matters most. NIMS recognizes three types of incident command:
- Single command — the incident is small and handled internally
- Unified command — the incident requires outside support and multiple agencies
- Area command — the incident is large, widespread, and may span multiple communities
Knowing in advance which structure applies, and who holds operational authority within it, is the single biggest predictor of how cleanly the first hour goes.
Navigate — Assess and Prioritize Recovery
Once the immediate crisis is contained, the focus shifts to navigation: where are we going, and how do we get there? The first 72 hours after a major incident are disproportionately important. Decisions made in that window about insurance notification, vendor selection, claim preservation, and resident communication set the course for everything that follows.
The navigation phase covers:
- Site safety and temporary measures — restricting unsafe areas, temporary utilities, structural and environmental safety, vendor-controlled access
- Protecting the claim — preserving conditions before cleanup, photographing all damage immediately, not discarding damaged materials without approval, coordinating with adjusters and counsel
- Disciplined documentation — photos and video, timeline of events, vendor actions and approvals, board decisions and communications
- Operational rhythm — a consistent cadence of leadership check-ins, defined communication structure, clearly defined objectives
The file you build in the first 72 hours is the file your insurance carrier and your attorney will rely on for the next 18 months.
Communicate — Align the Stakeholders
The final element is the most often neglected and the most consequential for board credibility. In a crisis, the association is communicating with residents, board members, the media, insurers, attorneys, public officials, and vendors, and each audience needs something different.
What works under pressure:
- Establishing rhythm — regular updates (daily or more), consistent channels, clear next steps, reduced uncertainty
- Delivering clear updates — factual and concise, no speculation, repeated key messages, plain language
- Maintaining trust — consistency builds credibility, transparency reduces fear, visibility of leadership matters, and empathy is critical
- Managing expectations — honest about timelines, no overpromising, explaining uncertainties, setting realistic next steps
One established point of contact is the single most important communications decision a board makes during a crisis. Confusion about who is speaking for the association is the fastest way to lose homeowner trust.
What Failure Looks Like
The session spends time on the inverse, too — the patterns we see when crisis response goes badly:
- Multiple decision-makers with no single point of authority
- Conflicting direction from overlapping leaders
- Delayed action from hesitation and unclear chain of command
- Poor communication that leaves homeowners in the dark
- No documentation that compromises insurance claims and legal defense
Every failure compounds the next. The biggest financial risk in a community-association crisis often isn’t the damage itself, it’s how the claim is handled in the days and weeks that follow.
Case Studies We’ll Cover
The session walks through three real-world incidents that illustrate different facets of community crisis response:
- Beavercreek, Ohio tornado (May 27, 2019) — neighborhood-level damage with residents remaining on-site, partial access restriction, and the question of how to control vendors and communicate when the situation is complex but not catastrophic. This one hits close to home for our Dayton and Cincinnati audiences.
- Dallas winter storm (February 2021) — burst pipes across multiple buildings, widespread interior water damage, units flooded simultaneously, and shared infrastructure that turned an isolated event into a system-wide failure.
- Wappingers Falls, New York explosion (November 2, 2023) — natural gas explosion, immediate fire, multi-unit destruction, residents displaced within minutes, and a building partially unstable after the blast. Demonstrates the access and assessment challenges when emergency responders control the scene.
Each case study surfaces different decisions that defined the outcome and different lessons that translate directly to the kinds of incidents Ohio and Kentucky communities face every year.
Preparing for the Next Event
The final third of the session focuses on what boards and managers can do before a crisis to make the response work. The practical work includes:
- Building a simple, actionable emergency plan with clear points of contact and defined roles
- Clarifying authority and decision-making processes in advance
- Vetting restoration vendors and putting crisis service agreements in place before they’re needed
- Establishing escalation pathways and after-action review processes
Preparation determines outcome. Planning before a crisis is success during a crisis. The next event is not hypothetical — it’s a matter of when, not if.
If You’re Headed to Fort Lauderdale
If you’re attending the CAI National Conference, I’d love to see you in the room Friday morning, June 5 from 8:30 to 9:30 AM. Suzie and I have built this session for community managers, business partners, and homeowner leaders and our goal is for every attendee to leave with at least one practical change to make at their own community before the next event lands. If you can’t make it to Florida and want to talk through emergency preparedness for your own community, reach out to us here. It’s a conversation worth having before you need to have it.
Chris Vecchi, MPA, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, serves as President of Eclipse Community Management. He holds the Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM) designation, the highest credentials offered by the Community Associations Institute and speaks regularly at CAI events on community association leadership and operations. He also draws on prior experience as a firefighter, paramedic, and certified fire investigator.
