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THE CREA WEATHERGIRL
I remember very clearly when the responsibility of providing natural disaster tracking and notifications was assigned to me. My first question was, “Are you sure you want to assign this to me? It sounds like a very serious responsibility!” My supervisors assured me that they knew I could handle it. I reviewed all of the prior natural disaster notification emails drafted by prior staff and was absolutely terrified of the moment that I would have to draft an email. I have found that it’s important to find humor in some of the most tumultuous predicaments that we encounter in life and would like to assume that most of the staff at CREA know my personality well. The tornadoes that ransacked New England in 2023 presented my opportunity to shine and thus my alter ego, The CREA WeatherGirl, was created! As I read through article, after article, after article and watched several videos of weather reports, my first thought was “Wow?! We’re clearly not in Kansas anymore. I wonder if anyone has any red sparkly shoes that I can borrow?!” I decided to choose this as the starting point to my email, hoping that others would appreciate a little levity. I also thought that there was a 50/50 chance that I would be fired as soon as I hit “send”. But hey, BY: AMANDA DENNISON, AVP, ASSET MANAGEMENT - STABILIZED
life isn’t much fun if you don’t toe the line just a little bit sometimes, right?
You would be surprised by the amount of time and effort that goes into drafting natural disaster alerts. Aside from the pressure of trying to be funny, it often takes me anywhere between four to six hours to draft a report. I fact check multiple sources and what areas are truly affected by tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, mudslides, etc. I have several maps open that include both areas of damage and properties so that I can best determine which properties within the CREA portfolio were likely impacted and possibly at risk. Depending on the scenario, it gets rather intense. After Hurricane Helene and Milton, I feel as though I need a CREA Weather Side-Kick, a green screen, some large fans, fake snow and a microphone!
The Monday after sending my first disaster tracking email, I was sitting at my desk in the Indy office and our CEO, Jeff Whiting walked over and eyed me suspiciously. I knew this was it - I was getting fired. He said, “CREA WeatherGirl?”…I froze! And then in true Amanda style replied, “Look, y’all knew what you did when you put me in charge of this! I’m sorry though. I’ll reel it in, please don’t fire me!” Jeff, for the amazing leader that he is, responded, “Absolutely not, don’t change a thing!” I was both shocked and relieved. Since that moment, I’ve just ran with it. There are times when more serious situations have arisen and humor wasn’t appropriate and I’ve done my best to add a personal touch to the emails without making light of a bad situation.
Signing off for now - CREA WeatherGirl, Amanda!
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