LONG BEACH, Calif. — When David Paulison took over the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of the serious failings after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, he found the upper levels of management at the agency staffed by political appointees with little or no background in disaster management or emergency response — a situation he quickly corrected.

“When I took over FEMA, FEMA was being run by people whose sole qualification was that they worked on the campaign,” said Mr. Paulison. “These people had no qualifications to run an organization like that.”

Mr. Paulison quickly surrounded himself with a team of veteran responders and crisis managers. “The president gave me carte blanche to hire who I wanted, so we filled the front office with people with 25 and 30 years' experience dealing with disasters,” he said.

Experience and planning were the dominant themes running through the Public Risk Managers Association annual meeting in Long Beach, California, where Mr. Paulison was speaking. Risk managers and related professionals told of their disaster experiences and how their response plans were strengthened by the lessons they learned.

“Recruit and train staff for experience in emergency management,” said Debra Darnofall, risk manager for the City of Longmont, Colorado, which experienced devastating flooding last September that left behind a path of destruction in addition to many valuable risk mitigation and disaster response lessons.

“You have to put the right people around you if you're going to be successful; that is probably the No. 1 key of being successful,” said Mr. Paulison, echoing Ms. Darnofall's comments about maintaining a properly chosen and trained staff.

Speakers also offered a wealth of specific advice based on their disaster experiences.

Reviewing policies regularly and vigorously should be a priority, said Stewart Ellenberg, risk manager for the city of Boulder, Colorado, which also saw massive flooding last September. “You must understand your deductible” and other policy terms and conditions, he said.

Referring specifically to flood risk, Mr. Ellenberg also urged reviewing up-to-date flood maps to understand exposures and “to see where the water is coming from.”

Maintaining healthy fund balances and reserves of resources can help improve a disaster response, said Ms. Darnofall, as can having intergovernmental agreements in place to expedite cooperation.

“Know where your available resources are,” agreed Mr. Paulison.

Recruiting volunteers can be a positive step, but it also can create liability if these volunteers are not properly vetted, said Ms. Darnofall, who recommended turning to groups such as faith-based organizations, which likely have systems in place to accomplish this.

Some of the hardest lessons learned by public-sector risk professional have come in the area of school safety, many as a result of the dozens of school shootings since the December 2012 events in Newton, Connecticut.

During the session on how to manage a disaster when FEMA doesn't arrive led by Nancy Sylvester, managing director of the public entity and scholastic division at Gallagher Risk Management Services Inc., speakers discussed the heightened safety requirements for schools as a result of such events, including having both evacuation and lockdown protocols in place.

Mr. Ellenberg, speaking on a panel of former PRIMA presidents, also stressed school security, saying there are transportation and other issues every day.

In addition to experience, speakers stressed that planning is critical to successfully managing a disaster.

“Your plan tells you what your capabilities are and what your limitations are,” said Mr. Paulison. “Your plan is your home base.”

Ms. Darnofall agreed and stressed the importance of testing an entity's emergency operation plan. “We had to act together; we had practiced many, many times.”

Mr. Paulison went even further, urging attendees to rigorously and repeatedly test any emergency response plan.

“Exercise that plan regularly,” said Mr. Paulison. “Here's the key: You want to push the plan until it breaks — that's how you make it better. Push it to the extreme, make it break, then ask, 'What did we run out of?' then add that element. After three, four, five years of doing this, you're going to have a pretty good plan that's going to work for you every time.”