In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

In recent posts, I have suggested a number of websites for readers interested in citizen preparedness. Today, I am happy to be able to recommend my first radio show, “Homeland Security Inside & Out“.

HLSI&O is produced out of KAMU-FM, the local NPR affiliate in College Station, Texas. It is hosted by Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University, and Randy Larsen, Director of the Institute for Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. Larsen recently wrote an excellent book Our Own Worst Enemy.

As the show’s website describes, HLSI&O features interviews with “key leaders at the federal, state and local levels of government, plus senior leaders in the private sector, academic community and national press.”

I am a huge fan in part because every week I learn at least one thing that is very helpful to my work on public preparedness. For example, last week after hearing about the FBI’s new Citizens Academy that are being held in each of the Bureau’s 56 field offices for everyday Americans, I called the New York City FBI office and applied. A couple weeks before that, I had used some comments made on the show by Kip Hawley, the Transportation Security Administration head, in an interview I had with Hawley. In addition to the show’s utility to my work, I also find it lively, entertaining and well produced. Heck, I even enjoy the bridge music between segments.

On my iPod I have four regular podcasts I listen to every week: On The Media, Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy; Fresh Air, and Homeland Security Inside & Out. If you are interested in homeland security, I really recommend giving HLSI&O a listen. Don’t be surprised if you end up becoming a weekly listener either by iPod, web streaming or on your local NPR affiliate.

The aftermath of the major earthquake that struck central China has underscored the importance and potential of personal technology in helping the public deal with major disasters. 

As this posting from Matthew Ingram’s 2.0 blog in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper explains, Twitter broke the news of the earthquake and its ‘coverage’ has filled a news niche.

Like many others, I woke up this morning to news of a disaster in China: a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the southwest, with thousands of people either dead or injured. Unlike some, I didn’t get the news from the radio or TV — I got it from Twitter, a group-chat/instant messaging client that has been gaining in popularity as a real-time news application. Much like the forest fires in California last fall and other recent news events, Twitter became one of the main sources of on-the-ground reporting — even before CNN started picking up what was happening, and with more personal detail. According to Search Engine Land, Twitter even beat the U.S. Geological Survey, which tracks quake readings.

It is remarkable how relatively new technologies such as Twitter are helping average citizens report the news and provide information to help the authorities and other people respond to the disaster. As I have discussed previously, these tech applications will develop after an emergency so it makes sense to begin educating us all more about them beforehand.

In addition to Minnesota’s email list, there is also a weekly tip of the week offered by New York City’s Office of Emergency Management. They are helpful and often communicated with a some humor (which I think is very important in this field). For example, the most recent tip was titled “Smother Your Mother”.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and OEM encourages you to use a few minutes of your special day with mom to fill out an emergency reference card. If you’ve already got a complete one, check with your loved ones to make sure the information is up to date. This year, help your mom get all her ducks in a row — keep your family’s emergency contact information in one place.

Other eye-catching headlines have included “Call Aunt Millie in Philly” (emergency out of town contact), “Your Backhand Is Not Only For Tennis” (fire evacuation) and “Avoid Hide and Seek by Choosing A Place To Meet” (emergency meeting place).

If you want to sign up for the New York weekly tip, go to the OEM website.

Every Monday morning like clockwork, I receive the “CodeReady Tip of the Week” email from the Minnesota Department of Health’s CodeReady website.

This morning’s tip was to: “Include copies of current medical records, prescriptions and dosages, allergies and information about chronic health conditions” in your emergency plan.  CodeReady is one of the best state public preparedness websites in the nation in large part because it offers an interactive template for residents to create their own emergency plans. It is really meant for citizens of Minnesota but the website would be helpful to all Americans — as is this weekly email tip. You can sign up for the tips at www.codeready.org/.

In a recent Disaster Zone post, Eric notes the fact that while “shelter in place” is a key part of government emergency planning for the public, it is a term that is not very well understood by the public. It is a great point which I think needs to be addressed by government authorities in advance — like soon.

One of the most common questions I get from people about emergency preparedness is how they can evacuate in the event of disaster. However, the truth is that in a number of scenarios, the best thing to do is not to evacuate but to stay (or ’shelter in place’). Of course, if a lot of people do not even know what the term means that could be a problem.

In his post, Eric cites the work of Dr. Roz Lasker and the Redefining Readiness project of the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at the New York Academy of Medicine. Through “Redefining Readiness”, Dr. Lasker, a former U.S. Health and Human Services Department official, has done more work than anyone I know in finding out what the public really knows about disaster preparedness and how to best improve it. You can never fully replicate a real emergency situation, but “Redefining Readiness” — though painstaking work and thoughtful design — has created as useful a model as exists.  

Last year, Lasker’s group released a groundbreaking report on public preparedness and response after running in depth roundtable exercises in four communities around the U.S. around a small pox outbreak and ‘dirty bomb’ attack. Below is a summary of the program from the website:

“Redefining Readiness” addresses a fundamental flaw that is undermining efforts in all areas of emergency preparedness. Currently, planners are developing emergency instructions for people to follow without finding out whether it is actually possible for them to do so or whether the instructions are even the most protective action for certain groups to take.

The “Redefining Readiness” study documented this problem in preparations for shelter-in-place emergencies and deadly contagious disease outbreaks, prediction that large numbers of people would suffer and die unnecessary if response strategies are not based on what people will actually face when disaster strikes. This prediction was proven to be correct during Hurricane Katrina, when many people could not follow instructions to evacuate due to barriers that had not been identified or addressed beforehand.

To fix the flaw, four “Redefining Readiness” demonstration sites have developed powerful new community engagement practices to harness the knowledge and experiences of the broad range of people who need to be protected in emergencies. Practical tools based on the combined insights of almost 2,000 diverse community residents in the demonstration sites can help households, work places, schools and early childhood/youth programs, and governments throughout the country prepare to respond more effectively to shelter-in-place emergencies and deadly contagious disease outbreaks.

Dr. Lasker and her group has designed the program to offer practical tools useable by communities around the nation which can tailor the exercises to their own likely threats. I had the opportunity to take part in a scenario exercise that took place in Dr. Lasker’s office. It was striking how many questions are raised when you actually go through it that you never think about (ie. what is my kids’ school emergency plan? or what exactly does ’shelter in place’ mean?) I recommend that anyone interested in undertaking such an exercise should the program at Redefiningreadiness@nyam.org.  

Anyone who is interested in public preparedness has to study the “Redefining Readiness” work. I will be providing a link to it in my Resources section, and I hope to be writing more about Dr. Lasker’s work on the blog.  

I am happy to add Eric Holderman’s Disaster Zone blog at www.disaster-zone.com to my Blog Roll. Eric is the former Emergency Preparedness Director of King County in Washington state. He was one of the nation’s most innovative and charismatic emergency management officials when it comes to citizen preparedness. Holderman is now with the consulting firm ICF International.  

He describes Disaster-Zone as:

dedicated to sharing information about the world of emergency management and homeland security. There is a constant stream of new laws, plans, procedures, and technology solutions. Science is also being applied to studying human behavior and how we interact with one another and with all aspects of our environment. Taking advantage of science and applying it to how we perform our everyday functions is something we need to strive for.

As he did as a government official, Eric takes these somewhat complicated and always changing topics and makes them understandable and engaging for both the trade and, most importantly for this blog, the general public. 

I just received some terrific news from Pat Salins, the leader of the CERT team in Manhattan’s Community Board 6. She told me that a neighborhood resident heard me discussing about my CERT experiences on the WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show last month and decided to join up.

This would be the second person I know who has joined CERT as a result of the WNYC series, which is very exciting for me.

Last night, I attended a CERT Training for Manhattan team members at Lehman College which featured presentations from officials from the New York City Office of Emergency Management, Fire Department and Police Department officials. 

NYFD Captain Joe Brosi, a CERT Liaison and team trainer, (pictured above) reviewed the Incident Command structure under which we work during an emergency. Because CERT team members are citizens and not an everyday part of the uniformed services, it is important for us to understand and strictly follow the lines of authority and protocols. Therefore, these types of post-training sessions are increasingly important, and the strong turnout reflected that.

Another major emphasis of the speakers was the important role that CERT members have in educating fellow citizens about emergency preparedness. And so, as the storm season begins in May, the new Ready New York flooding guide was distributed.

I thought that a particularly candid points made by the officials last night is how new the CERT program is in New York, and therefore it is still evolving to best fit the needs and capabilities of the City. They said the work done at the midtown Manhattan crane collapse in March showed how well the CERT program has been integrated into the City’s emergency response plans.

Like last weekend’s terrorism drill on Randalls Island, this training was another opportunity to see (and in some cases meet) members of other Manhattan CERT teams. These types of events help build camaraderie not only among your own team but also with those members in other neighborhoods. 

As part of our CERT responsibilities, we are occasionally asked to participate in City emergency drills. On Saturday, I had the opportunity along with 30 other CERT members to play the role of ‘civilians’ in a major New York Fire Department (FDNY) exercise, “Operation Civil Support”. 

 (Firemen arrive to rescue us ‘civilians’ after mock chemical attack on mock subway at the Fire Academy)

 (Outside a chemical decontamination tent after evacuating the subway)

The drill was held at the Fire Department Academy on Randalls Island along with units of the New York State National Guard. I will not go into great detail about the drill, but there was a news story about it in Sunday’s New York Daily News which reported:

More than 400 soldiers and 100 firefighters responded to a simulated bus explosion, a building collapse and a chemical attack in the subway at the And according to a FDNY media advisory:

Operation Civil Support is a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive (CBRNE) training exercise designed to help prepare both members of the FDNY and the New York National Guard in the event of a multi-trauma incident in New York City. The training is all based on real-life events that have occurred world wide; the intent of the exercise is to test and evaluate the FDNY’s core competencies – consisting of fire and life safety, along with the challenge of integrating the National Guard.

 My fellow team member, ESNA-CERT Deputy Chief Dave Gillespie, gets ‘lacerations’ applied to him by a Fire Academy Paramedic Instructor so he can play the role of an injured civilian in one of the drill scenarios.

Our role as CERT team members in the exercise was to help first responders practice dealing with civilians after a terrorist attack. I am sure that this exercise was very helpful for the uniformed personnel. But it was also very informative and instructive for the CERT members as well. The experience helped us better understand the role of responders and citizens in emergencies, and it will make us more effective in our communities both before and during these situations.

One of the major reasons for these exercises is to allow the responders from different agencies to meet each other before the ‘real thing’. (”You shouldn’t be handing out business cards at the scene of a disaster” is a common refrain I’ve heard.) I believe it is similarly important for CERT members, particularly those from nearby areas, to forge relationships in advance as well.

The Fire Department (as well as the Office of Emergency Management) deserve a lot of credit for including CERT in this major exercise. I — and I think most if not all the CERTs there — hope that we have a chance to participate in these drills in the future.

I liked it for a number of reasons, including:

1) The video directly (and with a dollop of humor) addresses why the “old school approach” of the Cold War-era Civil Defense program preparing for “one big threat” is not appropriate for this “new era of preparedness”. Too often, government communications on preparedness sidestep even mentioning the old ‘Duck and Cover’ campaign for fear of derision. However, to me, preparedness has to be rebranded for the 21st Century and to do that you have to deal with the old brand identity head on. The CDC video does that in a light (but effective) way.

2) Right from the beginning, the CDC video focuses on kids as agents of change. “Kids are more in tune than we think,” the narrator says as shots of children asking their parents are shown. (In one funny vignette, one kid asks his parents whether they should be taking “percussionary measures” [sic].)

3) It recognizes and highlights new media’s growing role. So many government communications on preparedness completely ignore the growth of personal technology as a information distribution source (ie. many sites don’t even recommend having a cell phone as an emergency tool). But this video highlights CDC’s efforts to disseminate information through new media and it even has a shot of an MP3 player (which is the first time I’ve ever seen that popular device in a preparedness video).

These videos can only have so much impact on public behavior. But, as someone who has watched a lot these, I am to see some of the new approaches that CDC has taken in this latest one.