That was the question Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) posed last week at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on the nation’s preparedness for a nuclear attack. It was the fifth in the series of the Committee’s important set of hearings aimed at bringing some overdue attention to this issue.
To be precise, Lieberman asked the hearing witnesses to rate how ready the [...]
Entries from June 2008
From 1-10, How Would You Rate The American Public’s Preparedness For A Nuclear Explosion?
June 30th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Nuclear Terrorism
London Report On 7/7 Transit Bombings Offers Lesson About Need To “Re-cast” U.S. Emergency Plans From Public’s Point Of View
June 29th, 2008 · No Comments
An email from a new reader, Jo from London reminded me that I had meant to post the 2006 Report of the London Assembly’s 7 July Review Committee, which was set up to examine the lessons to be learned from the authorities’ response to the London bombings on July 7th, 2005. Â
Though it is now two years old, the Report [...]
Tags: International · Preparedness Lessons
Tips On Refining Your ‘Disaster Personality’ & What Men Can Learn From Women (About Flood Preparedness)
June 28th, 2008 · No Comments
I want to highlight two recent items from the blog of The Unthinkable author Amanda Ripley.
First, Amanda posted an excerpt from her book and Time cover story with recommendations on how to refine your own “disaster personality”. She lists five areas — Attitude, Knowledge, Anxiety Level, Body Weight & Training — where you can actually [...]
Tags: Preparedness Tips
First Installment Of New Blog Video Series “What Should We Tell The Public?” — Randy Larsen
June 26th, 2008 · 9 Comments
Today, I am kicking off a new video experiment on the blog. It is the premiere of a feature I’m going to call “What Should We Tell The Public?” I will be asking leading people in the homeland security/emergency management/public health preparedness community for their tips, recommendations, and ideas on what they think it is important that citizens should [...]
Tags: "What Should We Tell The Public?" · Preparedness Tips
Aspen Institute Roundtables on Homeland Security Preparedness — Chicago
June 25th, 2008 · No Comments
I am in Chicago this week for the third in a series of fascinating Aspen Institute roundtable discussions examining individual cities’ (and the nation’s) “preparedness for another 9/11-scale terror attack and another Hurricane Katrina-scale natural disaster.” Â
The three-day Aspen workshops bring together the area’s leading officials and experts from the government, business, academic and non-profit [...]
Tags: Preparedness Conferences
PBS’ “Carrier” & Its Lessons For Engaging And Preparing The Public About Our Own Homeland Security
June 24th, 2008 · No Comments
On the train back from Washington last week, I was riveted to my iPod watching one of the best hours of television I’ve seen in a long time – the first segment of “Carrier,” PBS’ 10-part documentary, which follows a six-month deployment of the USS Nimitz to the Persian Gulf.
The episode is wonderful – informative, funny, inspiring, frank, and beautifully shot. There [...]
Tags: Entertainment · Media · Preparedness Lessons
Florida Businesses Lower Prices For Emergency Preparedness Supplies
June 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment
Thanks to the Hometown Security blog, I saw that some Florida retailers had voluntarily lowered their prices on emergency preparedness supplies to encourage Floridians to prepare for Hurricane season.
I’ve been an advocate of getting the corporate sector far more involved in advance public preparedness, such as providing more discounts and developing integrated marketing campaigns, so I’m happy to hear about Florida’s [...]
Tags: Preparedness and Business
Cross Blog, CPR Romance & The Repositioning of Emergency Preparedness
June 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment
I had a good weekend of cross blogging with Robin Parker and Lise Kerwin of Cross Blog, the terrific blog of the Red Cross’ Oregon chapter. I wanted to mention one more thing about Cross Blog that I think is worth noting: a typically playful, eye-catching post on Saturday titled “Can CPR Get You A Date” listed several Portland, Oregon Craig’s List postings of potential [...]
Tags: Non-Profit Organizations · Red Cross
“Cross Blog” — The Oregon Red Cross’ Innovative Online Presence
June 22nd, 2008 · 2 Comments
One of the important goals of the American Red Cross’ Social Media Unit I just visited in Washington is drawing from (and spreading) creative preparedness 2.0 work being done in their chapters around the country.
This week, they invited Robin Parker, one of the founders of the Oregon chapter’s Cross Blog, to headquarters in Washington to help out with their social media efforts in response to the Midwest floods.  Â
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Cross Blog’s Robin [...]
Tags: Non-Profit Organizations · Preparedness 2.0
Visit To Red Cross’s D.C. Disaster Operations Center Highlights New New Media Initiative
June 21st, 2008 · 6 Comments
While I was in Washington, D.C. Thursday, I visited the American Red Cross‘ Disaster Response Center to learn more about the growing role of new media in the Red Cross’s response efforts during the Midwestern floods and tornadoes.
Wendy Harman and Claire Johnson of the Red Cross’ Social Media unit — which coordinates the organization’s online public affairs initiatives — kindly took a moment from their busy [...]
Tags: Preparedness 2.0 · Red Cross