In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

As you may know — or are directly experiencing for yourself — parts of the northeast are having their first heat wave of the year. Here in New York, the City’s Office of Emergency Management has been reminding citizens to be careful of the heat. As I signed up for OEM’s public warning mailing list, I received this notification email:

For the next four days the [...]

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The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — And Why by Amanda Ripley goes on sale today.
I have had a chance to read the book, and I can recommend it wholeheartedly not only to any readers of this blog — who tend think about disasters more than most folks — but also to anyone who ever thinks about what they would do if [...]

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I wanted to bring your attention to an important earthquake preparedness event that readers in California may already have heard about — The Great Southern California ShakeOut – occurring this November. According to their website, www.shakeout.org:  
The Great Southern California ShakeOut is a week of special events featuring the largest earthquake drill in U.S. history, organized to inspire [...]

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A fellow CERT member just sent me this interactive web quiz on earthquake preparedness. It doesn’t take long (only 10 questions) and is easy to use for all ages. Go to: www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/features/flash/quake/during.html
In all candor, your preparedness expert got only 6 out of 10 answers correct — earthquakes are not my strength — so I definitely learned something from [...]

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Thanks to Security Debrief’s helpful Homeland Blog Watch ticker I learned that today is – in addition to this blogger’s birthday – the last day of the First National CPR-AED Awareness Week. According to Emsresponder.com:
Congress designated the first week of June each year for this event, with the goal of encouraging states, cities and towns to establish organized programs to provide CPR and AED [...]

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With the nation possibly heading for a record year for tornadoes and severe weather watches posted throughout the Midwest, I thought I would post a list that FEMA just released of what to do before and then during a tornado, including this advice:  
“When a tornado is sighted, the most important rule is to get low and stay low.

At home-Seek shelter in a basement; [...]

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I know you all already get too much email (including, for some of you, the weekly summary of this blog). And the idea of getting any more, particularly from the Department of Homeland Security, may not sound on first blush very enticing
However, if you are interested in citizen preparedness — or for that matter any aspect of homeland security – I suggest you go to [...]

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My CERT team was mobilized by the City’s Office of Emergency Management for the last two days to help tenants move back into the Upper East Side Manhattan building which was struck by a falling crane last Friday morning. Our team, the East Side Neighborhood Association (ESNA)-CERT, was joined by the Upper East Side CERT. We were activated because we are [...]

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I recommend anyone interested in the role of the public in homeland security should read “Civic Security”  an article in the Winter 2008 edition of a terrific new policy magazine, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Dallek, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, cleverly offers a new take on homeland security by citing an old model –World War II’s Office of Civil Defense. He writes:
“In May 1941, President Franklin D. [...]

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It’s “NYC Quits Day” here in New York. The day is part of a major anti-smoking effort, which has been a major priority of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
And why am I mentioning this in a citizen preparedness blog? Because I believe that there are a couple key financial and publicity elements in the City’s anti-smoking initiative that I think are instructive for developing effective campaigns for public emergency preparedness. [...]

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