In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

If you want to monitor what infectious diseases might be in your area or just check out a cool preparedness 2.0/public health application, take a look at www.healthmap.org.
Created by a research software developer Clark Freifield and a professor of pediatrics John Brownstein from Boston’s Children’s Hospital, HealthMap ”brings together disparate data sources to achieve unified and comprehensive view of current global state of [...]

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In a post earlier this week, I discussed the Florida Legislature’s attempt to address an obstacle faced by citizens as they try to prepare for emergencies — storing prescription medicine. In last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, there was an article, “Are You Ready For The Next Disaster,” by Eric Klinenberg that describes the range of other impediments that [...]

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The blog’s new video series “What Should We Tell The Public?” today features a segment with Joe Becker, the American Red Cross’ Senior Vice President for Preparedness & Response.
In this series, I am asking leading people in the homeland security/emergency management/public health preparedness community for their tips, recommendations, and ideas on what they think citizens should know and do in order to [...]

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Thanks to John Bowen’s Hometown Security blog, I learned about an interesting citizen preparedness development —  the Florida legislature’s passage of the “Emergency Prescription Refill Bill” to help citizens store medicine for major emergencies. The legislation would “require all insurers and managed-care organizations to suspend refill-too-soon restrictions when a patient seeks a refill” if their county is under a [...]

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I recently had the opportunity to participate in a “Blogger Roundtable” on emergency preparedness with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff and Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) chief R. David Paulison held at DHS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. I joined Jonah Czerwinski of the Homeland Security Watch and Rich Cooper of Security Debrief as one of three questioners. The full transcript can be found here. 
It was a wide-ranging, [...]

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Earlier this year, James Karl Buck, a graduate student arrested in Egypt while documenting local riots, sent out a one word Twitter message — “Arrested” — just before he was taken in custody by Egyptian police. As a result of the message, members of Buck’s Twitter network were able to get the word out, mobilize and then create enough outside [...]

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The headline might strike some readers as tongue in cheek — as if you can really do anything if a nuclear bomb explodes nearby. And, clearly if you are too close, there is little you will be able to do. However, it is less well know that there are things that to you can do if you are in the vicinity [...]

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