In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A reader and contributor to this blog, Bruce Curley, sent me a link to his blog, PoetsLife, with some photos of a disaster exercise in which he played a victim (see bandaged man below) held earlier this month in Carroll County, Maryland. The scenario tested in the drill was a tornado touching down on a [...]

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The blog “Web Strategy by Jeremiah” does an interesting, multi-media analysis of the role of the social messaging service Twitter (as well as other civilian media coverage) in reporting a propane gas explosion in Toronto early Sunday morning. In the post, titled “Crises Tracking on Twitter: The Benefits -and Dangers- of New Media,” Jeremiah (Jeremiah Owyang, [...]

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On Friday, the British government released to the public the National Risk Register, which according to the British government website, ”sets out our assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different risks that may directly affect the UK” and is:
“designed to increase awareness of the kinds of risks the UK faces, and encourage individuals [...]

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I wanted to bring your attention to a very helpful and timely online resource produced by the prestigious Natural Hazards Center of the University of Colorado. Disaster Research is a “moderated e-mail newsletter for creators and users of information regarding hazards and disasters”. 
Disaster Research comes out biweekly and offers articles about new developments, policies, conference announcements, job vacancies, resources, [...]

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In my research for this blog and my book, I have found that you can sometimes learn a lot about public preparedness from people who aren’t experts in public preparedness. Historian Matt Dallek does not usually write about preparedness nor even homeland security. However, he wrote a very insightful and helpful article, ”Civic Security”, this past winter in [...]

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The entry deadline for the first “In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog” Contest is Friday, August 8th.
I am happy to report that the good folks at Crown Publishing have just given me three copies of Michael Sheehan’s interesting new book, Crush The Cell: How To Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves, to add to the prize [...]

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One of the most common questions that homeland security and law enforcement officials and expertsi tell me they get asked by their friends and relatives is “Why Haven’t We Been Attacked Again?” It’s an question I’ve been asking them as well. I call these common queries “Barbecue Questions (or “Cocktail Party Questions” in the colder weather) [...]

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I spent much of last night on the streets of New York pushing preparedness. Specifically, I was in Columbus Circle near the southwest entrance of Central Park with my CERT team along with representatives of the New York police and fire departments as part of the annual “National Night Out”. It was the 25th anniversary [...]

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When most of us think of what we should be doing to prepare for disasters, we often forget that exercising our role as citizens and voters can be as important as the more well known tasks like storing emergency supplies or creating a communications plan. 
That point is underscored by an intriguing new study,  “Preferring A Pound [...]

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With the ‘Anthrax Letters’ case back in the news, there has been a lot of discussion of how the public has moved from such a high level of concern about terrorism seven years ago to the present relatively complacent attitude. Therefore, I thought it would be very appropriate to post the “What Should We Tell The [...]

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