In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Last night, I had the terrific opportunity to talk about the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program on WHCR-FM’s “Harlem 411″ show, hosted by Haja Worley. Haja, who himself is a member of the CERT from his West Harlem neighborhood, is doing a series of segments on public preparedness. We discussed our experiences as a [...]

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I don’t think I know of any more effective example of citizen action on public emergency preparedness than the Flu Wiki. It is a remarkable resource for helping people prepare and respond to the pandemic flu (and other emergencies), and it has been created by and for citizens. 
Greg Dworkin, a pediatrician from Connecticut, is one [...]

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In a survey released today, the American Red Cross and the Council For Excellence In Government found that public disaster preparedness has fallen a bit over the past year. The survey, conducted for National Preparedness Month, found that on a scale of 1 to 10, the nation’s collective level of preparedness, or Readiness Quotient (RQ), decreased [...]

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The Red Cross is asking media — both old and new — to participate in a “roadblock” today, Friday, helping to raise awareness of and money for the organization’s disaster efforts.
“In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog” is happy to be part of the blogosphere’s roadblock.

If you want to donate to the Red Cross, go to american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main
For [...]

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Jeff Levi is Executive Director of the Trust For America’s Health, a non-profit, non-partisan health policy organization, which does a lot of excellent work on public preparedness. Each year, the group publishes a widely-covered and very helpful report, “Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism” which grades each state’s readiness for [...]

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I will be a guest on the radio program “Harlem 411″ on WHCR-FM at 6:30pm. The topic will be the Civilian Emergency Response Team (CERT) and our role in emergency preparedness. If you are in the New York City area, the WHCR can be found at 90.3 FM. 

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers [...]

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Videos posted by citizens on YouTube during and after disasters are increasingly part of the new media landscape (whether it be Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Gustav, the Midwest floods, or the major earthquake in China earlier this year). However, there is not nearly as much video content on the topic of preparing for disasters in advance. Maybe that will change [...]

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One non-profit organization which has been in the forefront of citizen preparedness is the Home Safety Council. Under the leadership of Meri-k Appy, the Council has developed a number of creative and user-friendly preparedness education programs. In this daily segment of “What Should We Tell The Public?” (for National Preparedness Month), Appy discusses the Council’s ‘Get [...]

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Looking for a wedding gift for that difficult to buy for bride and groom?
Stacy Gerlich, a Los Angeles Fire Department Captain, has a creative and useful suggestion. And, she says two-thirds of recipients love it. 
According to Chip Jacobs’ Los Angeles Times story:

Newlyweds receiving a wedding gift from Stacy Gerlich these days can expect a little disaster [...]

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In this segment of “What Should We Tell The Public?”, Hilary Styron, Director of the National Organization on Disability’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative, points out the increased challenges faced by citizens with special needs in preparing and responding to disasters. Styron says that they need to identify their needs in advance and try to develop an [...]

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