In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

HBO’s new movie, Taking Chance, tells the true story of U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl who volunteers to accompany the remains of 19-year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps killed in Iraq back to his family in Dubois, Wyoming. Witnessing the spontaneous outpouring of support and respect for the fallen Marine — from the groundskeepers he passed along [...]

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I wrote earlier this month about a terrific new book, The Survivors Club: The Secrets & Science That Could Save Your Life. The book examines the questions of human survival in crises — Who survives and who doesn’t? Who bounces back and who collapses? Who keeps fighting and who surrenders? Through well-reported true stories, first-hand experiences, and [...]

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Speaking of preparedness education in the schools, two good examples — focusing on widely different ages — were brought to my attention recently: 1) the Student Tools for Emergency Planning (STEP) program at the Thompson Brook School in Avon, Connecticut for fifth graders, and 2) an earthquake readiness program at the University of California, Berkeley for [...]

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As has been discussed often on this blog, I believe that a key to creating a real culture of preparedness throughout the nation is getting the topic taught in schools. Not only would it prepare a generation for the future, but sometimes the best way to convince parents in the present is through their kids. Yet [...]

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The U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee was just presented with a report pointing out that the user public (of all ages) has a role in the nation’s cyber security effort. The Committee had requested the study, National Cyber Security: Research and Development Challenges Related To Economics, Physical Infrastructure And Human Behavior from the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P).
The [...]

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This segment of the “What Should We Tell The Public?” video series features Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s vice president for outreach and educational practices.
Jeanette had a major role, along with Grover (who also recorded a video), in developing Sesame Street’s preparedness program for young kids and their families, “Let’s Get Ready! Planning Together For Emergencies,” done in collaboration [...]

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A new study from Columbia University’s National Center For Disaster Preparedness says that organizational factors delayed evacuation from the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 and offers recommendations to improve evacuations in the future. The team, headed by Robyn R. Gershon, Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, found that the Trade Center evacuation:  
“…was delayed [...]

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I wanted to bring to your attention a terrific article in The Huffington Post, “Applying The ‘Obama Model’ For Homeland Security,” by Arnold Bogis from Harvard University’s Belfer Center.
Bogis argues that the bottom-up, community-driven organizational approach of the President during the recent campaign (and in some of his previous work in Chicago) can — and should be — [...]

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Over this Valentine’s Day weekend, the City of New York gave away hundreds of thousands of condoms as part of its NYC Condom ’safe sex’ social marketing campaign. Since it launched the program on Valentine’s Day in 2007, the City’s Department of Health has distributed a total of 70 million free samples. 
Now, obviously there are [...]

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As someone who has gone through the preparedness process from an average citizen’s point of view, I realize that it is not easy to do. There are many questions, small and large, that come up when you try to prepare yourself and your family for emergencies. As a result, I’ve always felt it was unrealistic [...]

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