In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

This blog often covers my own first-person experiences. The most recent was a bit of a surprise. After covering the H1N1 flu from a distance as a blogger, the virus has hit home. This week, one of my family members was diagnosed with H1N1. She’s already feeling better, and the rest of the family is [...]

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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced last week that she was appointing a task force to examine the future of the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) better known as the (much maligned and parodied) color-coded alerts.
Following a 60-day review period, the bipartisan task force will present its findings to Napolitano, who will in turn discuss them [...]

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This edition of the “What Should We Tell The Public?” video series features Jeannette Sutton, a leading researcher on social media and disasters, from the University of Colorado’s Natural Hazards Center. I filmed this segment at the Center’s recently completed Natural Hazards And Applications Workshop held in Broomfield, Colorado. Jeannette’s work was featured in a recent Reason magazine article, [...]

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MercuryNews.com has an article, “Got Swine Flu? Tweet It?”, about Santa Clara (California) County’s Public Health Department’s H1N1 flu prevention campaign which will aggressively utilize social media tools to focus on young people:
When students return to school this fall, school nurses will once again chase after them with hand sanitizer. Familiar posters about sneezing into [...]

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At the Natural Hazards & Applications Workshop on Friday, a panel of those involved with the Great California ShakeOut offered an update of their plans for the second annual drill, which will take place at 10:15 a.m. on October 15, 2009. During that day, millions of Californians will practice “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” as [...]

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I wanted to bring your attention a very interesting and useful study on the role of social media in crises. The newly-released report, “Expert Round Table on Social Media and Risk Communication During Times of Crises: Strategic Challenges and Opportunities,” comes out of a day-long workshop in March at the American Public Health Association (APHA) [...]

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Via the U.S. Citizen Corps comes an intriguing invitation for those interested in the future of national emergency preparedness and response as well as homeland security in general:
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano invites you to participate in the National Dialogue on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). This groundbreaking, web-based interactive dialogue is designed [...]

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Last month, I posted some YouTube videos of songs I think are particularly resonant and representative of the ideas raised in this blog. Afterwards, I received a couple of suggestions from readers below which I thought I would post:
Bruce Hennes —
My nomination for Best Preparedness Song, Nuclear Division is Tom Lehrer – Who’s Next? [...]

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In a rollicking keynote address at the Annual Natural Hazards Workshop in Broomfield, Colorado yesterday, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said that the public was a too often overlooked and unlocked asset in emergency response, but he also called on that same public to take more responsibility for preparing for and mitigating disasters. Fugate kicked off the 34th [...]

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I was interviewed yesterday by Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, for their show, Daily Debrief, on Federal News Radio in Washington, D.C.. We discussed the H1N1 Flu Summit focusing on some of the challenges facing the public and government officials for the Fall.

The audio for the eight-minute interview can be downloaded from the Federal News Radio website here.

These icons [...]

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