In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Today, I attended the second in a series of “stakeholder forums” being held by the Obama Administration’s “Long-Term Disaster Recovery Working Group” to solicit input and ideas.
The White House Working Group — co-chaired by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and composed of the Secretaries [...]

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In a speech at the London School Economics last week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano brought her theme of “shared responsibility” across the Atlantic. She told the audience — which included a number of American students — that as part of U.S. homeland security, ”individuals have responsibilities, families have responsibilities to be prepared…to have thought what they would [...]

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Andy Carvin, who spearheaded creation of the innovative Hurricane Information Center during Gustav and Ike last summer, has announced on his Twitter feed that the site is looking for online volunteers to help with preparations for what is now Tropical Storm Ida. The Center serves as a comprehensive clearinghouse and aggregator of information/content in addition [...]

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Andrew Ostrow of Mashable had an interesting post pointing out how the new Twitter Lists have already become excellent resources for the public during emergencies as was demonstrated last week during the Ft. Hood shootings.
The Lists allow Twitter users to organize the feeds they’re following into groups. And, Ostrow notes the work of several news [...]

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The hurricane of 1938 that battered the East Coast plays a key role in Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor (Little, Brown), a well-reviewed memoir written by an old friend of mine, Tad Friend. Tad is a staff member of the The New Yorker.
Though the major storm is a key event [...]

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In an effort to reach out to its stakeholders, including the public, FEMA has announced outreach initiatives on business preparedness and flood insurance.
First, the agency will be holding a series of public meetings throughout the U.S. on the Department of Homeland Security’s Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep). PS-Prep is a partnership between DHS [...]

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I recently read an interesting report, “A Strategy for Developing ‘A Culture of Preparedness,’” which summarizes the work of FEMA Region V’s “2009 “Preparedness Summit.” Held in Chicago in January, the Summit brought together 75 government and non-government experts from a number of fields “to generate ideas toward creating a culture of preparedness.”
James Opoka, Region [...]

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In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at Ft. Hood yesterday, the response of individuals at the base and the surrounding community displayed the value of first aid training and blood donation. First, soldiers at the scene used what they had been taught to treat the wounded. Then, hundreds of local residents responded to hospital [...]

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As I have mentioned on the blog my CPR-AED accreditation has expired, and I have to renew it — not only because I need the official paperwork, but I also feel like I could use the skills refresher. Though the fact I haven’t gotten around to it typifies the difficulty that a lot people have [...]

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New York City’s Office of Emergency Management is taking advantage of Yankee-mania here as an angle in its most recent “Tip of the Week” sent out earlier this week:
“With a 3-1 lead over the Phillies, the [UPDATE: World Champion] Yankees have been focused on driving runs home this World Series. But when the catcher is [...]

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