In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

I wanted to mention that the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The organization was launched in July of 1970 and, as its website says, is a “voice for the nonprofit organizations and volunteers that work in all phases of disaster preparedness, response, relief, recovery, and mitigation.”
FEMA head [...]

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Earlier in the week, I did a post on a terrific new paper, “A Vision for Technology-Mediated Support for Public Participation & Assistance in Mass Emergencies & Disasters” by researchers from the University of Colorado and University of California as part of the Project EPIC initiative. The focus of the paper is the role of technology in improving [...]

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During 2010’s National Preparedness Month (NPM) this September, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) will be asking Americans to accept their responsibilities as part of the country’s emergency preparedness and response effort. It echoes a major theme of FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate’s tenure which marks its first anniversary today.
FEMA’s Ready Campaign held a NPM kickoff webinar [...]

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Yesterday was YouTube’s 5th Anniversary, and I wanted to express my appreciation to the site for making it so easy for even a technology neophyte like myself to use.
Shooting with the equally user friendly Flip camera and then posting my (often shaky camera work) to YouTube, I have been able to utilize a lot of [...]

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I never thought I’d put a Miley Cyrus video on this preparedness blog. Not that I’m not a fan (originally turned on to her by my two young daughters).  I have several Miley songs on my iPod (my favorite: “G.N.O.”) and went with the family last year to one of her concerts in Newark, New [...]

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For anyone interested in the role of technology in public disaster preparedness and response (and everyone in the field should be!), I highly recommend a new paper, “A Vision for Technology-Mediated Support for Public Participation & Assistance in Mass Emergencies & Disasters”.
It is co-authored by the University of Colorado/Boulder’s Leysia Palen (head of the school’s Crisis Informatics program which [...]

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During his tenure, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate has been trying to somewhat reposition the agency’s role in the nation’s emergency preparedness for and response to disasters. And that effort was on display last week when he appeared in the White House media briefing room with press secretary Robert Gibbs to discuss FEMA’s activities during the [...]

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That’s the excellent question asked in a post by Elizabeth Grossman on The Pump Handle blog. The answer, Grossman finds, is still — like the crisis — evolving. She writes:
As the unprecedented offshore oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico unfolds and extraordinary measures are being taken to protect vulnerable coastal and marine environments [...]

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Also today in the New York Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt raised a wording question that has both journalistic and policy implications when it comes to disasters. As part of the column, “Semantic Minefields,” Hoyt wrote about a petition organized by Sandy Rosenthal of New Orleans asking the Times “to issue a style memo requiring that news articles [...]

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In today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine, there’s an article, “Cass Sunstein Wants To Nudge Us,” profiling Cass Sunstein, the director of White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
OIRA, according to the piece, has “the power to review every significant new rule that emerged from…[federal] agencies and to decide whether the benefits (in [...]

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