In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Earlier this month, I wrote about Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s announcement that the Department was launching a national “See Something, Say Something” initiative.
In order to help develop the new program, FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division is partnering with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to research how to improve the public’s response [...]

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On the six-month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, the Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) released a report today criticizing the lack of transparency by groups raising relief funds from the public.
The “Report On The Transparency of Relief Organizations Responding to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake”, according to DAP, is the result of an investigation aimed at determining [...]

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In a story on the website, ednewscolorado.org, “From Terrorism To Tornadoes, Kids Learn To Be Prepared,” Rebecca Jones writes about Disaster READY Training, a collaboration of READYColorado, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and the City and County of Denver.
Last week, nearly 40 middle school students took part in the day long class in first [...]

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The 35th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop began this weekend. The conference, organized by the University of Colorado’s esteemed Natural Hazards Center, is held outside of Denver. According to the Center’s website, the Workshop is:
designed to bring hazards researchers and practitioners from many disciplines together for face-to-face discussions on issues and trends that [...]

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In his blog Alerts & Notifications, Rick Wimberly has a short post about a company called Pets Guardian:
There’s a new emergency notification service for pets. Well, it’s not for notifying pets, but for notifications regarding pets when an emergency occurs…
Here’s how it works. If, say, emergency medical technicians respond to a call and residents are [...]

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Soon after this week’s 5.2 earthquake near San Diego, the Twitter feed of the Great California Shakeout asked their followers to visit the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) “Did You Feel It?” website. “Did You Feel It?” collects reports from citizens after temblors from around the world.
These public reporting can be very helpful according to the [...]

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On the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management Facebook page, I read a nice story about some local high school students who organized an effort to pay for, assemble and help distribute disaster kits for 500 of the city’s most needy citizens.
According to an article on the website Neighborhood Empowerment Network, the school’s involvement came [...]

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As much of the nation (particularly the northeast) is experiencing extremely high temperatures, I thought would post the American Red Cross’ safety checklist for dealing with aheat wave. The tips include:
*Listen to a NOAA Weather Radio for critical updates from the National Weather Service (NWS).
*Never leave children or pets alone in enclosed vehicles.
*Stay hydrated by [...]

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I wanted to post an interesting report released today summarizing the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC’s conference, “Preparing to Save Lives and Recover After a Nuclear Detonation: Implications for U.S. Policy”.
The Center “convened the invitational meeting to examine critical issues associated with response to and recovery from a nuclear detonation and to consider the policy [...]

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Orange County California officials have an interesting new strategy to get the word out to the public about preparing for disasters — ask the public to give them their word they will prepare.
ReadyOC is launching the “Promise to Prepare” campaign requesting local residents publicly commit on its web site that they will take at least one [...]

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