In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

In response to a question from the audience at the Red Cross Emergency Social Data Summit last week, Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate mentioned that the agency is doing some serious rethinking about the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program as it approaches its 25th Anniversary.
The questioner urged Fugate to move CERT from [...]

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President Obama and his family travelled to the Gulf Coast on Saturday to take a dip in support of the area’s recovery from the oil spill disaster. The willingness of the swimmer-in-chief to jump in literally and figuratively and even take his family in sent a strong message, amplified by the huge media coverage, to [...]

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Readers of this blog know I am a sucker for creative, fun preparedness events that involve business, community groups, government and the public — and also educate on emergency readiness.
Thursday’s Canadian Red Cross “Disaster Dining” contest — in which competitors had 30 minutes to prepare their best dish using only foods that would be found [...]

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On the Amtrak train back to New York City Friday night from Washington, I saw something and said something — but this tip was good news.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just begun rolling out a national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign, and I saw its new advertising posters in many of [...]

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The U.S. State Department’s blog, Dipnote, this weekend is promoting text donations for Pakistan flood relief. It is also asking for public input on this question: How can we encourage the international community to maintain focus on natural disaster response?
According to the post:
How you can help: …Please visit the links below for more information about [...]

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Andrew Revkin’s terrific DotEarth blog has two interesting posts this week with contributions from two experts on disasters and resilience.
1) In “Lessons In Resilience From New Orleans,” Robert Kates, a scholar studying human development patterns, offered some lessons on building resilient communities derived from the history of New Orleans. The lessons are:
The United States is vulnerable [...]

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A new study  says “individualistic” Americans may be too optimistic about the risk of disasters, including terrorism, as opposed to more “interdependent” cultures such as in Asia. The report argues that the perception of disaster risk is influenced by culture more than experience.
It may help explain why many Americans still do not prepare for disasters (and, [...]

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Yesterday, I attended the American Red Cross’ first-ever “Emergency Social Data Summit”. It was a really interesting and invigorating day focusing on how to utilize new technologies, including social media, to address gaps in crisis preparedness and response.
There was a whole lot of information, ideas and energy among the 200 attendees at the Red Cross’ [...]

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After his well-received speech to the American Red Cross’ “Emergency Social Data Summit” yesterday, I had a chance to interview FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.
I asked him about the role of social media in disasters, how he has benefited from having (and tweeting on) his own Twitter account, and what he wants to accomplish during the [...]

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I am in Washington this morning and was about to walk over to the American Red Cross’ “Emergency Social Data Summit” when – maybe appropriately considering the topic of the event — I received on my BlackBerry from the District of Columbia’s Emergency Management Agency’s AlertDC “Flood Warning” and “Severe Thunderstorm Watch” e-mail/text:
National Weather Service has [...]

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