In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Yesterday, I participated in several Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) activities as part of New York City’s kickoff of National Preparedness Month activities.
First, I handed out preparedness ‘goody bags’ to passersby in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle after stuffing the packages with other members in an impromptu assembly line. In each bag was a READY New [...]

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To mark National Preparedness Month, the Empire State Building is lit tonight in Ready New York  Yellow making emergency readiness, at least for one evening, the ‘highest’ priority in the City. I took the (amateur) photos earlier this evening.

The Empire State Building lit in Ready New York Yellow tonight.

These icons link to social bookmarking sites [...]

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The New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and the Ad Council today launched a new Facebook application to help New Yorkers find a safe place to meet their families or friends during an emergency.
According to the press release:
Located on OEM’s Facebook page, the new interactive web mapping application allows New Yorkers to select [...]

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This morning, I had the opportunity to speak to FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino who was in Brooklyn to help the New York’s Office of Emergency Management kickoff National Preparedness Month.
In a video interview (below), Serino said that with Hurricane Earl heading up the Eastern Seaboard “today is the day for people to be prepared,” [...]

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Though yesterday’s launch of National Preparedness Month was filled with a lot of great activities taking place throughout the U.S., it also a day that underscores the shortcomings in the nation’s public readiness efforts — because also yesterday Japan held its annual Disaster Prevention Day during which 670,000 citizens participated in emergency drills in Tokyo and 34 [...]

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With today marking the first day of National Preparedness Month (NPM), I wanted to mention that Ready Campaign Deputy Director Rebecca Marquis told me this morning that this year’s NPM has set the record for number of coalition members.
As of last Friday, there were 3684 members breaking the biggest previous figure of 3200 two years ago. [...]

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During National Preparedness Month, the blog will be highlighting interesting, innovative and fun readiness events and ideas that are going on around the nation. One of those is the “30 Days, 30 Ways” Contest created by Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) in Vancouver, Washington. According to its website:
Each day in September, CRESA is going to [...]

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I was very happy to be asked to do a guest post, “LAFD: In Case of Emergency, Read Blog,” on the Los Angeles Fire Department’s (LAFD) popular blog as part of a special series it is doing for National Preparedness Month.
I recommend checking the LAFD blog the rest of the month to read more tips and [...]

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As the U.S. kicks off  National Preparedness Month today, I thought I would reprint a letter to the editor from a newspaper in Canada during that nation’s Emergency Preparedness Week. I think anyone involved in public preparedness will empathize with the challenge of engaging the public on this issue. The letter:
To the editor:
I guess everyone in Scugog [...]

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