In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

The City of Boston has just launched two new online tools to help residents prepare a family preparedness plan and find their local emergency shelter.

According to the ReadyBoston press release:
“The Family Preparedness Planner and the Shelter Finder provide interactive ways for residents to answer logistical questions that would arise in an emergency. The Planner is [...]

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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday announced “The Big Rumble” marking the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake with a week-long series of special preparedness events. In a letter to the community, Newsom wrote:
“To commemorate the Loma Prieta anniversary, we invite you to participate in The Big Rumble, a week-long series of special events [...]

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As we mark the anniversaries of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, I wanted to again mention a bill which would create a ‘tax holiday’ for preparedness supplies and “Go-Bags,” introduced in the New York State Assembly by Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing. Under the legislation, New Yorkers would be able to buy emergency supplies without paying state sales tax between September 1st-11th and purchase pre-made “Go-Bags” tax free [...]

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“You have learned from the news media and City officials that there has been a widespread airborne anthrax release across the city that may affect large numbers of the City’s residents. [Anthrax exposure may cause fever, coughing, malaise, fatigue, myalgias, profound sweats, and chest discomfort. If anthrax is inhaled and not treated, death is very [...]

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My New York City Office of Emergency Management “Tip-Of-The-Week” email tipped me off to some interactive web preparedness games the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has created to help teach children how to prepare for emergencies. They can be found on the Ready Kids website and the Ready New York For Kids site. The games include: [...]

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This past weekend, my family and I had a great opportunity to explore New York Harbor on the retired fireboat, the “John J. Harvey”. The trip was part of City of Water Day, an event sponsored by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA), a non-profit organization I am involved with. More than 10,000 people participated in the [...]

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MercuryNews.com has an article, “Got Swine Flu? Tweet It?”, about Santa Clara (California) County’s Public Health Department’s H1N1 flu prevention campaign which will aggressively utilize social media tools to focus on young people:
When students return to school this fall, school nurses will once again chase after them with hand sanitizer. Familiar posters about sneezing into [...]

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A new report gives state and local health departments mixed grades for distributing information through the internet to the public during the H1N1 outbreak. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report:
After the U.S. government declared a public health emergency in April, 46 of 50 state health departments posted some information about the [...]

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FEMA Administrator met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler and Office of Emergency Management head Joseph Bruno to discuss New York’s emergency preparedness efforts and to bolster the relationship between the City and the federal agency.
I spoke with Fugate after the meeting on the steps of New York’s City Hall and [...]

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In the aftermath of yesterday’s Metrorail crash in Washington, D.C. which killed at least 7 9 and injured 70, Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable, offers an excellent post about the role of the public in the accident and in emergencies in general as well as the need for authorities to better account for citizens [...]

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