In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate went to the offices of Google in Mountain View, California to discuss how the company and the industry can help the agency’s disaster preparedness and response efforts.
Fugate shot a short video there (below) about the goals of the meeting which he says was to help the government figure out how “we [...]

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U.S. officials are reevaluating the government’s original post-9/11 Ready.Gov citizen preparedness recommendations and in public statements are already reprioritizing what they are urging Americans to do to prepare for disasters.
It means that Ready.Gov’s “Get A Kit, Make A Plan, Be Informed” framework — which has been used by many federal, state and local preparedness sites since [...]

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With the hurricane season now picking up in earnest, I wanted to highlight the daily FEMA “National Situation Update”. Every morning, it offers a quick snapshot of FEMA’s activities with information and graphics gathered from a variety of sources including other federal agencies and departments, state and local governments, and the news media. Earlier this month, [...]

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In prepared testimony yesterday for a House subcommittee, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate reiterated his concern about the lack of U.S. citizen preparedness in some pretty strong language. He told legislators that “personal disaster preparedness is and must be a national priority” and it “needs considerable national attention,” recommending that “every elected and appointed official at every [...]

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In a rollicking keynote address at the Annual Natural Hazards Workshop in Broomfield, Colorado yesterday, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said that the public was a too often overlooked and unlocked asset in emergency response, but he also called on that same public to take more responsibility for preparing for and mitigating disasters. Fugate kicked off the 34th [...]

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As part of the Obama Administration’s new public service initiative, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the  Citizen Corps have partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service to create a Community Preparedness Toolkit. It is one of a series of Toolkits that can be found on Serve.gov, the nation’s new online resource for finding volunteer [...]

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The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has 10 regional offices (see map here for how they are divided). Each of them now has their own Twitter feed. You can go to the Homeland Security Department’s social media page here  to sign up. These have just started up, and they vary by office as far as frequency of [...]

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Calling citizens part of “the nation’s emergency response team,” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate is urging Americans to prepare for emergencies this July 4th Weekend:
“As we take this opportunity to observe the July 4th holiday with loved ones and friends, we are reminded of all we have to be thankful for and why it is so [...]

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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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Bill Firestone was Florida’s first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program coordinator from 1998-2001 (under new FEMA head Craig Fugate). Firestone now runs a consultancy EM Training. He is also a reader of the blog and sent me an email reacting to Fugate’s comment I wrote about urging CERT members to be “ambassadors” in their communities. [...]

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