In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

FEMA’s Ready Campaign has just announced that a National Preparedness Month widget is now available to provide more information about this September’s activities.

The site also has widgets for other FEMA readiness efforts, including hurricane preparedness.

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

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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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I wanted to post a report that came out while this blog was on hiatus last year. New Technologies In Emergencies And Conflicts, written by Diane Coyle and Patrick Meier. It was published by the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation.

The study looks at the opportunities and challenges that communications advances present for humanitarian [...]

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration and the American Red Cross have produced a menu with their various social media tools (including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and widgets) for the public to use/bookmark during hurricane season. It can be found on FEMA’s website here. You can also receive e-mail and text alerts [...]

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In the weeks since Deepwater Horizon explosion, the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) has found itself in the middle of an evolving and unprecedented crisis. And, the agency has been relying on its new Twitter feed @GOHSEP, which has become a vital communications platform and resource.
Though the @GOHSEP feed has been [...]

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I wanted to bring your attention to a brand new blog authored by Col. Randy Larsen (ret.), Biosecurity Blog.
Randy, a friend of this blog, has an illustrious and varied career in the military, homeland security and communications. Most recently, he was the Executive Director of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction [...]

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On the subject of preparedness ‘carrots’, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency’s Ready Georgia campaign is working with the private sector to provide a free or discounted NOAA Weather Radio for residents who use its new online family preparedness planning tool.

According to the agency’s press release:
…Through July 19, Georgians who visit ready.ga.gov and sign up to [...]

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David Stephenson, a leading thinker in how technology can be used for emergencies and transparent government in general, has an article in Federal Computer Week, “Future Oil Spills Could Be Averted By Regulation 3.0 Apps.”
In the piece, Stephenson, the principal of Stephenson Strategies, argues that “the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico highlights the [...]

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There’s a nice — and well deserved — profile of government/emergency social media innovator Brian Humphrey, “A Gov 2.o Pioneer,” by Michelle V. Rafter in the blog, Prime Time. Humphrey (photo left) is a veteran Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) public information officer who has made the LAFD a leader in the use of governmental [...]

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I wanted to bring your attention to a new Facebook page started by a Citizen Corps volunteer primarily for other Citizen Corps volunteers (and anyone interested in the topic of public preparedness).
The Citizen Corps Volunteer page was created by Andrew Levy, a friend of this blog, who authors his own Neighbors Helping Neighbors blog. The page [...]

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