In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A new policy brief, “Before Disaster Strikes: Rate and Raise Public Preparedness Now,” recommends the new National Security Council Resilience Directorate “task the Department of Homeland Security to work with federal and non-federal stakeholders and independent experts to develop agreed measures of public preparedness, and develop and execute cost-effective, innovative approaches for ensuring timely progress in [...]

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Just weeks after the release of a Department of Homeland Security report indicating that the U.S. could learn from Israel about citizen preparedness,  the Mideast nation last week undertook its largest civil defense drill ever,  a five-day exercise called “Turning Point 3″. 
As has been mentioned regularly on the blog, Israel offers a helpful model for the U.S. [...]

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In his forthcoming book, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, warns about the U.S. becoming complacent and returning to a “September 10 mindset.” But he is equally cautionary about going too far in the other direction. “There are two opposite extremes that must be avoided,” he writes in the book, Homeland Security: Assessing the First [...]

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Roberto De Vido (who keeps me apprised of Japanese public preparedness efforts from his home on the outskirts of Tokyo) just brought something to my attention here in the U.S. —  the Quake Quiz (www.quakequizsf.org) created by the San Francisco’s Office of Emergency Management and found on its public preparedness site, www.72hours.org.
Quake Quiz is an engaging and informative [...]

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Thanks to CaliforniaVolunteers, I have 10 disaster kits to give away for a new contest. CaliforniaVolunteers is the office that oversees that State’s volunteering initiatives including its family preparedness program, WE Prepare.
To win a kit, send in one of the following: an emergency preparedness tip, something your have done to prepare for a disaster, or a suggestion to [...]

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The Safe America Foundation is launching a new campaign, “Drill Down for Safety,” designed to “create local practice drills on an annual basis in communities large and small to assure that Americans are prepared for disasters.” 
The nationwide campaign will focus initially on getting businesses — small, medium-sized and large — to organize emergency drills during September [...]

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I have written before about the importance of offering the public some kind of incentive when it comes to trying to spur preparedness. One example is that New York City Fire Department regularly gives away batteries at public events to encourage New Yorkers to keep their smoke alarms working. Recently, I took this photo of [...]

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Though public and media attention on the H1N1/Swine Flu outbreak has waned, there is a need to examine the lessons of the past couple weeks for future citizen preparedness and response — whether that be for a reoccurrence of a more deadly H1N1 flu possibly in the Fall or another national emergency situation. 

So, I thought [...]

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CaliforniaVolunteers has just launched an innovative effort to reach out to blogs targeted at mothers in order to promote disaster preparedness. The agency, the lead state office responsible for coordinating volunteer activities, is organizing in-home disaster-preparedness events in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area hosted by bloggers. The sessions focus on California’s online [...]

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I just read about a good idea that the government of Singapore has had about briefing members of the blogsphere in advance of emergencies. According to an article in Channel News Asia headlined “Bloggers, moderators can help ease public fears in crisis”:
The Internet has made possible the rapid spread of fear in a crisis, said Deputy Prime Minister [...]

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