In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Thanks to the Twitter feed of CraigAtFEMA (a.k.a. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate) who just posted an Emergency Management article, “Iowa County Surveys Citizens to Determine Emergency Volunteer Capabilities.” The piece explains:
To garner a better understanding of what its residents could contribute to disaster response and recovery, Adair County, Iowa, is surveying its citizens to determine their [...]

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As the nation marks the anniversary of 9/11, one of the significant homeland security challenges the government still faces eight years later is figuring out how best to communicate the terrorist threat to the public and then engage the citizenry to help in its anti-terror efforts.
Both parts of that challenge involve a difficult balance. On [...]

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I wanted to post an op-ed piece from today’s New York Times by Eric Sanderson, “After The Storms, An Island Of Calm — And Resilience”:

In September 1609, the beach near the tip of the island was surrounded by thickly wooded hills. Passenger pigeons flew overhead; porpoises hunted in the harbor. Around 600 Native Americans lived [...]

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On the anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to repost some proposals to help raise citizen preparedness. DHS Secretary Napolitano has said that public readiness is a priority and the Department has begun the process of engaging Americans in their own homeland security. The ideas below come largely from discussions I have had with people involved in [...]

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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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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Kathy Cloninger today unveiled a Girl Scout preparedness patch-designed to engage Girl Scouts and their families in personal preparedness for all emergencies-and announced a new affiliation between DHS Citizen Corps and the Girl Scouts to advance community preparedness nationwide. ”As [...]

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A bill introduced today by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), and its ranking Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), offers several initiatives to improve the government’s information and planning for the public in the event of a terrorist attack from weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
“The Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness [...]

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The 10 finalists for the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) YouTube Flu Prevention PSA contest have been announced and posted on Flu.Gov. You can now vote here through September 16th for the winner who will receive a $2500 prize (and whose PSA will be featured on national television).
The finalists are all good and their entries [...]

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The American Red Cross is launching a new campaign, “Do More Than Cross Your Fingers,” today hoping to make it easier for Americans to prepare for emergencies. The campaign’s spokeswoman is Jamie Lee Curtis, a long-time Red Cross volunteer and advocate for personal preparedness in her home state of California.
The campaign will encourage Americans to take [...]

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At one of the opening panels of the recent Citizen Corps’ National Conference On Community Preparedness, I heard a terrific presentation on San Francisco’s new preparedness initiative, “Prep SF Because It Rocks!”, given by Rob Dudgeon, the Deputy Director of  the City’s Department of Emergency Management (SFDEM), and Kristin Hogan from the consultancy CirclePoint who helped [...]

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