In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

As the U.S. marks the ninth anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to post some ideas that I think would help raise citizen preparedness and engagement. The recommendations come from discussions that I have had with people involved in all aspects of the issue, my own experiences as a parent and CERT member in New York [...]

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A major highlight of the Red Cross Emergency Data Summit earlier this month for me was meeting in person someone I have known — and have learned from — remotely for the last several years, Brian Humphrey from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). Brian has been a pioneer in the use of personal technology [...]

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This past week, I wrote about trying to find preparedness spokespeople from different areas including politics and entertainment. While reporting those articles, I happened to hear about a preparedness spokesperson from a surprising arena — Jill (Stevens) Shepherd, the 2007 “Miss Utah,” who used citizen preparedness as her successful pageant issue platform.
Public preparedness is an atypical [...]

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The Colorado Division of Emergency Management and READYColorado are among the most innovative and energetic state operations in the nation when it comes to citizen preparedness.
So, it’s not surprising that the agencies are developing a special social media response team comprised of teenagers to assist the state’s efforts in dealing with disasters. Tentatively called the [...]

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On the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management Facebook page, I read a nice story about some local high school students who organized an effort to pay for, assemble and help distribute disaster kits for 500 of the city’s most needy citizens.
According to an article on the website Neighborhood Empowerment Network, the school’s involvement came [...]

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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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READYColorado and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security are accepting applications for a unique disaster preparedness skills training program designed for middle and high school students this summer. According to the state’s Department of Local Affairs Division of Emergency Management website:
Disaster READY Training provides students with an opportunity to learn and practice emergency readiness skills. The [...]

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Jeannette Sutton has a terrific post on her Disaster Sociologist blog, “The Cavalry is Assembling: Two Social Media Responses to Hurricane Ida.” She describes how two different online initiatives — the Hurricane Information Center and Emicus.com — began mobilizing to respond to what was initially predicted to be a major storm.
In the end, Ida ended [...]

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In recent posts, I have highlighted a couple of major California preparedness events occurring in mid-October — “The Great California Shakeout” and “The Great Rumble”. I wanted to mention another one, the “Ojai OK Drill,” which takes place next week.
Organized by the Ojai Valley CERT, the “OK Drill” aims to improve the community’s emergency readiness. [...]

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As I’ve mentioned before, one of the most challenging aspects in the effort to plan for a possible H1N1 pandemic is dealing with the business sector. Unlike schools, there is no central managerial authority to make and implement policies; guidelines have to be created and implemented on a firm by firm basis. It will also have to [...]

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