In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

With news on H1N1 coming in fast and furious — and from all corners of the world — Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary highlights the volunteer citizens who are helping to gather and analyze it for their fellow members of the public. In his post “Drinking From The Fire Hose,” Coston writes:
“With flu season [...]

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FEMA has just launched a redesigned Spanish language website, www.fema.gov/espanol. According to the press release:
“The site is focused on individuals and families in multi-hazard disasters. It includes information on what to do before (preparedness), during (response) and after (recovery and mitigation) disasters…
The new design features a simple format with main topics divided in blocks of [...]

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Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s new book has garnered headlines over questions whether some in the Bush Administration wanted him to raise the terror color alert for political reasons.
But a bigger theme (and, I would argue, a bigger deal) throughout the book is his frustration with the inability to have a frank and [...]

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Periodically, I’ll collect and post articles I’ve read over the past several weeks on the topic of emergency preparedness and response that I thought were interesting in case you hadn’t seen them:
“Walking The Emergency Preparedness Talk”/Emergency Management Magazine — How and why to prepare (as well as the role of passion and personal anecdotes) from [...]

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From the same folks who brought you the Cross Blog comes “Ready Radio”, an internet-based biweekly show dedicated to emergency preparedness and related subjects. I just listened to the first episode, and I can tell you that hosts Lise Harwin and Robin Parker of the Red Cross/Oregon Trail Chapter bring the same creativity, enthusiasm and [...]

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Patty Brooks, a very knowledgeable CERT member/trainer from San Jose, California, and author of the website, www.GoBag.org, has created a special forum on preparedness at http://www.gobag.org/forum/index.php. Patty describes it “as a brand new forum for folks who want to talk about, share, ask questions and learn more about preparedness.” She says that “the purpose of the website [...]

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With the hurricane season beginning, FEMA has a free E-mail subscription service that delivers news updates and disaster-related information directly to your computer or wireless device, such as: when a major disaster is declared, where local recovery centers are located, what kind of financial aid is available, how to obtain disaster-related assistance, and what to [...]

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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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I wanted to mention a new mini-guide/chart from the Yale University School of Public Health Preparedness called Social Media And Preparedness. In a simple basic form, it lists the leading social media tools and how they can be used in public health and emergency preparedness. As the introduction describes:
“The internet is buzzing with tweets, diggs, podcasts, widgets, and [...]

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Do you know how to say “pandemic flu” in Creole? (PANDEMIK FLOU) Czech? (NA PANDEMII CHŘIPKY) Korean? (악성 독감) Or in 20 other languages? Now, you can. New York City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has recently released a new pamphlet , “Ready New York: Pandemic Flu”. The guide is available for download on the [...]

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