In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

During hurricane season and National Preparedness Month, state and local emergency management offices in communities around the U.S. will often work with private businesses to promote public readiness. Typical is North Carolina County Emergency Management Services hurricane project with the United Way in which:
Stores across the area are hosting a Hurricane Preparedness and Awareness event throughout the [...]

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File this blog post under ‘no good turn goes unpunished’.
The Red Cross has organized a series of preparedness events for personnel and families on military bases, including one at Fort Belvoir earlier this summer and another at Fort Polk last month. The families were able to build an emergency preparedness kit and learn about emergency preparedness, [...]

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The always creative folks at the Oregon Trail Red Cross are again running their successful National Preparedness Month contest, #just1thing.
To enter, tweet just one thing that you’re doing to get prepared for emergencies to @RedCrossPDX and use the hashtag #just1thing.
It’s a terrific contest — fun, spurs action and creates a good preparedness list. Anyone can share [...]

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Readers of this blog know I am a sucker for creative, fun preparedness events that involve business, community groups, government and the public — and also educate on emergency readiness.
Thursday’s Canadian Red Cross “Disaster Dining” contest — in which competitors had 30 minutes to prepare their best dish using only foods that would be found [...]

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Yesterday, I attended the American Red Cross’ first-ever “Emergency Social Data Summit”. It was a really interesting and invigorating day focusing on how to utilize new technologies, including social media, to address gaps in crisis preparedness and response.
There was a whole lot of information, ideas and energy among the 200 attendees at the Red Cross’ [...]

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After his well-received speech to the American Red Cross’ “Emergency Social Data Summit” yesterday, I had a chance to interview FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.
I asked him about the role of social media in disasters, how he has benefited from having (and tweeting on) his own Twitter account, and what he wants to accomplish during the [...]

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I am in Washington this morning and was about to walk over to the American Red Cross’ “Emergency Social Data Summit” when – maybe appropriately considering the topic of the event — I received on my BlackBerry from the District of Columbia’s Emergency Management Agency’s AlertDC “Flood Warning” and “Severe Thunderstorm Watch” e-mail/text:
National Weather Service has [...]

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In a new report released on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s 5th anniversary, the Red Cross details some lessons and improvements that the agency has made in Louisiana and nationally on disaster response since 2005.
The study, “Bringing Help, Bringing Hope,” says the Red Cross has improved response capacity in large part by developing more extensive [...]

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The American Red Cross is holding a very exciting event in Washington on Thursday and is encouraging interested members of the public from around the U.S. and the world to follow it and participate through the web.
It is the organization’s first “Emergency Crisis Data Summit: Answering The Cry For Help” which will bring together government agencies, emergency [...]

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A very interesting American Red Cross survey released this morning indicates that many web users would turn to social media to seek help for themselves or others during emergencies—and they expect first responders to be listening.
In fact, 74 percent of those polled expected help to come less than an hour after their tweet or Facebook post.
The [...]

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