In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

With a number of natural emergencies now occurring throughout the U.S., I wanted bring your attention to a compelling map I found in the Resources section theunthinkable.com. The Emergency Disaster Information Services, a non-profit group based in Budapest, charts every significant disaster occurring in the world and presents it in a vivid, easily readable map. 
You can find the […]

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With summer approaching and the memory of the Iowa tornado disaster still resonating, the Linda Wagar of Fox-4 TV in Kansas City had a good story reminding parents to make sure the camp their kids has an emergency plan:
“The Boy Scout camp tragedy in Iowa is raising awareness of just how vulnerable kids can be when they’re away at […]

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With tornadoes ripping throughout the Midwest, I wanted to post a tornado safety quiz from the Discovery Channel website that I found on www.theunthinkable.com.  
Unlike the the earthquake quiz I posted recently, I did pretty well on this one – 70 out of a possible 80 points. You can take it for yourself at dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tornado/quiz/quiz.html

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A fellow CERT member just sent me this interactive web quiz on earthquake preparedness. It doesn’t take long (only 10 questions) and is easy to use for all ages. Go to: www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/features/flash/quake/during.html
In all candor, your preparedness expert got only 6 out of 10 answers correct — earthquakes are not my strength — so I definitely learned something from […]

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Thanks to Security Debrief’s helpful Homeland Blog Watch ticker I learned that today is – in addition to this blogger’s birthday – the last day of the First National CPR-AED Awareness Week. According to Emsresponder.com:
Congress designated the first week of June each year for this event, with the goal of encouraging states, cities and towns to establish organized programs to provide CPR and AED […]

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I received lots of interesting reaction to my Washington Post Outlook Section Article, “It’s An Emergency: We’re Not Prepared” and the subsequent online discussion on washingtonpost.com.
The comments have come from people at all levels of the emergency management/homeland security/public health community as well as many average citizens who are not directly involved. There have been suggestions, questions, encouragement, criticism and offers of help. I appreciate all of it. Over the […]

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I am excited to report that a bill which would create a ‘tax free holiday’ for emergency supplies and “Go-Bags” was introduced in the New York State Assembly by Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing as Assembly Bill A11206.
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 throughout the month. The […]

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Some of you may have noticed the paucity of posts on the blog this week. I apologize for that. It’s largely due to the large amount of feedback I received from the article I wrote in the Washington Post’s Outlook section “It’s An Emergency: We’re Not Prepared” as well as from the online discussion on Washingtonpost.com about the article the next […]

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I will be participating in a washingtonpost.com online discussion today at Noon.  The subject will be the article I wrote in the Outlook section on citizen preparedness.
If you’re near a computer, please jump on. Just follow this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/05/16/DI2008051603186.html

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In addition to Minnesota’s email list, there is also a weekly tip of the week offered by New York City’s Office of Emergency Management. They are helpful and often communicated with a some humor (which I think is very important in this field). For example, the most recent tip was titled “Smother Your Mother”.
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and OEM […]

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