In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

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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With the nation possibly heading for a record year for tornadoes and severe weather watches posted throughout the Midwest, I thought I would post a list that FEMA just released of what to do before and then during a tornado, including this advice:  
“When a tornado is sighted, the most important rule is to get low and stay low.

At home-Seek shelter in a basement; [...]

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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

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

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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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In a recent Disaster Zone post, Eric Holderman notes the fact that while “shelter in place” is a key part of government emergency planning for the public, it is a term that is not very well understood by the public. It is an important point which needs to be addressed by government authorities in advance — like soon.
One [...]

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I am happy to add Eric Holderman’s Disaster Zone blog at www.disaster-zone.com to my Blog Roll. Eric is the former Emergency Preparedness Director of King County in Washington state. He was one of the nation’s most innovative and charismatic emergency management officials when it comes to citizen preparedness. Holderman is now with the consulting firm ICF International.  
He describes Disaster-Zone as:
dedicated to sharing information about the [...]

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This tip comes via Mitchell Moss. Moss, a highly respected urban policy expert oversees New York University’s Improving Robustness and Resiliency in Catastrophic Response Networks project which is part of the School’s Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response.
During his presentation at a homeland security seminar I recently attended, Moss recommended that everyone in the room – and all citizens — should have an extra mobile [...]

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