In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at Ft. Hood yesterday, the response of individuals at the base and the surrounding community displayed the value of first aid training and blood donation. First, soldiers at the scene used what they had been taught to treat the wounded. Then, hundreds of local residents responded to hospital [...]

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Thanks to the Twitter feed of CraigAtFEMA (a.k.a. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate) who just posted an Emergency Management article, “Iowa County Surveys Citizens to Determine Emergency Volunteer Capabilities.” The piece explains:
To garner a better understanding of what its residents could contribute to disaster response and recovery, Adair County, Iowa, is surveying its citizens to determine their [...]

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CERT members don’t volunteer for the fringe benefits. But nonetheless it was great that the USS Intrepid Museum offered free admission today to CERT’s as part as their “Safety Preparedness Weekend”. So, I took one of my daughters to the newly refurbished carrier which is docked on the Hudson River in midtown Manhattan. It’s always [...]

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CaliforniaVolunteers is providing a useful web page with a list of ways the public can help in the state’s response to the wildfires. The site, www.californiavolunteers.org/index.php/Disaster_Volunteering/detail2/, offers this short overview:
Due to dangerous wildfire conditions, please do not travel to the areas affected by the fires without explicit instructions from a qualified emergency response organization. In [...]

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On this blog, I try to highlight examples of people who show what can be done by a single individual in the area of citizen preparedness — and may provide inspiration to others. The story of one such person, Lisbeth R., was recently featured in the “Safety & Security” section of the Serve.Gov website. Lisbeth explains [...]

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As part of the Obama Administration’s new public service initiative, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the  Citizen Corps have partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service to create a Community Preparedness Toolkit. It is one of a series of Toolkits that can be found on Serve.gov, the nation’s new online resource for finding volunteer [...]

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The U.S Senate yesterday passed the “Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act”, which would significantly raise the number of Americans who can participate in national service programs, including those to help prepare for and respond to disasters. The legislation calls for tripling the size of the AmeriCorps to 750,000 and expanding incentives for students and seniors to give [...]

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The Disaster News Network has a ‘good news’ article about the more than 5000 college students from around the U.S. who are spending their Spring Break helping post-Hurricane Ike rebuilding efforts in Galveston, Texas. According to the story, the students are ”giving their time, efforts and money toward helping us to recover” said Eddie Hilliard, a member of [...]

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