In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

At college, it’s usually the students who do the pranks. But at the University of Delaware earlier this month, administrators turned the tables for, of all things, an emergency preparedness drill. According to an article (and video report) from WDEL-AM:
University of Delaware students lined up for what they were told was going to be a “GREEK” [...]

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Though yesterday’s launch of National Preparedness Month was filled with a lot of great activities taking place throughout the U.S., it also a day that underscores the shortcomings in the nation’s public readiness efforts — because also yesterday Japan held its annual Disaster Prevention Day during which 670,000 citizens participated in emergency drills in Tokyo and 34 [...]

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In a memo to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate this week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered a “two-year progressive national drilling program which increases the total number of exercises and culminates in a full-scale, biennial intergovernmental National Level Exercise (NLE).”
Thanks to Bill Cumming for sending me the memo; he will be writing about it on his Vacation Lane [...]

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On this blog, we’re always looking for ways of making public preparedness more fun and engaging for the public, particularly young people. That’s why I wanted to highlight the work READYColorado’s Disaster Ready Training for middle and high school students. As has been written about here, Colorado has been a leader in youth preparedness initiatives.
One [...]

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The Safe America Foundation will again be holding its “9/11 Drill Down For Safety” campaign on September 11th. The Foundation is hoping to more than double the 400,000 people from 127 cities/drill sites in 27 states who participated in last year’s inaugural effort.
The campaign will include a special focus on the importance of the use of [...]

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Thanks to the Recovery Diva, Claire Rubin, for sending me an article from the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, “Public Indifference To Civil Defense Drills Highlights Israeli Apathy” about the Mideast nation’s Turning Point 4 exercise this week.
Israel is often cited as a model of civil defense and the nationwide Turning Point drill includes significant civilian involvement. [...]

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Israel yesterday began its 4th annual Turning Point national civil defense drill Sunday. The five-day exercise, developed in response to a concern about the nation’s preparedness, involves the Israeli public of all ages. Though the U.S. does not face the daily threats of Israel, the Turning Point exercise offers useful guidance for this country’s public [...]

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This blog has long been an advocate of better integrating the public and its perspective into major governmental emergency drills. So, it was good to hear about some citizen-focused initiatives employed during Liberty RadEx, the National Tier 2 full scale exercise sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It was held in Philadelphia late last month [...]

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The Washington Post’s Spencer Hsu reported Friday that the Obama Administration is reevaluating the nation’s policy on large-scale national disaster exercises. In the article, “National Disaster Exercises, Called Too Costly And Scripted, May Be Scaled Back,” Hsu writes that the Administration is:
considering whether to scale back next year’s National Level Exercise, the annual drill [previously [...]

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I wanted to point out a story now playing out in Las Vegas, Nevada, which to me is another example of how the public is too often infantilized when it comes to information on serious terrorist threats, including weapons of mass destruction — And, as a result, why we as citizens are not as prepared [...]

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