In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

In a speech concluding National Preparedness Month, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano urged Americans — when they are in their workplaces and social organizations — to ask a simple question:
“…we’re asking you to raise your hand and ask whenever you are in one of those groups, ‘What’s our plan? You know, the next time your group [...]

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I had the great pleasure to be a guest on the latest episode of the “Ready Radio” show co-hosted by Robin Parker and Lise Harwin. Parker and Harwin are the impresarios (or as they might say it, imprep-e-sarios) behind the terrific Cross Blog of the Oregon Trail Red Cross.
In the segment, we discuss how I got [...]

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I attended a very interesting hearing on Capitol Hill late last week, “Preparedness: State of Citizen and Community Preparedness,” held by the House Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response which is chaired by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
At the hearing, Bill Jenkins Jr. from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) presented a preliminary report, Emergency Management Preliminary Observations on FEMA’s Community Preparedness Programs Related to [...]

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In a speech marking the end of National Preparedness Month, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano today asked Americans “to raise your hand and ask ‘What’s our plan’” at their schools, workplaces, houses of worship, social organizations, and homes.
The full speech text has not yet been released but in the Department’s “Leadership Blog,” Napolitano summarized its contents:
“Today, [...]

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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be delivering a major speech on preparedness at 2:15 ET at the Red Cross in Washington, D.C. to mark the end of National Preparedness Month.
In the speech, she will make a request that citizens: Stand up at school, or at work, or at home, and ask, “What’s our plan?” [...]

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With news of several alleged terror plots across the U.S. just weeks after the nation marked the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, there have been renewed calls from current and former top officials warning Americans to avoid “complacency” and to continue to be “vigilant” about the potential terrorist threat. From the public’s perspective, that raises [...]

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Speaking to a workshop on crisis communications yesterday, DHS Secretary Napolitano said both ‘old’ and ‘new’ media “can and need to” continue to address the accuracy of rumors and conspiracy theories on homeland security issues such as H1N1 and terrorism. In her remarks, she also outlined some other news/information challenges faced by the media as [...]

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In Baltimore today, about 120 area journalists, government officials, business executives and scientists faced the following [mock tabletop] situation:
A major explosion at City Hall; another explosion at Baltimore’s World Trade Center; gunmen firing upon those on at the two sites; their actions are obviously being coordinated using complex communications partly utilizing info/images broadcast by the media; [...]

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As the nation marks the anniversary of 9/11, one of the significant homeland security challenges the government still faces eight years later is figuring out how best to communicate the terrorist threat to the public and then engage the citizenry to help in its anti-terror efforts.
Both parts of that challenge involve a difficult balance. On [...]

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Kathy Cloninger today unveiled a Girl Scout preparedness patch-designed to engage Girl Scouts and their families in personal preparedness for all emergencies-and announced a new affiliation between DHS Citizen Corps and the Girl Scouts to advance community preparedness nationwide. ”As [...]

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