In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Speaking of preparedness education in the schools, two good examples — focusing on widely different ages — were brought to my attention recently: 1) the Student Tools for Emergency Planning (STEP) program at the Thompson Brook School in Avon, Connecticut for fifth graders, and 2) an earthquake readiness program at the University of California, Berkeley for [...]

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As someone who has gone through the preparedness process from an average citizen’s point of view, I realize that it is not easy to do. There are many questions, small and large, that come up when you try to prepare yourself and your family for emergencies. As a result, I’ve always felt it was unrealistic [...]

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A ‘near miss’ like yesterday’s Los Angeles earthquake often doesn’t motivate people to prepare. Sometimes, it requires something major to actually happen to you before doing anything.  
Yet, as Part 1, the Times-Picayune collection of preparedness tips I posted on Monday, indicates, the testimony of disaster survivors can also be very compelling and helpful. That’s why Pinellas [...]

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One of the simplest but most ingenious uses of the internet for disaster preparedness is the New Orleans Times Picayune’s list of reader hurricane preparedness lessons learned mostly as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
The Times-Picayune, which did such heroic coverage during and after Katrina, solicited these ideas from readers in 2006 and printed them weekly [...]

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One of the important goals of the American Red Cross’ Social Media Unit I just visited in Washington is drawing from (and spreading) creative preparedness 2.0 work being done in their chapters around the country.
This week, they invited Robin Parker, one of the founders of the Oregon chapter’s Cross Blog, to headquarters in Washington to help out with their social media efforts in response to the Midwest floods.   
 

 
 
 
Cross Blog’s Robin [...]

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