In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

My New York City Office of Emergency Management “Tip-Of-The-Week” email tipped me off to some interactive web preparedness games the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has created to help teach children how to prepare for emergencies. They can be found on the Ready Kids website and the Ready New York For Kids site. The games include: [...]

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This edition of the “What Should We Tell The Public?” video series features Joseph Bruno, the Commissioner of New York City’s Office of Emergency Management. He is someone I have spoken with on a number of occasions as part of my research into public preparedness, and I have learned a lot from him. (He also [...]

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FEMA Administrator met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler and Office of Emergency Management head Joseph Bruno to discuss New York’s emergency preparedness efforts and to bolster the relationship between the City and the federal agency.
I spoke with Fugate after the meeting on the steps of New York’s City Hall and [...]

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Bill Firestone was Florida’s first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program coordinator from 1998-2001 (under new FEMA head Craig Fugate). Firestone now runs a consultancy EM Training. He is also a reader of the blog and sent me an email reacting to Fugate’s comment I wrote about urging CERT members to be “ambassadors” in their communities. [...]

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With my chemotherapy finished, I have had the time and energy to participate in several Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training sessions being offered by the New York City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) which oversees our CERT program. I ended up completing three in the same week (in addition to the drill at the the World Trade [...]

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On Sunday, I participated in “Operation Safe PATH 2009,” the largest terrorism drill in New York City since 9/11. I was one of approximately 150 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members who played bombing ‘victims’ for the exercise.

I am standing outside the PATH train station near the site of World Trade Center along with other [...]

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Do you know how to say “pandemic flu” in Creole? (PANDEMIK FLOU) Czech? (NA PANDEMII CHŘIPKY) Korean? (악성 독감) Or in 20 other languages? Now, you can. New York City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has recently released a new pamphlet , “Ready New York: Pandemic Flu”. The guide is available for download on the [...]

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I received an email today from New York City’s Office of Emergency Management asking CERT members, like myself, to “spread the word to your fellow New Yorkers on how to avoid spreading the flu.” So, I am posting the email below. (Several hours earlier, I had watched with some amusement Mayor Bloomberg explain at news [...]

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As part of National Preparedness Month, my local State Assemblyman, Jonathan Bing, held a special emergency readiness forum Monday night along with the American Red Cross of Greater New York and New York City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM). The objective was to brief residents of Bing’s Manhattan district on preparing themselves for disasters and to publicize the [...]

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As you may know — or are directly experiencing for yourself — parts of the northeast are having their first heat wave of the year. Here in New York, the City’s Office of Emergency Management has been reminding citizens to be careful of the heat. As I signed up for OEM’s public warning mailing list, I received this notification email:

For the next four days the [...]

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