In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

At the Red Cross’s Emergency Social Data Summit, I had the opportunity to speak with Jack Holt, Senior Strategist for Emerging Media at the U.S. Department of Defense,
In this edition of the blog’s “What Should We Tell The Public?” video series, Holt recommends that citizens “do a risk analysis” of their area and then prepare [...]

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As the U.S. marks the ninth anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to post some ideas that I think would help raise citizen preparedness and engagement. The recommendations come from discussions that I have had with people involved in all aspects of the issue, my own experiences as a parent and CERT member in New York [...]

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A new study  says “individualistic” Americans may be too optimistic about the risk of disasters, including terrorism, as opposed to more “interdependent” cultures such as in Asia. The report argues that the perception of disaster risk is influenced by culture more than experience.
It may help explain why many Americans still do not prepare for disasters (and, [...]

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One of the initial things citizens need to do in developing their emergency preparedness plans is to determine what they should be preparing for. As I have argued previously, I think officials at all levels should be more aggressive and frank in explaining all the risks facing the public, but there are resources available that citizens can begin researching [...]

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In Slate, Christopher Beam has an interesting piece, “Oh Well: Why We’re So Bad At Dealing With Unlikely Disasters Like The Louisiana Oil Spill,” about how we as a nation think about, prepare for, and ultimately learn from unlikely but disastrous events. His conclusion: not well.
…the real lesson of the oil spill may be how [...]

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In their new books, former DHS Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff both say that there is a need to engage the American public in a discussion on risk and homeland security priorities. That’s also one of the recommendations in a recent report, “Improving Strategic Risk Management at the Department of Homeland Security,” from the [...]

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An editorial in Friday’s USA Today summarizes some of the lessons learned and not learned from Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. Among the positives, according to “Four years after Katrina, a mix of progress and inertia,” are the rebuilding of FEMA as well as that:
–The New Orleans levees so easily breached in 2005 are in better shape. [...]

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Cargo screening may seem a somewhat arcane topic for a blog that focuses on citizen preparedness and engagement. But the issue raises what I think may be one of the most important homeland security subjects for both the government and the public — risk. The topic of risk in homeland security is something that I [...]

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On Friday, the British government released to the public the National Risk Register, which according to the British government website, ”sets out our assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different risks that may directly affect the UK” and is:
“designed to increase awareness of the kinds of risks the UK faces, and encourage individuals [...]

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