In Case of Emergency, Read This Blog

In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A Citizen’s Eye View of Public Preparedness

35th Annual “Natural Hazards Workshop” Begins; Follow Through Twitter Feed (@HazWS), Tag (#Haz)

July 11th, 2010 · No Comments

The 35th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop began this weekend. The conference, organized by the University of Colorado’s esteemed Natural Hazards Center, is held outside of Denver. According to the Center’s website, the Workshop is:
designed to bring hazards researchers and practitioners from many disciplines together for face-to-face discussions on issues and trends that [...]

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Tags: Preparedness Events

FEMA, NOAA, Red Cross Offer Social Media Menu Of Tools For Public During Hurricane Season

June 17th, 2010 · No Comments

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration and the American Red Cross have produced a menu with their various social media tools (including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and widgets) for the public to use/bookmark during hurricane season. It can be found on FEMA’s website here. You can also receive e-mail and text alerts [...]

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Tags: Federal Emergency Management Administration · Preparedness 2.0

Louisiana’s Emergency Agency “Following” Hundreds Of Citizens On Twitter To Gather, Distribute Oil Spill Info; Embrace Of Social Media’s 2-Way Potential Is Model For Govt.

June 14th, 2010 · 4 Comments

In the weeks since Deepwater Horizon explosion, the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) has found itself in the middle of an evolving and unprecedented crisis. And, the agency has been relying on its new Twitter feed @GOHSEP, which has become a vital communications platform and resource.
Though the @GOHSEP feed has been [...]

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Tags: Preparedness 2.0 · Preparedness Models · State Preparedness

Public’s Use Of New Media In Crisis Response Gets New Attention At ISCRAM Conference

May 13th, 2010 · 1 Comment

Jeannette Sutton, who writes the informative Disaster Sociologist blog for the Emergency Management magazine website, has a post about last week’s Information Systems for Crisis and Response (ISCRAM) conference. She reports that the role of new media in emergencies received more attention this year:
In the past, social and information scientists seemed to be on the outer [...]

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Tags: Preparedness 2.0 · Preparedness Reports

Canadian Red Cross Says Twitter Is Helping Reach Difficult To Reach Demographic On Preparedness

May 12th, 2010 · No Comments

On the Canadian Red Cross’s blog, Red Cross Talks, John Saunders, “Disaster Dude/Director of Disaster Management, Ontario,” has a post, Twittering About Emergency Preparedness. Saunders says that Twitter has helped the organization reach an audience — “Upward mobile, professionals between ages 30 – 45″ — which he says is often difficult to get to on [...]

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Tags: Preparedness 2.0 · Preparedness Ideas

Louisiana State Preparedness Office Reaches Out & Thanks Its Oil Spill Response ‘Tweeps’

May 11th, 2010 · 3 Comments

I just wanted to mention something quickly, which I thought was a nice – albeit small – touch. The Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has a Twitter feed @GOHSEP which has been very active during the oil spill response. It has been distributing a lot of spill-related information for the public, [...]

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Tags: Preparedness 2.0 · Preparedness Ideas

“Tornado Alley, Twitter Style”

May 1st, 2010 · 3 Comments

On the KnowTheNetwork.com blog, there is a fascinating post, “Tornado Alley, Twitter Style,” by Keith Crawford. He offers a terrific case study of how Twitter — and in particular the hashtag #ARwx created by one Tweeter — outpaced the mainstream media in informing his Arkansas community when a tornado struck this week:
Apr 30, 2010 may well [...]

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Tags: Preparedness 2.0

In Experimental Federal Initiative, Public Being Asked To Report On “Significant Weather Information” Through Twitter

April 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment

The National Weather Service has just launched an experimental program that will be using Twitter ‘tweets’ to help monitor “significant weather information.” The Weather Service website explains:
Why Twitter?
An advantage of searching Twitter for weather reports is the capability to utilize recently added “geotagging” — geographical information that is associated with something, in this case individual [...]

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Tags: Hurricane Preparedness · Preparedness 2.0 · Volunteer Opportunities

“3 To Get Ready” Campaign Challenges Citizens To Encourage Friends To Prepare Through Twitter, Facebook…And Offers Prizes!

April 27th, 2010 · No Comments

On the subject of incentives mentioned in the above post, I just saw an online preparedness campaign created by Mynorthwest.com called, “3 To Get Ready Preparedness Challenge”. The campaign asks Washington state residents to take 3 preparedness steps and reach out to 3 friends through either Facebook, Twittter or email — and offers a prize package, [...]

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Tags: Media · Preparedness 2.0 · Preparedness Ideas · Preparedness Incentives

Two Interesting Webinar Takeaways: CDC Believes Its Mobile Phone Texting Helps Bridge Not Broaden ‘Digital Divide’ On Public Health, Philly OEM ‘Following’ Hundreds Of Citizen Twitterers To Foster Two-Way Communication In Emergencies

November 20th, 2009 · 1 Comment

I wanted to highlight two points I heard during a terrific recent webinar, “Social Media and Technology Breakthroughs: H1N1 and Seasonal Flu Communication”:  one about the Centers For Disease Control’s (CDC) view that mobile phones have an increasingly valuable role in public health communications and another about Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management’s expanded use of Twitter.
In [...]

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Tags: City Preparedness · Preparedness 2.0