FEMA Conducting Preparedness Drill At Nuclear Plant

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency will evaluate a Biennial Emergency Preparedness Exercise at the Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County. The week-long exercise, which began on November 16, will test the ability of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to respond to an emergency at the nuclear facility.

Held every other year, these drills test government’s ability to protect public health and safety. FEMA will evaluate state and local emergency response capabilities within the 10-mile emergency-planning zone of the nuclear facility.

Within 90 days, FEMA will send its evaluation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for use in licensing decisions. The final report will be available to the public about 120 days after the exercise.

FEMA will present preliminary findings of the exercise in a public briefing at 11:00 a.m. on November 20 at the Courtyard by Marriott, 150 Park Road, Reading, Pa. Scheduled speakers include representatives from FEMA, NRC, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

via FEMA: FEMA To Evaluate Commonwealth’s Readiness.

Second Life Raises Awareness With Disaster Zone Project

Pixels and Policy has an interesting article on how the Catastrophic Planning and Management Institute in cooperation with Linden Labs recently launched a new Second Life sim, an innovative disaster awareness project called the “The Disaster Zone’ that will assist in planning and preparing for real disasters with virtual worlds. The project includes 14 collaborative islands and one overarching goal: limiting deaths related to natural disasters.

Cp-mi CPMI plans to create an in world disaster recreation and training program designed to educate users on the best way to avoid falling victim to hurricanes, earthquakes, and other common disasters.

The Citizens’ Emergency Preparedness Project makes use of cutting-edge technology and streaming media to drive home its message.

CPMI offers the opportunity to learn through streaming media and community interaction. Second Life is already a mix of community center and media hall, so it seems natural to build a facility to teach the importance of working together to help prepare for and mitigate disasters.

Bringing in the Virtual Feds

CPMI has been closely involved in the evaluation and development of Catastrophic Plans for multiple Federal agencies and the Department of Defense. The organization is now flexing its virtual chops, bringing its work in catastrophic planning to civilian groups.

Other CP-MI Federal projects include review of IT Security, Interoperable Communications for Disaster Response, Health IT Security and Medical Record security and assistance in reconciliation middleware; Internal Review Processes and software development; review of Emergency Alert Systems, evaluation of Exercise Hot-Wash procedures and After Action Reports.

Full Article – Pixels and Policy.

Visit The Second Life Site

Catastrophic Planning and Management Institute

Crisis Preparedness – What We Can Learn From Israel

Report suggests that America can learn much from Israeli example on public crisis preparedness.

It’s a widely accepted truism in American politics that an engaged citizenry is the best defense. Yet, when it comes to emergency preparedness, the American public remains incredibly unengaged in the process, largely lacking both the knowledge and the opportunity to participate proactively and constructively.

A report titled Public Role and Engagement In Counterterrorism Efforts: Implications of Israeli Practices for the U.S., prepared for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Science and Technology by the Homeland Security Institute (a federally-funded research and development center which serves as the Department’s think tank) examines both why that is the case, and how study of Israeli citizen involvement in crisis response might help US preparedness and “social resilience” improve.

The study was co-authored by Dr. Sibel McGee (the principal investigator), Catherine Bott, Vikram Gupta, Kimberly Jones and Alex Karr. Published as a PDF document it has not yet been released on the web.

“The successful management of emergency situations,” according to the report, “ requires not only competent emergency response personnel and prudent and effective emergency plans by the local/state/federal government, but also a public that is equipped and empowered with knowledge and information.”

The report cites Israel as a primary example of a nation with an effective track record in motivating and maintaining public mobilization in support of counterterrorism efforts. A reflection of that success, the report suggests, is that “the level of public understanding of the terrorist threat and readiness for terror-induced emergencies is such that Israeli public has an impressive ability to bounce back from frequent terrorist attacks.”

To accomplish this, according to the report, the Israeli government pursues a comprehensive and diverse program to bolster a strong public resilience and utilizes it as a deliberate counterterrorism tool.

Source

National Terror Alert Launches New Online Community Preparedness Network

Grassroots Network of Citizens and Community and Government Leaders Take on the Challenge of Readiness

visit www.homelandsecurityresponse.com.

While many U.S. citizens fear terrorist attacks and other threats to homeland security, very few are aware of basic emergency plans or strategies that could potentially save their lives, and the lives of those around them in the event of an attack or disaster. To help better equip citizens with the knowledge and resources they need to become more prepared, the creators of the National Terror Alert Response Center have launched the Homeland Security Response Network, an online, collaborative community of concerned citizens, and government and community leaders. The network is designed to promote discourse and community involvement, and help to create safer, more secure communities, with an emphasis on engaging citizens at the community level. Read more

72 Hours…Is Your Family Prepared – Canada Launches Campaign

Why do 43% of Canadians say they have a a 72 hour kit when asked…?  It’s all about the message and how it’s delivered.

See the full press release here

I’ll have more to say about this next week in our press release announcing the Homeland Security Response Network launch. Read more

Homeland Security Response Network Launched

The Homeland Security Response Network will launch today as part of our “Prepared Communities” Initiative. This network was created to promote emergency preparedness through awareness, education, community involvement and partnerships between individuals, groups and organizations.

Although the site has not yet launched, registration is open and nearly 1000 people have already registered.

We look forward to working with each of you and your groups as we begin building a vibrant, prepared online community. Register today!

Details wil be released via a Press Release later this week.

Visit The Homeland Security Response Network