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Disaster Preparedness Family Resource Offered by the Sesame Street Workshop

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of blog.newsok.com

In response to some inquiries from our readers asking for assistance for families to prepare and be ready for emergencies, our staff recommends a viewing of the Sesame Workshop Let’s Get Ready website.

Recently, the Sesame Workshop group, along with its project partners, created a series of instructional and training videos — one of which is called “Let’s Get Ready!  Planning Together for Emergencies. ™”

Other preparedness “tool kits” vidoes offered on this site include:

  1. “Talk, Listen, Connect” – Resources and support for the special challenges faced by military families.
  2. “Hurricane Kit” – Get tips and activities to help children cope with the aftermath of a hurricane or other natural disaster.
  3. “Lead Away” – It’s easier than you think to prevent lead poisoning.  Get quick tips and fun activities to help children avoid lead poisoning….

Click here  to review this valuable awareness and training resource to assist your family’s ability to be ready for and to better survive a potential disaster.

Please let our readership and your community (including other families with small children) know if you found this site helpful and would recommend it as a family disaster preparedness resource.

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Ready.gov and Preparing Your Family

November 10, 2011 By 2 Comments

Photo courtesy of newsblog.projo.com

If you have not visited the newest version of the Ready.gov website in a while and if you are looking for ideas to add to your family’s preparedness planning projects — then plan to visit this website soon.

Judging from some of the inputs from our readers, the new “KIDS” section is well worth the time to visit.

Click here  to help your family plan to deal with the potential disaster situations relevant to where they live, and where you work.

If you are involved with your company’s HR department, or your communities readiness and disaster preparedness planning teams, please pass this information along —the strongest support for a successful  business continuity plan is an employee or citizen who is confident that his or her own family’s preparedness plans are ready and tested to face a variety of disaster scenarios.

You may also wish to share this information with those PS-Prep strategy planning team members in the company where you work and the community where you live.

Filed Under: Business Continuity Info, Personal Continuity, Personal Preparedness, PS-Prep Program Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Google Supports NPM 2011 with New Preparedness Website Offering

August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today, as part of its preparation and support for NPM 2011, Nigel Snoad, Crisis Response Product Manager for Google, announced that Google is introducing a new Google Crisis Preparedness website with information and educational tools to help utilize technology in preparing for crises.

Additionally, a new public preparedness website — Get Tech Ready — is now available for disaster preparedness teams to incorporate into their pool of available resources.  This new site was developed as collaboration between FEMA, the American Red Cross, the Ad Council and the Google Crisis Response team. There, you’ll find tips on using technology to prepare for, adapt to and recover from disasters.

Check these new resources out today, and, pass this information along to those first responders, crisis management, disaster preparedness and recovery team members in your organization.

If applicable, also offer this information to those PS-Prep compliance planning and/or risk management team members in your organization. 

Photo courtesy of theglobeandmail.com    

Filed Under: Business Continuity Info, Personal Continuity, PS-Prep Program, Risk Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Additional Personal Preparedness Resources

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Outreach & Special Populations Branch (OSPB) of the National Library of Medicine & National Institutes of Health offers a large variety of personal preparedness information for all minorities and underserved populations.  And fairly recently, a joint program between OSPB and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services was created to offer a useful website portal source for this kind of information.  This resource can complement an organization’s present  personal preparedness support efforts by being included along with other personal preparedness resources made available to its employees.  The more prepared all employees are to face potential disruptive events, the better prepared their communities and their workplace environments will be to survive the effects of disruptive events.

A short listing of the special populations group offerings available in this portal, along with a link to the actual resources offered in each group, are listed as follows: 

  1. Disabled  
  2. Hearing Impaired
  3. Diabetes
  4. Guidance for Employers

Click here to access the full listing of group information available.

Hopefully, this information will find its way into the resource libraries of those business continuity, disaster preparedness and crisis management teams in your organization.

 

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Disaster Preparedness Apps List for Smartphones

August 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently, several inquiries were received from readers asking if this website could provide more information on disaster preparedness tools available for smartphones.

The following list of smartphone preparedness apps is a response to not only that request, but, also in support of National Preparedness Month 2011:

5-0 Radio

911 Now    

911 Police Radio

American Heart Association: Pocket First Aid & CPR Guide

American Medical Aid

American Red Cross: Shelter View

Are You Ready

Buddy Guard

Democric-C

Disaster Caster

Disaster Emergency Checklist

Emergency Preparedness Checklist

Disaster Prep

Disaster Survival Guide

Earthquake

Earthquake Survival Kit Lite

Emergency Distress Beacon

Emergency Radio

First Aid Pocket Guide

FloodWatch

Hurricane Safety Checklist

ICEcare

IFeltThatEarthquake

iFirstAid

IGetThru

iHurricane Tracking Map

Morse Emergency

Nixle

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder / PTSD Coach

QuakeSOS

Rescue

Send Morse Code

Most of these apps are available free for iPhone, Androids, Blackberry’s, etc….however; there are exceptions where nominal charges do exist. 

To search Android disaster preparedness apps as listed above,  click here, and for Blackberry smartphones, click here.  Once on either App Store site, simply enter any of the App  Names above to confirm availability for either the Android or Blackberry.

This list has been created from input from readers and staff, presented in alphabetical order and is meant to be vendor neutral — and — while these apps, for the most part, depend on the internet being available in any disaster or disruptive event, and therefore, may not be accessible during a disaster, —we ask our readers to use these apps primarily as the proactive learning and preparedness tools that they are meant to be.

Lastly, this list is not meant to be complete or static, and, we welcome any additional apps, inputs or comments from our readers to grow this list over time….

If you found this information applicable, please pass it along to those first responder, disaster recovery, risk,crisis or emergency management, business continuity, and/or PS-Prep compliance planning team members in your organization.

Filed Under: Business Continuity Info, Personal Continuity, Risk Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Emergency Reporting Smartphone App

August 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As part of this website’s mission to keep our readers current on developments concerning business continuity and compliance related topics, this posting will focus on the emergency or crisis communication and management aspects of an organization or communities’ continuity plan.

Emergency management and first responder disaster recovery team members rely on receiving current notices of disaster related events such as when a tornado leaves a path of destruction or a fire engulfs a home.  And most likely, today, you can be sure that citizens with a cellphone camera will capture pictures of that disaster and post them to Facebook, Twitter or send it to the media for immediate publication on the internet.

However, those citizens have not been able to easily send images and details of what disaster is unfolding to the people who need it most: the emergency dispatchers, police, firefighters and building-security people who must respond, and whose ability to help is often measured in minutes, if not seconds.

That situation may all change now with the introduction of a new smartphone app called ELERTS™.

Read more  about this emergency reporting service app, which is the brainchild of Chris Russo, deputy fire chief in the coastal town of Hull, Mass., and a 25-year veteran of emergency response, and visit their website.

Additional related reading material on this app:

“With Elerts, Emergency Broadcasts Go Digital” by Matthes Battles, FAST COMPANY

Filed Under: Business Continuity Info, Personal Continuity, Risk Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Disaster Preparedness Smartphone App Now Available

August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As more of our readers become aware of and actually begin to start implementing more personal preparedness activities in their families, businesses and local communities, more appreciation will begin to happen regarding new technologies that help those personal preparedness tasks be faster, better and cheaper.

Such is the case with a new smartphone app called StopDisaster by Studio Seneca  © 2011 All Rights Reserved.

This new disaster preparedness app puts the power in your hands to :

* Get ready with emergency relief kits to prevent disasters from causing permanent harm to your home and family
* Take charge in 16 different disaster scenarios, from power outages and blizzards to earthquakes and hurricanes
* Provide extra protection and comfort to pets, children, elderly and people with disabilities in emergencies
* Be the go-to contact with emergency numbers, meeting points and social media at the ready

This app includes:
* Step-by-step emergency relief kit prep, with prioritized action checklists covering must-haves, useful items and added comforts in case of emergency
* Countdown timers to alert you when food, documents or medicine in your emergency kit are about to expire
* Emergency response planners, including contact lists, meeting points and social media access
* Top 3 need-to-know pointers for all 16 of the most likely disaster scenarios worldwide, from electrical fires to earthquakes
* Auto-generated shopping lists to get your emergency relief kit together.

Click here to learn more about this useful BC/DR tool.

If applicable, please pass information along to those business continuity, risk management and disaster preparedness team members in your organization.

Filed Under: Business Continuity Info, Personal Continuity, Personal Preparedness, Risk Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Disaster Recovery Communications App (“Democri-C”) Available

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

One of our staff members recently came across an iPhone app called Democri-C™ that was developed from a community service project with the following Project Mission; “Communications is a right for every person. No person should be limited from communicating in crisis situations by money or politics. This project will deliver a free communications system for mobile and stationary users worldwide. Everyone who wants to use this network will be able to use it without charge.”

There are both commercial and individual product applications available — Click here for more details and information.

Be sure to check out the video demonstration on their homepage, (on the bottom of the page) and, if applicable, please pass this along to those business continuity and risk management planning teams as well as those first responder and crisis communication team members in your organization.

Photo courtesy of navfund.com

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NASA Sets Personal / Family Preparedness Plan Benchmark

June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Quite the recent buzz on the internet has been caused by a notification memo released to all of its employees whereby NASA announced its major initiative on Family/Personal Preparedness for all NASA personnel.

This NASA announcement, along with the accompanying tools being made available to the NASA Family (civil servants and contractors) could be a great benchmark resource for other organizations.  Many other organizations may want to develop their own similar programs to provide awareness, resources and tools to assist their employees to prepare for an emergency situation and the NASA plan is a great reference to use to begin that process to make that happen.

NASA is taking the steps necessary to prepare its workforce, but it also recognizes that it is the personal obligation of its employees to prepare themselves and their families.

What is your organization doing about family/personal preparedness for its employees and associates?

Click here to read more…..

If applicable, please pass this information on to those business continuity and disaster preparedness team members in your organization.

Filed Under: Business Continuity Info, Personal Continuity, Personal Preparedness Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Community Preparedness Resource Assists Emergency Management Planning Teams

May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Given that people and communities are critical components and support resources for business continuity plans, our staff recommends viewing a recent webinar hosted by the Citizen Corps, with a focus on community preparedness and participation.

Primarily, the webinar featured presentations from emergency management practitioners who have been involved in the design and execution of exercises to support community preparedness.

Business continuity planners who have to address threats from emergencies realize that management of emergencies often involve a “whole community” effort with help from volunteer organizations, schools, businesses, faith-based institutions, and a range of other organizations.

Click here to view this emergency management resource, and, if applicable, please pass this along to those business continuity and/or risk management planning teams in your organization.

Photo courtesy of aed911blog.com

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