June 20, 2013

Social Media — The New Face of Disaster Response

Social Media

It is our staff’s assumption that many disaster preparedness, first responder or disaster recovery team members fully recognize the growing role which social media and its social networks play as the primary source of news and information when disasters occur. In a recent InfoGraphic, the University of San Francisco Online Master of Public Administration group organized findings from a variety of surveys which collectively bring home the fact that during disasters, social networks often replace 911 as the go-to source for help and assistance in many communities throughout the U.S. A … [Read more...]

GovSecWest 2012

Photo courtesy of govsecwest.com

GovSec West is heading to Texas! Taking place October 8-10 at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Dallas, the GovSec West Conference & Expo offers 2 days of advanced-level sessions covering Cybersecurity, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Emergency Response, Critical Infrastructure and Protection, and Border Protection. Here is a brief rundown of session tracks at GovSec West: 1. Critical Infrastructure Protection & Physical Security 2. Cyber Terrorism and Cybercrime 3. Counterterrorism & Border Protection Given the fact that terrorist threats to our nation’s physical and … [Read more...]

“Project: Lifeline” and “bReddi” Facebook Applications Now Available

Project Lifeline and bReddi

As a result of an earlier Facebook challenge to call on software application developers, entrepreneurs, social networking enthusiasts, members of the public health and emergency response communities to design a new Facebook applications that would support individual and community resilience during disasters, two winning Facebook applications went live last week. Those winning applications are Project: Lifeline and bReddi.  Both of these applications allow users to identify lifelines, create and share personal preparedness plans and track the status of their Facebook friends in … [Read more...]

Private Sector & Government Experts Present Continuity Planning and Management Conference

Conference PIC

For many of our readers who are in charge of disaster preparedness, crisis management and contingency planning teams for their organizations or communities within which they live or work, an upcoming event is being offered 2-4 April 2012. For the first time in its history, the Contingency Planning and Management Conference and Expo is taking place in Washington, D.C., and collocating with GovSec– the Government Security Conference & Expo featuring the U.S. Law Enforcement Conference & Expo – to give attendees more robust free programming and entry to the larger GovSec trade … [Read more...]

U.S. First Responders & Medical Infrastructure Not Prepared for Fukushima-level Reactor Disaster — PSR Report

Photo courtesy of Kyoto News AP

A recently released report by the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) group claims that no meaningful progress has been achieved in improving the ability of first responders and medical professionals to react to a similar Fukushima-level disaster in the United States. The major factors complicating progress on preparedness initiatives in this area were stated to be; Growing population near nuclear facility locations, Aging reactors in too many of those locations, and Lack of Government coordination driving less than needed results to mitigate related risks. How serious is … [Read more...]

Hurricane Irene Report, Crisis Mapping and Ushahidi

category-3-hurricane-irene-2011

Recently, an open source project issued its first reports regarding a preliminary non-scientific analysis of the effects on the use of social media, crowdsourcing and crisis mapping played in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. This report should be interesting reading for all of our readers who study this topic, and how it might be updated and improved as a learning resource for the first responder, emergency response, crisis management and disaster preparedness team within their own organizations and communities.  As we all now know, Hurricane Irene affected people from Puerto Rico to … [Read more...]

9/11 — A Decade Later — Observations and Lessons Learned

september11 kmle108 dot radio dot com

Sunday, September 11th 2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.  While this is not an anniversary to celebrate, it is one which every U.S. citizen will mark in their memory forever. In an effort to address lessons learned from Sept. 11th and to better understand the changes now taken as we evaluate, prepare for and implement security readiness, risk management, business continuity and disaster preparedness strategies in our families, our communities and where we work , a series of links to related articles has been organized for our … [Read more...]

New Survey Confirms More Use of Social Media and Texting in Natural Disaster Events

disaster preparedness in workplace aed911blog com

If your organization’s business continuity planning group is stressing the need for all fellow employees to increase their knowledge and experience on the use of social media for company related communication in the event of a disruptive event affecting the organization --- then you and many others should not be surprised to learn that in a recent survey released by The National Hurricane Survival Initiative, it was stated that social media and text messaging are fast becoming the leading ways that Americans will communicate or get information in a disaster. The list of links below should … [Read more...]

Emergency Action Plans and OSHA 29 CFR 1910.38

emergency-preparedness

Personal preparedness is an integral component of any emergency action or business continuity plan. And for employers with more than ten (10) employees, training, education, and written plans to support personal preparedness levels of all of its employees regarding emergency action plans is a requirement by law under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.38.  It is important for those organizations to comply with those requlatory requirements. Compliance with OSHA 29CFR 1910.38 More Important Now the Ever Being prepared is one of the most important defenses against disasters, and, given the … [Read more...]

Twitter Users Receive New Resources as Egypt ISP Goes Dark

Many crisis management and emergency response team members in organizations and communities throughout the United States and the world are learning to involve and include the internet and in particular –Twitter resources – into their disaster preparedness, PS-Prep, and global business continuity plans. In the recent turmoil engulfing Egypt, we are shown some twitter resilience capabilities in keeping communication channels open even during the most challenging moments facing the survival of both organizations and countries. In a recent article written by Paula Martersteck, managing … [Read more...]

 
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