Friday, May 25, 2012

FEMA Urges Preparedness for Hurricanes and Severe Weather #IPAWS #CMAS

WASHINGTON - Hurricane Season begins June 1, 2012, FEMA is providing additional tools for federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officials to alert and warn the public about severe weather. Using the Commercial Mobile Alert System, or CMAS, which is a part of FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, this structure will be used to deliver Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to wireless carriers for distribution to the public.

The CMAS system will allow the National Weather Service to soon begin issuing WEAs for the most dangerous weather through participating wireless carriers directly to cell phones. The alerts will be broadcast by cell towers much like an AM/FM radio station, and cell phones within range will immediately pick up the signal, provided they are capable of receiving these alerts. The availability of WEA alerts will be dependent on the network status of the wireless carriers and handset availability, since not all cell phones can receive WEAs. People should check with their cellular carriers to see if WEA alerts are available in their area.

"The wireless emergency alert capability provides an additional opportunity for the public to receive life-saving information needed to get out of harm's way when a threat exists," said Timothy Manning, FEMA deputy administrator for protection and national preparedness. "The public also has a critical role in their personal preparedness. There are a few simple steps that everyone can take to be prepared, like knowing which risks exist in your area and making a family emergency plan. Information and resources to help individuals and families prepare can be found at ready.gov."

WEAs will look like a text message, and will automatically appear on the mobile device screen showing the type and time of alert along with any action that should be taken. The message will be no more than 90 characters, and will have a unique tone and vibration, indicating a WEA has been received. If an alert is received, citizens should follow the instructions and seek additional information from radio, television, NOAA Weather Radio, and other official sources for emergency information. Citizens should only call 911 in a life threatening situation.

Only authorized federal, state, local, tribal or territorial officials can send WEA alerts to the public. As with all new cellular services, it will take time for upgrades in infrastructure, coverage, and handset technology to allow WEA alerts to reach all cellular customers.

FEMA urges individuals and businesses to take action to prepare themselves in advance of severe weather and hurricanes such as taking the pledge to prepare at www.ready.gov/pledge. This is the first step in making sure you and your family is ready for an emergency. This includes filling out your family communications plan that you can email to yourself, assembling an emergency kit, keeping important papers and valuables in a safe place, and getting involved.

With the start of hurricanes season it is even more important to know your risk, take action, and be an example. While hurricanes often offer some warning that a threat is approaching, severe weather can occur at any time and in any place, including high winds, inland flooding, severe storms and tornadoes.

For more on family preparedness, visit www.ready.gov/hurricanes for more planning information and safety tips.

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.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

2012 National Preparedness Month Launch Webinar


Please JOIN US on June 5th for the official launch webinar for National Preparedness Month 2012 this September. National Preparedness Month has grown every year, and with your help, this will be our most successful and coordinated effort to date!

The theme for this year's National Preparedness Month is Pledge to Prepare. DON'T MISS this great opportunity to learn about the number of easy ways that you, your organization, or your business or place of work can fulfill the pledge and become better prepared for disasters this year:
  • Free Publicity: Thousands of people visit this site. Having your events and training and education activities in one place makes it so much easier, not just for us and the public, but also leadership and the media, to learn about the great work that you're doing. Please post any upcoming events and learning opportunities on the site's events calendar. Your events will be placed on a Google map and the public will be able to search for events by zip code.
  • Event Ideas and Resources: Get access to new ideas on how you and your community can get involved and plan events in your community to raise awareness about emergency preparedness and help people learn to protect their homes and families from all hazards 
Details for the kick-off webinar are below.  We look forward to working with you to make the nation more prepared.

Sincerely,
Darryl Madden, Director, the Ready Campaign
Paulette Aniskoff, Director, FEMA Individual and Community Preparedness Division


WEBINAR DETAILS:

Presenters for this webinar will include representatives from organizations including:
  • FEMA Individual and Community Preparedness Division
  • The Ready Campaign
  • Arizona Division of Emergency Management
  • New York City Office of Emergency Management and Citizen Corps 
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 2012

TIME: 3:00 PM ET/Noon PT

Please note that we will be opening the webinar meeting room beginning at 2:30 p.m. EDT in anticipation of a large volume of participants. Please feel free to join the webinar at this time, while understanding that the official event will still begin at 3 p.m. EDT.  
If you have not participated in a previous HSIN webinar and need to register, please click here in order to view this webinar.
If you have participated in a previous HSIN webinar and already have a username and password on the HSIN system, please log-in here in order to view this webinar.
How to view our webinars

The Community Preparedness Webinar Series is conducted via DHS's HSIN Connect system. Audio for this webinar will be broadcast within HSIN Connect and will play through your computer speakers; there will not be a concurrent, phone-based teleconference. Questions and answers will be moderated via text-based chat inside the webinar. In addition, please ensure your computer's speakers are working prior to the webinar. If for any reason you have trouble accessing the system, please send an email to citizencorps@dhs.gov.

This webinar will last approximately one hour. In addition to airing live, the webinar will be recorded and viewable at a later date and linked from this web page. The live webinar will offer Closed Captioning and a transcript of the webinar will be posted with the recorded version of the webinar.

If you have not participated in a previous HSIN webinar and need to register, please click here.
If you have participated in a previous HSIN webinar and already have a username and password on the HSIN system, please log-in here.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR PARTICIPATION!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Sirius XM's The Emergency Medicine Show to Feature Emergency Medical Services Segment This Thursday, May 24

On Thursday, May 24, The Emergency Medicine Show on Sirius XM's "Doctor Radio" will feature a segment on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Medical Direction and the new Handbook for EMS Medical Directors. The handbook was developed as a partnership between the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Health Affairs (OHA), and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) EMS Section.


The show is hosted by Billy Goldberg, MD; Chris McStay, MD; and Howard Greller, MD - all affiliated with the NYU Langone Medical Center. Guests will include DHS Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alexander Garza, MD; Emergency Physician and EMS Medical Director Dr. Edward Dickinson, MD; and USFA Deputy Fire Administrator Glenn Gaines.

Program Information

Date: May 24
Time: 8:00am - 9:00am Eastern
Channel: SiriusXM 81


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Jesus and Amateur Radio

It seems to me that Jesus would have been an amateur radio operator, though, realistically, He would not need a radio, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, or Google+ technology to reach the hearts and minds of men.

However, I'm a Christian ham ... a member of the Christian Amateur Radio Fellowship and have participated in the Bible Fellowship Net.

Here's some others who mix their hobby with the Faith.

Idaho Christian Resources - Amateur Radio and Christian Links, MP3's and PDF Files

"World Association of Christian Radio Amateurs and Listeners" http://bit.ly/LGHOpv

Are there others?

Thursday, May 10, 2012

We in Grandfield...

In a Facebook post, some folks were upset about not getting warning of a devastating hail storm.  The word devastating was carefully chosen.

The hail storm broke out windows in homes and pummeled trucks and cars.  It was bad.

Yet, the folks were upset with no warning.  Yet, there was warning, from the National Weather Service, from amateur radio operators and the Skywarn program, and from the media.

Yet, the fact remains that hail stones cause a lot of damage to largely immovable targets.  While there was a lot of property damage with hail storms, thankfully, in this case there was one injury and NO loss of life.  Sadly, that is not always the case.

We in Grandfield...

May I suggest, since someone has recommended talking to the Weather Service, that the talk to the Weather Service include asking about StormReady?

http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/

It's a good program. It has shown its value over the years.

One of the things StormReady seeks is for communities to have MULTIPLE ways to get warnings out to their Citizens. In today's society, one can NOT depend on sirens. As Greg Auerbach has mentioned, Weather Radios are a must. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm

So how many ways do you have to get warnings? Do you get a TEXT or email? WeatherCall.net will even give you a phone call.

I hope that helps.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Homeowners - Firewise

Firewise is a program to help learn the tips to protect property from wildfire.

For example, students who study the Firewise material would learn:


Prevent combustible materials and debris from accumulating beneath patio decks or elevated
porches. Screen or box-in areas below patios and decks with wire screening no larger than
1/8-inch mesh.


Firewise is a program of the National Fire Protection Association

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