
John Solomon, author of "In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog" has written an interesting and compelling editorial arguing that governments at all levels need to work harder to engage the business community in disaster preparedness. He says:
Government citizen preparedness campaigns over the past few years have raised awareness but not significantly enough to,
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Tags: editorial, emergency services, technology, training & outreach

The Red Cross has released the results of a survey of just over 1,000 respondents on how people use and expect to use social media during a disaster. The results are pretty striking.
A couple of highlights:
Nearly 3-in-4 respondents use at least one online community or social network. Facebook was by far the most popular (58%). And MySpace still has a,
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Tags: case study, emergency services, technology, training & outreach

New funding opportunity. From their press release:
EDA Offers Grants through Climate Change Mitigation Fund
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) advances economic growth by assisting communities experiencing chronic high unemployment and low per capita income to create an environment that fosters innovation,,
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Tags: adaptation & mitigation, emergency services, funding & assistance, infrastructure

From our friends at NOAA:
CRest Grant Program – Coastal Resilience Networks Pacific Islands – Gulf of Mexico – West Coast
Coastal Resilience Networks (CRest) is a new and exciting grant opportunity for the Pacific Islands, Gulf of Mexico, and West Coast regions. The program funds projects that help communities become more resilient to the threats,
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Tags: adaptation & mitigation, building, emergency services, funding & assistance, infrastructure, insurance, training & outreach

Want training on how to help safely guide your community through a hurricane, but lack the resources and time to head off to a specialized class somewhere? Have a look at the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) hurricane course. It's free, and you can do it from any computer connected to the internet. Here's a,
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Tags: emergency services, training & outreach, weather & climate

What's the real worst case scenario for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill? What it the oil keeps gushing all summer?
The New York Times is reporting that a team of scientists has run the models, and that the results aren't pretty. Nearly all of the simulations show oil heading into the Atlantic, and, perhaps, even making it over to Europe.
However, the,
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Tags: emergency services, hazard identification, oil spill, technology, video

Today, of course, marks the start of the 2010 Hurricane Season. The good news: there don't appear to be any storms yet.
The bad news: the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill continues to spread without an end in site. Have a look at this interactive map that shows the extent of the oil each day since it started (be sure to hit the "play" button). Oh, and,
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Tags: emergency services, hazard identification, oil spill

A Florida county has released new storm surge maps, and they're giving locals a more precise idea of their risks of being hit by the storm surge associated with a hurricane. Tampa Bay Online has the whole story.
As the article reports, Hillsborough County has based the maps on revised models from the National Hurricane Center. The old maps were based on,
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Tags: case study, emergency services, Florida, hazard identification, training & outreach

Reuters has an interesting article on what the oil spill means for this year's hurricane season. The short version? Nobody's sure.
On the one hand, nobody likes the idea of the a hurricane pushing the oil that's currently at sea into the Gulf's beaches (or further inland). On the other hand, some folks, including some researchers at NOAA, suggest that the,
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Tags: emergency services, news, oil spill

Wow. I'm going to be staring at this for a while.
Download the full-sized image here.
"Crude Awakening" (from Infographic,
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Tags: emergency services, news, oil spill