US and African Nations Partner for Military Response to Pandemic
Jennings Carney | 07.08.2010 | 12:01:05 |
July 2010: Public and private officials gathered in Cotonou, Benin in late June for a table top exercise designed "to collaborate in the assessment and development of national and regional disaster response plans," should a pandemic hit African countries, an Africom press release read. Africom, or the United States African Command is "responsible to the Secretary of Defense for U.S. military relations with 53 African countries." Officials from Africom and other African nations were hosted by the Armed Forces of Benin and supported by the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM).

Life Village Puts Solar-powered energy into Developing Nation Communities
Jennings Carney | 07.08.2010 | 09:53:19 |
July 2010: Solar Energy company Envision Solar's CEO Robert Noble, told Greentech Media his vision for a line of pre-fab buildings built in places where the infrastructure and services are lacking. Noble said his Life Village project would help that goal. "Just as mobile phones have leapfrogged land line phones in developing nations, this model can leapfrog centralized power production."

Spotlight on The Katine Project: A Collaboration
Jennings Carney | 07.08.2010 | 09:13:52 |
July 2010: Over the last three years, the Guardian and Observer has been working with the African Medical and Research Foundation and its sister organization Farm Africa through a program called Katine, named after a rural sub-county in northeast Uganda. The £2.5 million project was launched by Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger and is jointly funded through donations from Guardian readers and Barclays' community outreach and investment arm.

East Coast Heat Wave Tests Grid Resilience
Jennings Carney | 07.08.2010 | 08:26:54 |
July 2010: As NPR has reported, a high-pressure system which settled over the East Coast over the week has brought triple-digit temperatures to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states testing the region's electrical grid resiliency. The heat wave has prompted local government officials to take responsive measures to help keep power and water usage down while making sure sensitive groups like the very young and very old, stay cool.

See Something Say Something Campaign Launched
Jennings Carney | 07.06.2010 | 09:58:56 |
July 2010: The Department of Homeland Security has announced the first phase of a national program called "See Something Say Something" in a partnership with Amtrak through the nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting initiative. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said in the press release, "Implementing a national suspicious activity reporting partnership with Amtrak and expanding the 'See Something Say Something' campaign strengthens our ability to guard against terrorism and crime."

Seattle Starts Food Security Program
Jennings Carney | 07.06.2010 | 08:47:47 |
July 2010: Seattle's Local Food Action Initiative (LFAI) has been working to improve the city's local food system to "advance the City of Seattle's interrelated goals of race and social justice, environmental sustainability, economic development, and emergency preparedness." Begun in 2008, Resolution 31019 was implemented after the city passed Resolution 30990 a "Zero Waste Strategy". LFAI's goals include increase support of local agriculture in the surrounding rural areas as well as in inner-city locations; reduce the carbon footprint of the city's food system; to support strategies to connect major institutions like hospitals, jails and schools to local food sourcing; and to "Build community through developing community gardens, promoting farmers' markets," and involving immigrant communities.

Community Resiliency Report
Jennings Carney | 07.06.2010 | 08:05:43 |
July 2010: **NB** Thanks to InCaseofEmergency and Recovery Diva for the links and the original stories.

Emergency Response Outreach for non-English Speakers in the South
Jennings Carney | 07.06.2010 | 07:15:22 |
July 2010: In southern Alabama many shrimping communities along the Gulf Coast are populated by Vietnamese immigrants who do not speak English. Local officials have been working with BP and federal and state authorities to "connect emergency managers with Asian community leaders so they could get to know each other - and each other's needs," Daily Yonder reported. To help, BP recruited Mike Dillabler, "an expert in emergency management and a project director with the Community Foundation of Southern Alabama." Dillaber helped to pair Vietnamese translators with communities who spoke the same dialect so BP "could quickly begin interviewing and training local residents for work related to the spill."

New Standards Announced for Private Sector Preparedness
Jennings Carney | 06.30.2010 | 10:57:22 |
June 2010: The Department of Homeland Security announced new voluntary accreditation and certification measures program to help the private sector coordinate with DHS in the event of an emergency a press release announced. DHS called the Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep) a "major milestone" in working with the private sector to achieve one of the goals outlined by the 9/11 Commission. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said "These new standards will provide our private sector partners with the tools they need to enhance the readiness and resiliency of our nation."

The Gulf Oil Spill and the Chesapeake Bay
Jennings Carney | 06.30.2010 | 09:49:53 |
June 2010: According to the Baltimore Sun though there are initial response plans for cooperation, currently, there is no specific emergency response system for the Chesapeake Bay should there be an accident from an oil spill. William C. Boicourt from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science at Horn Point told the Sun, "There is no functioning [emergency response] system on the Bay in the terms of what we can call operational." Officials with the Coast Guard did tell the Sun there are contingency efforts in coordination with federal, state and local officials to work with the "party responsible" for the accident who is ultimately in charge of cleanup efforts.

TedXOilSpill partners thinkers from around the country to solve oil spill and cleanup
Jennings Carney | 06.30.2010 | 08:13:15 |
June 2010: On Monday, June 28 dozens of TED (Technology, Education and Design Conference) speakers were "proposing solutions to the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico," National Geographic News Watch wrote on its blog. Called TEDxOilSpill, the conference gathered TED Talk speakers together to "tackle the tough questions raised by the recent and ongoing environmental catastrophe." Among those speaking in Washington on Monday was Frances Beland of the X Prize Foundation who said anyone who could invent a solution to help clean up the Gulf Coast would win close to $3 million, CNN reported.

Social networks set tone for community information during LA fires
JC | 11.17.2008 | 00:16:17 |
November 17 '08: As wildfires destroy homes in Southern California, social networking sites have been used by community first responders and citizens to spread important information, updates and maps in real-time. The fires have burned more than 1,000 homes, forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate and have claimed over 20,000 acres in the past four days, Reuters reported. CNN reported Monday that at least one of the fires has been linked to human activity.

Researchers announcement advancements in disaster communications
JC | 11.09.2008 | 19:35:30 |
November 10 '08: Researchers working on disaster response communication technologies have announced new advancements in understanding how radio frequencies behave in difficult areas such as collapsed buildings, mine shafts and tunnels, CNN reported. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology told the cable news channel that a "sweet spot" frequency has been found which allows radio communication to travel the farthest.

State and local governments to get federal information sharing guideline suggestions
JC | 11.02.2008 | 19:18:25 |
November 3 '08: According to Washington Technology, the federal government is making preparations for the release of updated information sharing guidelines for state and local governments to help "achieve baseline capabilities necessary to share terrorism and law enforcement data." The guideline suggestions, which include increased partnership and participation with the private sector, will be published in a report titled "Baseline Capabilities for State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers."

Report finds nonprofits underprepared in DC area
JC | 10.27.2008 | 08:18:24 |
October 27 '08: In a report that is being considered a first of its kind for the DC area, the Washington Post reported a new collaboration between the Nonprofit Roundtable and Deloitte to look at the ability of nonprofit groups to coordinate and respond to a disaster.