Could FEMA’s Ready Response toolkit help avoid another Snowpocalypse?

Snowmaggedon. Snowpocalypse. Snow out. Kids spending the night at school, spending the night on school buses, residents spending the night in cars, vehicle accidents numbering in the thousands. This week’s winter weather incident highlighted a multitude of readiness and preparedness issues. There will be plenty of conversations in the media and in professional emergency management…

What other cities can learn from Atlanta’s ice debacle

The finger-pointing began almost immediately — and with good reason. A mere few inches of snow had shut down Atlanta, forcing children to spend the night at schools, stranding drivers on interstates and making the city a laughingstock to the country. Why did this happen? Who’s to blame? And, more importantly, could this happen elsewhere?…

Obama Launching New Initiative To Tackle College Sexual Assault Epidemic

President Barack Obama is launching an initiative to combat sexual assault, particularly on college campuses, turning the spotlight on a problem that has devastated millions of Americans yet rarely receives such White House attention. Obama planned to sign a presidential memorandum Wednesday creating a task force to protect students from sexual assault, with a new…

FEMA offers Ready Responder toolkit

First responders who are well-prepared will have the peace of mind to focus on the task at hand, rather than worrying about whether their family is taken care of. First responders can also serve as role models for other members of the community, leading by example to encourage preparedness. Click here to continue reading

International call for “Proactive, not reactive, disaster management”

The devastation wrought by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) has brought both grief and anger to the Filipino people. News reports about the generally sluggish response of the government, both on the national and local level, to the disaster have triggered feelings of discontent with and doubt about the country’s disaster-response capabilities. Click here…

Disaster management key to sustainable cities: Microsoft

“Many high-profile city innovation projects focus primarily on making infrastructure ‘smart’ by embedding sensors and upgrading networking capabilities. While this is a critical foundational step, limiting the conversation to infrastructure misses an enormous opportunity to unlock the human potential within a city” Stefan Sjöström, vice president of Asia Public Sector, Microsoft Click here to continue…