EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Welcome to the Pass It On Center Emergency Management Blog! This venue serves as a place to discuss, share, explore and provide resources for the AT Reuse Community and Emergency Management. Feel free to join our current discussion, create a new topic, post a comment or just hang out and learn something new.

Monday, November 22, 2010

"Getting Real" The 2010 Inclusive Emergency Management National Capacity Building Training Conference

September 22 - 24 FEMA held "Getting Real" The 2010 Inclusive Emergency Management National Capacity Building Training Conference in Baltimore. It was a three-day interactive training conference bringing the disability and emergency management community leaders together from across the country to build national capacity for inclusive emergency management practices. This has been such a hot topic and of course not everyone could attend, so they made a web cast of the whole conference, and it is now up to be shared with others. The link is below. There was great information. Marcie Roth & David Garrett from FEMA, Richard Devylder from US DOT, William Lynch from US DOJ and Administrator Fugate were among the wonderful & knowledgeable presenters.

Please share this link and materials with your colleagues.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Disaster Readiness Planning Guide available from the Inclusive Preparedness Center

www.inclusivepreparedness.org
 
The Planning Guide explains how to use the Disaster Readiness Planner to help others get ready for a disaster. This Guide refers to the people you are planning with as “your partner(s)”, they could be a family member, friend, or someone who needs help in planning.

Almost everyone makes better plans when they work with someone else. The Planner helps people plan together. By following the steps in the Planner and taking action, you will do more than share information: you will help your planning partners become better prepared.

This Guide takes you through each step of the Planner, giving suggestions on how to use each step. You don’t have to be an expert or cover everything at once. Start with the first segments of the Planner and then do a few more steps each time you meet. Help the people you are working with get engaged in the planning process; don’t just give them information and hope they will somehow get ready later. Do things together, like going to the store for supplies, or set up a schedule you can check later. Make phone calls to coordinate activities with others, and so on.

Be patient, planning works best if you don’t hurry. Don’t tell your planning partners what they should prepare for or how to do it. Ask them what they think at each step, and then figure out together what is important to do next.

When large disasters occur, it is easy to panic and forget what to do, help your partner develop a habit of being ready. By keeping the Planner visible in the house people will be reminded to practice and make disaster planning part of their regular routine.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Getting Real - The 2010 Inclusive Emergency Management National Capacity Building Training Conference

On Sept 24, Marcie Roth and her incredible team from the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination (ODIC) but on the Getting Real - The 2010 Inclusive Emergency Management National Capacity Building Training Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

If you are not familiar with this FEMA group please follow the following link to learn more:
(http://www.fema.gov/about/odic/)

You can download an agenda of the conference at:
(http://www.fema.gov/pdf/about/odic/odic_getting_real_agenda.pdf )

From what I observed, the audience was a good mixture of emergency management, disability advocates, government agency members, along with new people just entering the "arena" of functional needs and emergency management planning. The entire group was in the range of 250 people, which made it quite manageable to connect with people over the 3 days of the conference.  

The high point of the conference, for me, was the presentation and the Q & A period of FEMA Administrator Craig Frugate. If it was not for him having to catch a plane, I think he would stayed and continued the discussion in the late hours of the evening. 


The conference was built around other great presentations with Q & A sessions to match such as Dave Garret from FEMA National Headquarters, Bill Lynch from the Department of Justice and a joint presentation from Richard Devylder and Gary Talbot.



The lion share of the activities were breakout sessions by FEMA regions, which was a great way to interact with others within your region and make much needed connections.


The overall mantra of the conference was "Getting Real" which was referencing we need to plan for real not easy, which a frequent statement by Craig Frugate. Planning for real is referencing emergency planning for our local communities, with emphasis on knowing who is in our communities regarding the general population and people with functional needs.

What this means for us, in the disability advocacy and services fields is that it is time to "step up" and engage with the emergency management system. The burden for responsibility of learning what this system is OURS!!! The information is there for the asking and in most cases for free.

There are free on line courses from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute, National Incident Management System (NIMS) would be great starting point!)
(http://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.asp) 
The National Response Framework can be found at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nrf/

Emergency Communication Technologies for the Deaf

Wireless RERC partner, the Center for Advanced Communication Policy (CACP) at Georgia Tech was interviewed by the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) contractor, Galain Solutions.  IPAWS has contracted Galain to assist with outreach and awareness efforts and sought expertise on how to “engage communities of interest.”   CACP Executive Director, Helena Mitchell, explained the different notification needs of people who are deaf and hard of hearing, noting that people whose primary language is American Sign Language, prefer to communicate in ASL, as opposed to text.  Sign language does not translate directly into words, but leans more towards capturing the general conception of the meaning.  As such, information can be ‘lost in translation’, especially when idiomatic expressions are used.  Two resources that can potentially be utilized to send ASL alerts are DeafLink and Signtel.  Signtel offers direct translation of text into sign language almost automatically, whereas DeafLink offers sign language support.   Galain Solutions reported on the interview in their Emergency Notification Blog (October 11, 2010) in Emergency Management Magazine. [Source:  Emergency Management]

Additional Information:

Friday, November 5, 2010

FEMA Issues New Guidance to Support People with Disabilities During Disasters

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced new guidelines on emergency sheltering to help state planners and non-profit organizations ensure that people with access and functional needs receive lawful and equitable assistance in the aftermath of a disaster.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=53174

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Planning for Integration of Functional Needs Support in General Population Shelters

The final Guidance on Planning for Integration of Functional Needs Support Services in General Population Shelters (a large file - 7 MB) is finally posted on the FEMA website: http://www.fema.gov/about/odic/

New Emergency System Website Launched

HHS Launches: Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) Website http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/09/20100907a.htmlTo make volunteering in an emergency easier for health professionals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response launched a national website for the Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP).