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| This Citizen Corps News Digest is provided by FEMA's Individual & Community Preparedness Division to highlight community preparedness and resilience resources and activities recently announced by federal agencies and Citizen Corps partners. |
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DHS and FEMA Updates
Help Us Spread the Word – On November 9, “This is Only a Test”
Over the last few weeks, we have highlighted the upcoming nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is now less than ten days away. The test will take place on Wednesday, November 9th at 2:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. This system, commonly tested at the local level, will be tested across the entire country .
Our priority here at FEMA is to ensure all members of the public are aware of this test next week and understand that it is only a test – so we are counting on you to help spread the word in your communities, with your co-coworkers, neighbors, friends, and loved ones. To help support this, FEMA has created a couple of videos that you can use to help explain what this test is and what people can expect.
The first video is of Administrator Craig Fugate and FEMA's Neil McDevitt explaining the upcoming test and will also include an American Sign Language interpretation. The second video is from FEMA's Dawn Hart as she provides key information about the test in Spanish.
Visit the FCC website for more information about the test, including additional answers to some frequently asked questions.
Community Preparedness Webinar: Introduction to the National Disaster Recovery Framework Join us Tuesday, November 8th to learn how the recently released National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) provides a more inclusive, collaborative and comprehensive approach to addressing disaster recovery issues and challenges. The NDRF defines how we will work together as a nation to best meet the disaster recovery needs of individuals, families, communities, and states.
The NDRF is based on the principle that all emergency management partners, including the private sector, non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, and individual citizens, as well as local, state, tribal and federal government agencies, have a role to play in the recovery process. In catastrophic scenarios, leveraging Whole Community resources to meet the needs of disaster impacted communities is essential. If you have a role in disaster recovery operations, you don't want to miss this!
To join this free webinar on Tuesday November 8th at 1:50 p.m. EDT, click here. We ask that you register fifteen minutes prior to the start time.
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Citizen Corps Partners and Affiliates Updates
American Indian Heritage Month
American Indian Heritage Month is observed every November in the United States. This year's theme focuses on the future of the almost 1.7 million American Indian and Alaska Native youth. So, what are you going to do to celebrate? Here are some festive ideas for your community to get involved:
- Explore rich and vibrant Native American cultures by taking a trip to a reservation near you or inviting a local tribal representative to your community.
- Have a pot luck dinner with friends and neighbors using recipes for traditional or modern Native American foods. For example, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, avocados, papayas, and chocolate!
- Invite a tribal leader or Native American to host a discussion about tribal disaster preparedness, including CERT and Tribal Teen CERT, or other relevant issues in today's Native American community.
Click for additional ideas and events and don't forget to visit Ready Indian Country for more information about Tribal Nation readiness planning. FEMA has a nation-to-nation relationship with Native American and Alaska Native Tribal Governments as reflected in its Tribal Policy and works with tribal officials to help communities be prepared before an emergency and to recover afterward.
Region II Trains First Responders in the U.S. Virgin Islands FEMA Region II recently trained 40 firefighters and rescue volunteers from the islands of St. Thomas, St John, and St. Croix to help strengthen the Islands' ability to respond to disasters and rescue victims from the rubble of the many aging structures prone to collapse during hurricanes and earthquakes. Volunteers attended forty combined hours of classroom training and scenario response, with instructors from FEMA Region II National Preparedness & Protection Division and Regional agencies including the New York Urban Search & Rescue Task Force-1, New York State Office of Homeland Security, New York City Office of Emergency Management, and the Virgin Islands Office of Emergency Management. The topics covered included disaster preparedness, team operations, light search and rescue operations, and basic on-scene building construction awareness.
That knowledge was put into action during a field exercise hosted alongside local fire departments and the Virgin Islands Office of Emergency Management, which provided a hands-on opportunity to practice their newly learned skills in a simulated disaster scenario.
In addition to the hands-on training, FEMA Region II and several of the instructors provided guidance and best practices to senior leadership of the Fire Department, Virgin Islands Office of Emergency Management, and volunteer rescue on the development and framework of the newly formed U.S. Virgin Islands Task Force-1 team.
The National Office of Citizen Corps
FEMA Individual & Community Preparedness Division
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.
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FEMA, FCC Announce Nationwide Test ot Emergency Alert System
This Citizen Corps News Digest is provided by FEMA's Individual & Community Preparedness Division to highlight community preparedness, resilience resources and activities recently announced by federal agencies and Citizen Corps partners.
National Test of the Emergency Alert System – This is Only a Test!
This 30 second test is scheduled for November 9, 2011
As many of you are aware, on Wednesday, November 9 th at 2:00pm EST , the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will conduct the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System . The test will last approximately 30 seconds and will be transmitted via television and radio stations across the U.S.
The national Emergency Alert System is an alert and warning system that can be activated by the President, if needed, to provide information to the American public during emergencies. While the system is often tested in local markets (a test with which you and the American public may be very familiar), a nationwide test will be instrumental in evaluating and improving the system, should it ever be needed.
Over the past year, our agencies have been working extensively with our state, local, tribal, and territorial partners, and other critical stakeholders to help inform all members of the public regarding the nationwide test. Now, with the test less than a week away, we ask that you join us in efforts to educate the public about this important event .
You can help us in a number of ways: your principals and colleagues can help us spread the word; you can help us by including a message in your newsletters/bulletins, updating your homepages through notification boxes, blogs and online videos; you can help in our Twitter campaign, in the days leading up to the test and during the test; post a Facebook notice about the test; and send notices to colleagues and community members.
For more information on this test visit: http://www.fema.gov/eastest/
The National Office of Citizen Corps
FEMA Individual & Community Preparedness Division
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FEMA Major Disaster Declarations Update Virginia Earthquake
Major Disaster Declaration number 4042 declared on Nov 04, 2011
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