Gearing Up for National Preparedness Month
National Preparedness Month (NPM) is just days away: are you ready for it? This year's theme is “Be Disaster Aware, Take Action to Prepare.” NPM will culminate with National PrepareAthon! Day on September 30. Throughout the month of September, the NPM website will offer valuable preparedness information to raise awareness about disasters, and encourage participation on the last day of the campaign on National PrepareAthon! Day. Here are some of the resources available on the NPM website to help you get started:
Let's work to ensure preparedness takes center stage this September!
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It Started Like Any Other Day
“I didn't think it was gonna be as bad as it was, to be honest. I didn't think that if we lost power, it would be as long as we actually lost power.” These are just a few of the words used by Chantel, a survivor of Hurricane Sandy, to describe her experience in the “It Started Like Any Other Day” survivor video. Chantel, along with other disaster survivors from across the country, share their stories to communicate the urgency and importance of being prepared. The video focuses on three stories from three public officials who dealt with a hurricane, a tornado and a wildfire. It emphasizes the following key messages:
- Natural disasters are just that - natural - and inevitable;
- Natural disasters affect everyone - they can and do happen to anyone;
- Preparation for natural disasters is vital; and
- Every individual and family needs to do their part to prepare.
As leaders in your communities, we encourage you to share this video with your stakeholders, partners and other community members through email and social media. It's a great introduction to a larger conversation on preparedness, and can be used as an opener for the National PrepareAthon! Day events you're planning on or around September 30.
Share what you learned after viewing the video on Twitter by using #PrepareAthon and/or #NatlPrep. We look forward to a continuing national dialogue about preparedness.
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Costa Mesa CERT Creates a Rumble
According to recent FEMA research, nearly 70 percent of Americans have not participated in a preparedness drill or exercise, aside from a fire drill, at their workplace, school or home in the past two years. Practicing through drills or exercises for an emergency is a great way to get prepared for the hazards you may face.
The Costa Mesa, CA CERT program understands the importance of practice and made strides to get their community prepared through an earthquake exercise last November. The exercise consisted of organizing an activation and deployment of 55 trained CERT volunteers to Brentwood Park, located in a local neighborhood, to team up with participating local residents.
The two groups formed four 10-person combined teams that united CERT skills and training with knowledge of the local neighborhood. The teams performed damage assessment and search and rescue, provided medical treatment to survivors, and set up a secure pet rehab area and a reunification area.
26 households participated in the 5.5 hour Brentwood Neighborhood Exercise. The exercise was very well received by the local community, which has requested additional similar exercises in the future.
Costa Mesa CERT's exercise is an excellent example of the types of activities CERT programs, Citizen Corps Councils, and other local organizations can plan and organize to get community members involved in preparedness by practicing for a relevant hazard. If you are interested in having a similar exercise in your community, we encourage you to check out the resources available at www.ready.gov/prepare , including playbooks for local leaders for planning and organizing events, and free customizable communications tools and resources. Just select a hazard that may impact your community to get started. Once you plan your event, we hope you'll share it with other communities throughout the country by registering for America's PrepareAthon! and visiting the America's PrepareAthon! “Add Events” page.
America's PrepareAthon! is a national action campaign to increase community preparedness and resilience through hazard-specific drills, group discussions and exercises.
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FEMA Launches Spanish-Language App
FEMA launched a free Spanish-language app with information on what individuals can do before, during, and after a disaster to keep their families and communities safe.
FEMA's Spanish-language app offers a wide array of information for the public and disaster survivors, including preparedness tips, locations of nearby shelters, what to include in an emergency supply kit and a user friendly interface for survivors who may need assistance from FEMA after a disaster.
Some key features of the app include:
- Safety Tips: This feature helps users prepare for flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters by providing tips on how to get informed about potential hazards and what steps to take before, during and after an emergency.
- Emergency Meeting Locations: This tool offers the capability to set an emergency meeting place for you and your family with the option of having a primary, secondary and out of state location.
- Apply for Assistance: The FEMA Spanish-language App will help users locate a disaster recovery center after a Major Disaster Declaration . This feature also provides information about how to offer volunteer services and donations .
The app offers pre-loaded content ensuring that FEMA guidance is available anytime and anywhere – even if no Internet connection is available. The app is free and available for iPhones and Android devices in the iTunes and the Google Play Stores.
Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page for further information on this new app.
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Delayed – Citizen Corps/CERT Registration System Update
The launch of the updated Citizen Corps/CERT Registration system, originally scheduled for today, August 28, will be delayed due to a new FEMA requirement recently placed on the system. We are doing everything we can to meet this new requirement as quickly as possible, and expect that the system will be updated shortly.
We remain very excited about this launch, and we are obviously extremely disappointed about this delay.
Just a few reminders about the new system that we mentioned in last week's e-Brief:
- The link to the new registration page will still be www.citizencorps.fema.gov . That link will remain available on both the Citizen Corps webpage ( www.ready.gov/citizen-corps ) and the CERT webpage ( www.fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams ). Rather than the old Citizen Corps website, that link will go directly to the log-in screen of the new system.
- Citizen Corps and CERT programs will NOT have to re-register their program or re-enter their program's information. All of the data will remain in the upgraded version.
- Earlier this month, we hosted a webinar for the FEMA Regional Community Preparedness Officers and the State Citizen Corps and CERT Program Managers to demo the new registration system. Visit https://icpd.adobeconnect.com/p71hlwphmm0/ to see the webinar recording.
Please email us with any questions at citizencorps@fema.dhs.gov .
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Get Your Business Ready
Each year small businesses nationwide are forced to close their doors in the aftermath of severe storms, flooding, tornadoes, wildfires and hurricanes. Business interruptions, even short ones, are costly in terms of lost productivity and profits.
You can get help with your own business preparedness planning through a series of free webinars in September hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Agility Recovery. The September series is presented in collaboration with FEMA's Ready Campaign, as part of National Preparedness Month .
The SBA wants to help business owners take charge of the well-being of their own companies, the safety of their employees, and the sustenance of their local economies by being prepared to rebound quickly from any kind of disaster.
The half-hour webinars will be presented at 2 p.m., Eastern time, each Wednesday in September. Visit http://snurl.com/296yw4e to register for any or all of the webinars listed below.
- September 3: Crisis Communications for Any Organization
Learn promising practices for developing an emergency communication strategy.
- September 10: How to Plan for a Power Interruption…and Recover Fast
Tips on how to make your company resilient and better prepared to mitigate losses during power outages.
- September 17: The Top 5 Steps for Preparedness This Year
Presents five ways to prepare for disaster-related business interruptions.
- September 24: If You Do Nothing Else This Year
Simple, low-cost tips on building a solid business continuity plan.
SBA has partnered with Agility Recovery to offer business continuity strategies through their “PrepareMyBusiness” website . You can also visit this site to check out archived webinars and other disaster preparedness tools.
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Dates for Your Calendar!
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