Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Exercise\Training Opportunity: Jan. 2013. Local Supply Chain Capacity in a Crisis: A Regional Recovery Resource Exercise and Planning Summit

Local Supply Chain Capacity in a Crisis: A Regional Recovery Resource Exercise and Planning Summit
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About This Exercise and Summit    

When disaster strikes a community, fast delivery of resources is critical to efficient emergency operations, saving lives and shortening community recovery time. A better understanding of how supply chains operate both in normal and in emergency situations is necessary to continue to improve response and recovery.

Since Katrina, and using the most recent catastrophes and disasters as a guide, we can see that there have been many improvements to how vital resources get delivered post-event.  However, there remain the most difficult challenges, many of which seem un-resolvable.

Expert panelists will lead open innovative discussions between public, for-profit and not-for profit sector event participants to resolve the most difficult recovery resource delivery challenges remaining. The goal of this event is to promote a local supply chain capacity-focused approach to disaster resource planning and based on outcomes of this event to develop a Local Supply Chain Capacity Recommendation Report to guide this focus forward. 

This is a two-day event for emergency managers and professionals, grocers, retailers, financial institutions, medical suppliers and providers, participants in supply chain logistics, non-profit and faith-based resource distributors, and critical infrastructure stewards. 

Host   Arlington Office of Emergency Management

Partners   Northern Virginia Emergency Resource System (NVERS), All Hazards Consortium, and The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP)

Funding   Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP)

Event Format (Preliminary)    
This event is an open active exercise and discussion, between panelists and participants, exploring and developing tangible, pre-event remedies to what usually impedes the delivery of essential goods into the community.

Each Day 8:30 AM -3:00 PM 

Lunch Keynote-


Charley Shimanski, Senior VP Disaster Services, American Red Cross



Supply Chain Delivery Inter-Connectivity and Dependency Recommendation Session –



Jill Bossi, Chief Procurement Officer, Infrastructure Inter-Connectivity and Dependency Recommendation Session, American Red Cross

Location Details
Boeing Conference Center, located at:
1200 Wilson Boulevard, 
Arlington, VA 22209
Security
For security and to establish a confidential environment, pre-registration is required. You will need a photo ID and your identity confirmed before you can enter the room.  Please allow additional time to be checked-in. Visitors must present photo identification.

Driving Directions
For your convenience there is a map with a link for directions on the left side of this event page.

Metro Directions
Take the Orange or Blue lines to the Rosslyn Metro stop. The Rosslyn Metro stop is between Ft. Myer Drive and North Moore Street. After exiting the Metro train, take the escalator to the top and go through the Metro ticket check. Then stay left to exit towards N. Moore Street. At N. Moore Street turn right and head towards Wilson Blvd. The Boeing office building is straight ahead at 1200 Wilson Blvd.

Parking 
Note: Only Boeing Employees can park in the garage at 1200 Wilson. There are numerous public parking garages near the Boeing building.

For Additional Information

Charlotte Franklin

Deputy Coordinator
Arlington Office of Emergency Management
cfranklin@arlingtonva.us
Direct: (703) 228-0593

Banking/Finance




Gary Lupton, Virginia 1st Group Burke & Herbert Bank

Ron Daly, CEO President,  Digital Mailer Communications  and  Executive Director
NCRFirst Group

• Marlene Roberts, Senior Specialist, Critical Infrastructure Protection, FDIC

Sunday, December 23, 2012

RECYCLING CELL PHONES FOR A SAFER COMMUNITY

http://www.securethecall.org/what-we-do/

SECURE THE CALL

WHAT WE DO

SECURE THE CALL IS A 501 (C)(3) CHARITY THAT PROVIDES FREE 911 EMERGENCY-ONLY CELL PHONES TO SENIOR CITIZEN CENTERS, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND POLICE AND SHERIFF DEPARTMENTS WHICH IN TURN ARE GIVEN BACK TO THE COMMUNITY AND USED TO CONTACT THE POLICE IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

We bring together two seemingly unrelated problems.
First, electronic waste—broken or unwanted electronic assemblies of one kind or another—is threatening to choke our landfills with items that will not have properly biodegraded for thousands of years and contain significant quantities of toxic materials. Unwanted cell phones promise to become a large percentage of this waste and our original effort was targeted on just keeping cell phones out of landfills.
Second, hundreds of thousands of people in this country are electronically isolated from readily available emergency services. They have no convenient way to dial 911. Ironically, the success of cell phone manufacturers has resulted in placing public pay phones on the endangered species list. If you don’t have a phone of your own, you’re cut off from most of the world most of the time.
The solution to both problems was to use one to solve the other. BY LAW, cell phones sold in the United States must be capable of accessing 911 services regardless of their status relative to a carrier. All users of cell phones pay a monthly fee to support this service. If you have an old cell phone that you got from a carrier you no longer have a relationship with, you can still call 911 with that phone if it is charged up.
That’s what we do. We collect old, unwanted cell phones. We inspect them at our home offices in Maryland to select the used phones that work well enough to be reused. We process and package them with chargers so that they can be immediately reused to acquire 911 services. Finally, we ship them out to agencies, companies and institutions across the nation that redistribute the phones to individuals who are not only in need, but at a high risk for needing emergency services.
We never charge a fee for this. We never make demands of any of the groups we work with. Our existence is a function of the continuing generosity and cooperation of the greater community.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Recovery: The QUICK HOUSE. $99,000 - $200,00.00


http://www.architectureandhygiene.com/main.html

Adam Kalkin Quik House




Want your own container house?

There's a six-month waiting list for the Quik House by architect Adam Kalkin, who is based in New Jersey. The distinctive Quik House comes in a prefabricated kit, based on recycled shipping containers (in fact a completed house is about 75% recycled materials by weight).

The standard Quik House offers 2,000 square feet, three bedrooms and two and one-half baths, though larger options are also available. The shell assembles within just one day, and all the interior details can be finished within about three months.

The Quik House comes in two colors (orange or natural rust bloom), and the estimated total cost, including shipping and assembly, is $184,000. You can add even greener options such as solar panels, wind turbines, a green roof and additional insulation (to R-50).


houses

Recovery: ECOPOD. Alternative Home Design using Cargo Shipping Containers

http://ecopods.ca/index.php

THE ECOPOD  (Recreational)



Another container home designed for on- or off-grid living is the Ecopod. Made from a shipping container, an electric winch is used to raise and lower the heavy deck door (power is supplied by a solar panel). The floor is made from recycled car tires, and the walls have birch paneling (over closed-cell soya foam insulation). The glass is double paned to slow heat transfer.

The Ecopod can be used as a stand alone unit or with other structures. It is designed to minimize environmental impact.


Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309#ixzz2Fq3zMnGB

Rebuilding your home and community using pre-fabricated structures

http://www.archdaily.com/160892/the-pros-and-cons-of-cargo-container-architecture/

ArchDaily



The Pros and Cons of Cargo Container Architecture



With the green premise growing in popularity across the globe, more and more people are turning to cargo container structures for green alternatives. There are countless numbers of empty, unused shipping containers around the world just sitting on shipping docks taking up space. The reason for this is that it’s too expensive for a country to ship empty containers back to their origin. In most cases, it’s just cheaper to buy new containers from Asia. The result is an extremely high surplus of empty shipping containers that are just waiting to become a home, office, apartment, school, dormitory, studio, emergency shelter, and everything else. More information after the break.
   
There are copious benefits to the so-called shipping container architecture model. A few of these advantages include: strength, durability, availability, and cost. The abundance and relative cheapness (some sell for as little as $900) of these containers during the last decade comes from the deficit in manufactured goods coming from North America. These manufactured goods come to North America, from Asia and Europe, in containers that often have to be shipped back empty at a considerable expense. Therefore, new applications are sought for the used containers that have reached their final destination.
On November 23, 1987, Phillip C. Clark file for a United States patent describe as a “Method for converting one or more steel shipping containers into a habitable building at a building site and the product thereof.” This patent was granted on August 8, 1989 as patent 4854094. The diagrams and information contained within the documentation of the patent appear to lay the groundwork for many current shipping container architectural ideas.
In 2006, Southern California architect Peter DeMaria, designed the first two-story shipping container home in the U.S. as an approved structural system under the strict guidelines of the nationally recognized Uniform Building Code. Even more impressive is Lot-Tek’s Puma City, which was built with abundant material at a low price, without substituting design quality. As such, there are many great examples of shipping container architecture in the world.
, Photo by Ari Herzog - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari-herzog/
Shipping container architecture gets a lot of encouraging coverage in the design world as a trendy green alternative to traditional building materials, and seems like a smart choice for people looking for eco-consciousness. However, there are a lot of downsides to building with cargo containers. For instance, the coatings used to make the containers durable for ocean transport also happen to contain a number of harmful chemicals, such as chromate, phosphorous, and lead-based paints. Moreover, wood floors that line the majority of shipping container buildings are infused with hazardous chemical pesticides like arsenic and chromium to keep pests away.
Reusing containers seems to be a low energy alternative, however, few people factor in the amount of energy required to make the box habitable. The entire structure needs to be sandblasted bare, floors need to be replaced, and openings need to be cut with a torch or fireman’s saw. The average container eventually produces nearly a thousand pounds of hazardous waste before it can be used as a structure. All of this, coupled with the fossil fuels required to move the container into place with heavy machinery, contribute significantly to its ecological footprint.
Another downside is that dimensionally, an individual container creates awkward living/working spaces. Taking into account added insulation, you have a long narrow box with less than eight foot ceiling. To make an adequate sized space, multiple boxes need to be combined, which again, requires energy.
In many areas, it is cheaper and less energy to build a similarly scaled structure using wood framing. Shipping container homes makes sense where resources are scarce, containers are in abundance, and where people are in need of immediate shelter such as, developing nations and disaster relief. While there are certainly striking and innovative examples of architecture using cargo containers, it is typically not the best method of design and construction.





Give Your Loved Ones The Gift Of Emergency Preparedness ..


         


Release date: 
December 22, 2012
Release Number: 
4086-067

TRENTON, N.J. -- With the holidays fast approaching, New Jersey residents might want to consider giving gifts that will help protect their family members and friends during a future emergency. 

Supplies for an emergency preparedness kit can make unique — and potentially life-saving — holiday gifts.
Excellent emergency preparedness gifts include:
  • Battery-powered or hand-crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert.
  • A quality flashlight and extra batteries.
  • Solar-powered cell phone charger.
  • Smoke detector and/or carbon monoxide detectors.
  • First aid kit.
  • Fire extinguisher and fire escape ladder.
  • Enrollment in a CPR or first aid class.
  • Books, coloring books, crayons and board games for the kids, in case the power goes out.
  • Personal hygiene comfort kit, including shampoo, body wash, wash cloth, hairbrush, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant.
  • A waterproof pouch or backpack containing any of the above items, or with such things as a rain poncho, moist towelettes, work gloves, batteries, duct tape, whistle, food bars, etc.
Holiday shoppers might also consider giving a winter car kit, equipped with a shovel, ice scraper, emergency flares, fluorescent distress flags and jumper cables. For animal lovers, a pet disaster kit with emergency food, bottled water, toys and a leash is also a good gift.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency urge Garden State residents to give at least one of these practical gifts – either as a present under the  tree or as a stocking stuffer. It might just save the life of a friend or family member. For more information, preparedness tips or other gift ideas, visit www.Ready.gov.

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.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Training: Mental Health First Aid


About the Program: Program Overview

Find a Course Near You
News and Updates
Become an Instructor
Webinars

Mental Health First Aid is a groundbreaking public education program that  helps the public identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Mental Health First Aid USA is managed, operated, and disseminated by three national authorities — the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Mental Health First Aid is offered in the form of an interactive 12-hour course that presents an overview of mental illness and substance use disorders in the U.S. and introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact, and overviews common treatments. Those who take the 12-hour course to certify as Mental Health First Aiders learn a 5-step action plan encompassing the skills, resources and knowledge to help an individual in crisis connect with appropriate professional, peer, social, and self-help care.

The 12-hour Mental Health First Aid USA course has benefited a variety of audiences and key professions, including: primary care professionals, employers and business leaders, faith communities, school personnel and educators, state police and corrections officers, nursing home staff, mental health authorities, state policymakers, volunteers, young people, families and the general public. See how you can get involved — find a 12-hour Mental Health First Aid course near you or learn how you can become a certified instructor to teach the 12-hour course in your community.

Governments are paying attention to Mental Health First Aid.

Mental Health First Aid is featured in USA Today.

Mental Health First Aid has been featured in national media on NPR Morning Edition, NPR Talk of the Nation, and ABC News Now.

Upcoming Instructor Certification Courses


Questions about Mental Health First Aid USA? Contact Us.

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