FYI: Dept of Education. Grants. Emergency Management for Higher Education

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/emergencyhighed/index.html

Emergency Management for Higher Education

	Purpose Funding Status Eligibility Laws, Regs, & Guidance Applicant Info Resources Awards FAQs Performance Contacts
Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Home

Purpose
CFDA Number: 84.184T
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants
Also Known As: EMHE

Program Description

The Emergency Management for Higher Education (EMHE) grant program supports institutions of higher education (IHE) projects designed to develop, or review and improve, and fully integrate campus-based all-hazards emergency management planning efforts. A program funded under this absolute priority must use the framework of the four phases of emergency management (Prevention-Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery) to:

1. Develop, or review and improve, and fully integrate a campus-wide all-hazards emergency management plan that takes into account threats that may be unique to the campus;
2. Train campus staff, faculty, and students in emergency management procedures;
3. Coordinate with local and State government emergency management efforts;
4. Ensure coordination of planning and communication across all relevant components, offices, and departments of the campus;
5. Develop a written plan with emergency protocols that include the medical, mental health, communication, mobility, and emergency needs of persons with disabilities, as well as for those individuals with temporary special needs or other unique needs (including those arising from language barriers or cultural differences);
6. Develop or update a written plan that prepares the campus for infectious disease outbreaks with both short-term implications for planning (e.g., outbreaks caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or food-borne illnesses) and long-term implications for planning (e.g., pandemic influenza);
7. Develop or enhance a written plan for preventing violence on campus by assessing and addressing the mental health needs of students, staff, and faculty who may be at risk of causing violence by harming themselves or others; and
8. Develop or update a written campus-wide continuity of operations plan that would enable the campus to maintain and/or restore key educational, business, and other essential functions following an emergency.

Types of Projects

The EMHE grant program provides funds to IHEs to establish or enhance an emergency management planning process that integrates the various components and departments of each IHE; focuses on reviewing, strengthening, and institutionalizing all-hazards emergency management plans; fosters partnerships with local and State community partners; supports vulnerability assessments; encourages training and drilling on the emergency management plan across the community; and requires IHEs to develop a written plan for preventing violence on campus by assessing and addressing the mental health needs of students, faculty, and staff who may be at risk of causing campus violence by harming themselves or others.
EMHE grantees enhance IHE emergency management capacity in a wide number of areas under the four phases of emergency management. In addition to responding to all elements of the Absolute Priorities and other Requirements, some key activities of EMHE grantees include:

• Garnering support from top leadership within the institution;
• Training campus faculty, staff, and students in emergency management procedures;
• Coordinating planning across all relevant components, offices, and departments of the campus as well as the local community;
• Coordinating with local and State government emergency management efforts;
• Supporting the implementation of the National Incident Management System;
• Pre-establishing roles for faculty, staff, students and first responders;
• Creating web-based emergency management portals for information sharing on campus;
• Conducting drills and exercises with faculty, staff, students, and community partners;
• Completing comprehensive vulnerability assessments of campus facilities; and,
• Purchasing emergency equipment and technology necessary to improve overall campus safety and preparedness (but not as a majority of the requested funding).

FYI: Dept of Education. Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/dvpemergencyresponse/index.html
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools

	Purpose Funding Status Eligibility Laws, Regs, & Guidance Applicant Info Resources Awards FAQs Performance Contacts
Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Home

Purpose

CFDA Number: 84.184E
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

This grant program supports efforts by LEAs to create, strengthen, and improve emergency management plans at the district and school-building levels, including training school personnel on emergency management procedures; communicating with parents about emergency plans and procedures; and coordinating with local law enforcement, public safety or emergency management, public health, and mental health agencies and local government.

TYPES OF PROJECTS

Grant funds may be used for the following activities: reviewing and revising emergency management plans, training school staff, conducting building and facilities audits, communicating emergency response policies to parents and guardians, implementing the National Incident Management System (NIMS), developing an infectious disease plan, developing or revising food defense plans, purchasing school safety equipment (to a limited extent), conducting drills and tabletop simulation exercises; and preparing and distributing copies of emergency management plans.

FYI: Success Story. City of Los Lunas Fire Dept---Community Preparedness and Fire Safety Classes

http://community.fema.gov/connect.ti/READYNPM/view?objectId=189043&expa=exp&expf=189043&expl=1


City of Los Lunas Fire Dept---Community Preparedness and Fire Safety Classes
Los Lunas, New Mexico is unique in its 'closeness'. At least twice a month, we hold community preparedness and fire safety classes, and I'm always surprised by the attendance. Its a community that truly cares for one another. Since our peak wildfire season seems to have passed now, our focus will lean more toward arroyo safety. All too often people find themselves tempted to enter an unsafe area such as a ditch.

Would you do this type of event again?
Flash flooding in these areas is a weekly event. It will be our mission over the next month to widen our awareness base and educate our community on the hazards and pitfalls of using these areas for play. These areas, when used safely and respectfully can and are fun and relaxing. Knowing those boundaries and the dangers that can be present is paramount to our community. We will keep you all abreast of our upcoming events and the effectiveness of them!

FYI: Success Story. Workplace Disasters Seminar

http://community.fema.gov/connect.ti/READYNPM/view?objectId=189043&expa=exp&expf=189043&expl=1

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Business Service Associates, LLC---Workplace Disasters Seminar
 HICKORY, NC - A "Workplace Disaster Awareness" Seminar was held on May 12, 2011 with approximately 50 people from area businesses attending. The material offered by Lynn W. Sigmon was presented in three main sections: Man-Made Disasters, Natural Disasters and Terrorism.  The participants were taught what they could expect,how to remain safe during the event, and the steps to take after the disaster was over.  The information was based on the Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery phases taught by FEMA. We also discussed Disaster Kits and supplies needed to survive afterwards, including food and water.  Last, we covered the possibility of violent crimes and how they could affect our businesses, and the need for every entity to be trained to be able to Lockdown their facility at a moment's notice.

We also enjoyed an informal Panel Discussion.  The panel was made up of Terri Byers, a Fire Prevention Officer from our local fire department, Captain Alton Price from our local sheriff's department, David Garrison, Regional Director and Susan Anderson, Executive Director of our local Red Cross and Karyn Yaussy, Emergency Management Coordinator in Catawba County, NC.  The discussion was lively, with participants interested in what the professionals had to say about the disasters relevant to our area.  Our Red Cross Regional Director had just returned from Japan after their earthquake and tsunami, and he told some very heart-warming stories.
I offered a generic Business Emergency Operation Manual prepared for participants to review, which included things like a Vulnerability Analysis and procedures for staying safe during various disasters.  Special guests at the seminar included Danny Hearn, President of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce, and Sue Simpson, CERT past president from Charlotte, NC.

The evaluation feedback I received from participants and guests was very positive, and everyone was given a copy of the PowerPoint presentation for future use, along with other materials provided by local agencies.
I truly had high expectations for this seminar, and I am happy to say they were met, ("WHAT DID YOU EXPECT"© 2010).  I will continue to conduct this same seminar through my business, Business Service Associates, LLC.   I am also working on smaller workshops in which I can work one-on-one with businesses to assist them in preparing an Emergency Operations Plan.  In addition, I am sending out a free newsletter to area businesses concerning safety issues.

FYI: Haiti study: Mass mobile phone tracking

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/01/haiti_mobile_tracking_natural_disasters/


http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001083

Haiti study: Mass mobile phone tracking can be laudable

You'll wish the gov had huge snoop powers - in a quake

By Bill Ray • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 1st September 2011 09:01 GMT

A new study uses the movements of mobile phones during the Haiti earthquake, and cholera epidemic, to accurately show where people went during the disasters, and where help should be delivered.

Studying location data stored by Haiti's biggest network operator, Digicel, Swedish boffins got more accurate estimates of population movements over the period of both earthquake and epidemic than rescue workers on the ground, demonstrating the value of anonymous real-time tracking during national disasters.

The research is published in the peer-reviewed PLoS Medicine journal, and provides a detailed breakdown of the data gathered by the Swedish researchers (one of whom was American, to be fair).

It might seem obvious that the location of every mobile phone would tell you where the population was, but proving that required extensive analysis of the data, as well as adjustments for the penetration of mobile telephones and the demographic differences involved.

The first problem is that not everyone in Haiti has a mobile. The earthquake study tracked 1.9 million SIMs, having discarded numbers that had not made a call in the preceding month (to exclude rescue workers) and those that did not make a call afterwards (euphemistically described as "lost").

Around 200,000 of those SIMs exited Port-au-Prince following the earthquake, which, given the mobile penetration of just under one-third, multiplies up to 630,000 people leaving the capital.

That tallies well with official UN figures, compiled through questionnaires following the disaster, but diverges from estimates made at the time (which were based on a counting of buses on the roads exiting the town).

Even more interesting were the results from the cholera epidemic, which were compiled in less than 12 hours and demonstrated that such a process could provide real-time advice to healthcare workers and governments in containing and treating, as well as tracking, outbreaks.

The researchers suggest that localised SMS could have been used to advise people within affected areas, or to discourage them from travelling elsewhere, as well as to let the authorities know where problems might surface next.

That does, of course, require close integration between the operators' systems and those of the government, which will make many people uncomfortable. Real-time tracking, even by cell site, would have been valuable (for example) to the police during the recent UK riots. That data is already being used retrospectively to work out where people were, and with better integration it could show where people are.

The Chinese government recently launched a research project working out how such data could be effectively used in urban planning and traffic management, but if it were to be available in real-time it could also be used to police demonstrations, football matches and all sorts.

This needn't be an invasion of privacy – anonymous data is still valuable – but we have to decide, as a society, if we think that allowing governments access to the location of their citizens is a risk worth taking in exchange for the benefits it gives. ®

FYI: Volunteers Help Rebuild Hackleburg

Volunteers Help Rebuild Hackleburg [HD]

Rebuilding is underway in Alabama following the April 2011 tornadoes and severe storms. Habitat for Humanity and AmeriCorps volunteers are working in Hackleburg to erect new housing. Voluntary agencies are a vital partner in helping communities recover after a disaster. For more updates on ongoing recovery efforts in Alabama, visit the state's disaster page http://go.usa.gov/b84.

Length: ‎1:46

FYI: 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off Alaska

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44370205/ns/us_news-environment/

7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off Alaska

Tsunami warning issued for Aleutian Islands

A tsunami warning is in effect for parts of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake was recorded in the ocean.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck in the waters at about 6:55 a.m. ET, and there are no initial reports of injuries or damage.

The tsunami warning is in effect for coastal areas of Alaska from Unimak Pass to Amchitka Pass.

The areas are very remote and not heavily populated, according to Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colo.

Reuters reported that The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it did not see a threat of a widespread destructive tsunami.

The quake struck 107 miles southeast of Atka, Alaska, at a depth of 22.1 miles.