Emergency Management magazine

02/23/2023

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05/27/2022

“It’s not a normal situation for a country of our size to have 400 million weapons at the hands of civilians.”

Mass shootings, including shootings at schools, have become predictable — and unsurprising when they happen. Experts say framing it as a public health problem could be a step toward a solution.

04/26/2022

According to national statistics from Data USA, more than 62 percent of emergency managers are male.

The site has an abundance of information for women interested in emergency management and related fields, including a resume section, a data section, articles and lists of colleges and universities for training.

03/25/2022

Blacks were 22 percent less likely to get treated than whites, Hispanics were 58 percent less likely and Asians were 48 percent less likely. “Others” were 47 percent less likely.

It wasn’t a surprise to health-care workers that those in vulnerable communities were more likely to get sick from COVID-19, less likely to get vaccinated and last in getting treated with antibodies.

02/14/2022

The firefighting industry has been teased by technology, such as wearable heat sensors, but few departments across the nation have them.

The physiology-based heat-sensing technology monitors core body temperature and alerts the sensor’s wearer and a supervisor if the worker is in danger of a medical incident from heat exposure.

01/09/2022

And thus those populations live today in a form of environmental racism, trapped, as it were, in zones where more heat or pollution are important health considerations.

To mitigate the effects of climate change and environmental racism that impact certain hotter and more polluted areas of the city, a group in Stockton, Calif., has secured funding from a state grant program.

12/23/2021

“These situations, every one of these school shootings, the only thing they really have in common is a person with a gun shooting people.”

When it comes to school shootings, what’s the real issue: whether the justice system and school administrators can handle the threats so common around the country? Or is it that guns are too easily available to children?

12/17/2021

At a recent Urbanism Next panel discussion, city officials from Boston and Minneapolis discussed mobility hub pilot projects, underscoring how hub locations can also serve as crucial community gathering spots.

11/03/2021

But some school districts across the country have chosen to cut ties with SROs

A study published by the National Association of School Resource Officers may indicate that most SROs seek to engage school administrators before making an arrest, but there's still opposition to their presence on campuses.

10/17/2021

The city and county’s emergency management offices partnered with Deaf Link, an all-service interpreting agency, to send emergency alerts in American Sign Language (ASL) with the new system.

Austin and Travis County, Texas' emergency management offices partnered with Deaf Link, an all-service interpreting agency, to send emergency alerts in American Sign Language.

10/13/2021

The YSS group has helped garner more than $25 million worth of state grants for wildfire mitigation projects for the Stanislaus National Forest and millions more in federal grants to national forest wildfire projects.

The Yosemite-Stanislaus Solutions group, composed of entities from environmental and industry interests, has dedicated itself to developing a healthier forest through fuel reduction and reforestation projects.

09/27/2021

The results in many of those hospitals is a form of “rationing” of care, or triaging patients by determining who is likely to survive or not, and thus who should get the treatment.

One in four COVID-19-related deaths may be attributable to the overcrowding at hospitals that has occurred since the pandemic began, a problem exacerbated by unvaccinated patients and overworked staff.

09/22/2021

About 19 percent of employers across the workforce are mandating that their employees get vaccinated. That’s up from about 2 percent when vaccines first became available, but for the most part, many of those employers are in the health-care field.

Many employers have encouraged their employees to get vaccinated, offering incentives and even some punitive measures. The number of employers mandating vaccination remains low, but is ticking upward.

08/19/2021

The Ashland Chamber of Commerce has launched an online tool kit to help residents and businesses become better prepared for not only wildfires but any hazard.
https://bit.ly/2XIerQU

After the Alameda Fire last year destroyed or damaged many homes and businesses, the Ashland, Ore., Chamber of Commerce went about deploying an online preparedness toolkit to help develop a more resilient community.

08/14/2021

https://bit.ly/3AFLAuz
The surge is mostly spreading among the unvaccinated, including the group of kids under 12 years old, for which the vaccination isn’t yet available. And it might be making them sicker than the previous variants.

08/13/2021

The Delta variant of COVID-19 is surging, mostly among the unvaccinated, and that includes children, who are ending up in the hospital in unprecedented numbers. Schools will face disruption if the virus continues to spread.

07/22/2021

The variant is thought to be twice as contagious as the alpha strain, as evidenced by the number of delta cases jumping from 50 percent of all infections on July 3 to 83 percent today.

The COVID delta variant is twice as contagious as the alpha variant and makes up 83 percent of COVID cases. Many of the new cases are coming from Mississippi, Arkansas, Nevada and Florida, and infecting younger adults.

06/04/2021

I think that FEMA has done some amazing things in the vaccine distribution realm. Very broadly, we’ve done a couple of things.

Deanne Criswell was recently confirmed as administrator at FEMA and brings a unique level of experience to the agency during a critical time when it’s being asked to do more in an increasingly challenging environment.

06/01/2021

Here's what to know about gathering essential supplies and reviewing your emergency plans before a worst-case scenario strikes.

This hurricane season is forecast to be “well above average,” with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting up to 20 named storms, including six to 10 that become hurricanes.

05/26/2021

The cameras were placed in these locations by local residents and businesses that were already sharing the information with local law enforcement to help solve crimes.

Automatic license plate recognition camera systems from Flock Safety are set up all around the country and can now be activated by an Amber Alert to alert law enforcement when they capture footage of a suspected vehicle.

05/14/2021

And although more people of color are getting positions in emergency management, that “old network” is still alive and well, preventing more diversity.

Without a workforce and leaders who have those skill sets and an understanding of diverse communities, emergency managers won’t be able to reach their potential in mitigating the hazards that they face.

05/12/2021

“The issue we’re running into is a shortage of certified firefighters, so we hope we can reach the folks in our region who have a desire to do this.”

A new fire academy set to be unveiled this summer in Joplin, Mo., will offer candidates from several states the instruction they need to pursue a career in firefighting and give employers a pool of qualified candidates.

05/04/2021

"There's a lot of places where the information just gets lost."

Overwhelmed public health departments and front-line workers have for months failed to record accurate health histories for COVID-19 victims, a review of California’s internal pandemic death records found.

05/04/2021

it's hard to see the U.S. ever reaching a point where COVID-19 is as rare as bubonic plague.

We don't know how dangerous the vaccination gap may be. Science has not yet established the threshold level of immunity in the population that renders SARS-CoV-2 incapable of spreading. It could be 60% to 90%.

04/28/2021

If there is 95 percent adherence to mask-wearing this fall and winter, the United States will likely experience a “very mild” rise in COVID-19 cases and mortality,

As summer approaches, cases of COVID-19 will decline, but a decrease in people donning masks coupled with an increase in vaccine hesitancy could lead to a surge in cases during the winter, according to experts.

04/13/2021

Vernon’s “Getting ‘Vax’ to Business” is a recent effort by the town to lead the state toward herd immunity by making it easy for businesses to get their employees vaccinated and by giving at-risk or vulnerable populations the opportunity to get vaccinated without any red tape.

“Getting ‘Vax’ to Business” is a recent effort by the town of Vernon, Conn., to lead the state toward herd immunity by reaching a portion of the population that may otherwise not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

04/13/2021

The upgrades will improve hurricane forecasting and modeling for snowfall location, as well as lead to better heavy rainfall forecasts and an overall improved model performance.

Enhancements to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecasting system will effectively allow models to run at a higher resolution of detail and yield a more accurate, longer forecast.

03/20/2021

“We quickly built a new website to track COVID cases and deaths, and provide critical information about testing centers and other resources using GIS data to integrate aerial imagery and mapping to help educate the population and ease the fear of the unknown.”

Up-to-date GIS data from Nearmap has helped Melrose, Mass., and Hudson County, N.J., deliver COVID-19 supplies, educate the public about testing sites, and track COVID-19 cases and deaths.

03/17/2021

The grant will supply funds to repair and maintain sewage systems in the area that have long been neglected. Residents have, for decades, routinely experienced yards and houses flooded with sewage.

For decades, residents in Centreville, Ill., and other economically challenged cities in the area have suffered from sewage and flooding problems that could be addressed by a $22 million FEMA grant.

03/12/2021

Slightly less than 30,000 of every 100,000 Georgia adults have received a vaccine shot as of Thursday, the data show.

Government is not always user-friendly, but that is changing. Learn about citizen-centric government design and how local government is becoming more focused on serving community needs by design.