The Future of Public Alerts and Warnings: Dennis Mileti Honored in Special Collection
A special volume of the Natural Hazards Review honoring the legacy of former Natural Hazards Director Dennis Mileti is now available online.
The collection, The Legacy of Dennis S. Mileti and the Future of Public Alert and Warning Research, includes reviews and assessments of Mileti’s work, as well as forward-looking examinations of technologies, practices, and policies that can improve the access and efficiency of hazards warnings and alerts.
Mileti, who passed away in 2021, was well-recognized as an innovator in communicating hazards and disasters information in a clear, accessible way to achieve maximum impact.
The 10-article collection was curated to honor Mileti’s legacy and build on his pioneering work. It was guest edited by his former students and collaborators: Jeannette Sutton, Hamilton Bean, Lori Peek, Erica Kuligowski, and Michele Wood.
School Natural Hazard Safety Trainings Now Available
The Natural Hazards Center is pleased to announce the release of a set of trainings based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency P-1000 guide, Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety. The recorded trainings are available online.
The trainings, which augment the written guidance in FEMA P-1000, encompass six modules that span a variety of topics. They offer vivid real-world examples of why school safety matters and how school leaders and other community members can implement best practices to plan for emergency response and recovery.
The free online modules include:
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: Identifying Relevant Natural Hazards and Making School Buildings Safer
Module 3: Planning School Emergency Response and Disaster Recovery
Module 4: Engaging the Whole Community and Moving Forward
Module 5: Supplemental Technical Guidance
Module 6: Funding Support and Other Resources
The complete guidebook is available for download and the videos are accessible on the Natural Hazards website.
FEMA Releases National Resilience Guidance
FEMA is proud to announce the release of the National Resilience Guidance (NRG). The NRG offers a unifying vision of resilience and the principles and steps all communities and organizations can take to increase their resilience in every sector and discipline.
National resilience is a complex topic and building it requires whole community effort. This Guidance will help everyone understand and fulfil their critical roles related to increasing national resilience. With the goal of increasing community and national resilience, the Guidance:
- Promotes a common understanding of resilience.
- Emphasizes the critical relationship between chronic community stressors and acute shocks.
- Addresses the roles of individuals, organizations, and all levels of government.
- Provides an actionable approach to resilience planning and implementation.
- Incorporates a community resilience maturity model that walks through concrete steps to build resilience.
FEMA will host a series of 60-minute webinar sessions in September and October to discuss the NRG and additional resources available to help new and experienced resilience practitioners improve their communities’ resilience.
To view the document and learn more about the webinar sessions, please visit the FEMA website at National Resilience Guidance | FEMA.gov.
FEMA releases “20 Years of NIMS” report
Earlier this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the release of a report, 20 Years of the National Incident Management System.
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) was established in 2004 to provide stakeholders across the whole community with the shared vocabulary, systems and processes to successfully deliver the capabilities described in the National Preparedness System.
The NIMS community includes emergency responders and other emergency management personnel, federal partners, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and elected and appointed officials responsible for making decisions about incidents.
Before NIMS, the emergency response community had long recognized the need for standardized incident management guidance, particularly when responding to major incidents that required collaboration among multiple organizations and jurisdictions. Key incidents such as Southern California’s 1970 wildfire season, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11), and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, served as pivotal points for the nation to both recognize and reaffirm the need for a shared multijurisdictional, multiagency incident management system.
Since 2004, NIMS evolved through numerous iterations of guidance, resources, and tools. Now, more than 20 years after the tragic terrorist attacks on September 11th that drove the creation of NIMS, the threat of human-induced disasters also has only become more complex. As these hazards and threats evolve, the NIMS model continues to offer communities a flexible system for unified response to incidents of any type, level, or scope.
The 35-page report highlights the evolution of NIMS and showcases success stories from across the nation. The report can be accessed at: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/nims
Emergency Management Organizational Structures, Staffing, and Capacity Study
FEMA is partnering with Argonne National Laboratory, the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), and Big City Emergency Managers (BCEM) to gain a greater understanding of current state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency management organizational structures, staffing, and capacity. This study will provide important insights on how agencies and organizations are structured and staffed, where they get their funding, and how staff time is focused across the spectrum of emergency management activities.
To accomplish this study, IAEM will be launching four surveys—state, local, tribal, and territorial. Argonne National Laboratory will be conducting the analysis. The state, local, and territorial surveys are now available. A tribal-specific survey will be available in the coming weeks. Key insights about the capacity and challenges facing emergency management agencies across the nation will help FEMA, IAEM, NEMA, BCEM, and others identify strategies to better support emergency management efforts and increase community resilience.
To learn more about the Emergency Management Organizational Structures, Staffing, and Capacity Study and the supporting surveys please visit: https://www.anl.gov/dis/npac/EMStudy.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Call for Quick Response Research – SUBMIT NOW
With the support of the National Science Foundation, the Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Research Award Program provides funds and training for eligible researchers to collect data in the aftermath of extreme events to document disaster before memories fade and physical evidence is erased. The Natural Hazards Center is currently accepting proposals for a Special Call for Health Outcomes and Climate-Related Disaster Research. Funds will support awards in the amount of $10,000 to $50,00 each. Proposals for this special call will be accepted on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted. Apply now! More information can be found at https://hazards.colorado.edu/research/quick-response
|