In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

I wanted to tell you that a routine test last week found  that my leukemia has come back after being in remission for the past year. As a result, I have returned to the hospital for more treatment in preparation for a bone marrow transplant.

Obviously, this is disappointing news, particularly as I have been feeling quite good of late. However, I expect it will be just another step on the road to recovery. I hope to be back blogging at some point soon. And, I appreciate your continued support throughout.

This edition of the “What Should We Tell The Public?” video series features John Shea who manages FEMA’s extensive social media effort. In the segment, Shea urges the public to look online to find information about preparing for emergencies as well as to share info and learn from others. He recommends citizens go to the agency’s Twitter and Facebook pages. The video was shot at the National Conference on Community Preparedness in Arlington, Virginia.

JOHN SHEA, FEMA SOCIAL MEDIA (ABOVE)

With this weekend kicking off the holiday shopping season, I thought I would highlight a nice post, “The Gift of Preparedness,” by Mike Coston of Avian Flu Diary (with help from Joel from the Preparedness & Response blog) with some constructive ideas for presents as Americans head out to the stores. Coston writes:

In recent years, I’ve begun to give preparedness gifts instead of gift boxes of unidentifiable cheese products and ugly neckties. The great thing is, many of these items can be had for just a few dollars.

Three years ago I ran across a closeout on those shake flashlights. You know, the ones with the LED bulbs, that you shake for a minute and you get 10 or 15 minutes of light. No batteries needed. They normally sell for about $5 each, but these were just .77 cents at a closeout store. I bought 40 of them, and gave all but two of them away.

A couple of years ago I ran across a deal on LED headlamps, and bought about 20 of them for $2 apiece. Hands free light can be a real plus in a crisis. These too ended up in a number of people’s Christmas and birthday packs. I bought my daughter a combination windup/battery/solar AM/FM/SW radio last Christmas. Under $40, and she loves it. Uses it every day.

Every home should have a battery operated radio, yet many do not. A pair of the FRS radios, like the ones I highlighted in this blog, would make an excellent gift for many families, and can be had for less than $25.

For Christmas a couple of years back I put together some first aid kits, and distributed them to a number of friends and relatives. You can either put one together yourself, or purchase one already assembled.

During the year I keep my eye out for bargains such as these, and stock up when I find things on sale. Recently I picked up a number of LED lanterns for $3 apiece at a closeout store. They are particularly nice, and run about 40 hours on a set of AA batteries.

As promised, Joel over at Preparedness and Response came up with what I consider to be an excellent preparedness idea, giving USB flash drives to family and friends and instructions on how to back up their important papers and documents. Inexpensive USB Drives start under $10. He explains it in his essay Helping others prepare (Personal Preparedness), where he gives his rationale for going with the durable mil-spec and encrypted, but fairly pricey IronKey brand. My thanks to Joel for a terrific idea.

And lastly, I’ve put together CD’s of preparedness videos, along with copies of online manuals and preparedness guides. For the cost of a blank CD or DVD, and a little bit of my time, I’ve at least put this valuable information into my friend’s hands. I may just copy all of this info over the the USB drives I’m giving out this year instead of to CDs.

These are all useful, indeed, potentially lifesaving items, that most people simply don’t think about needing until it is too late. Giving them as gifts, instead of more traditional items, not only helps prepare the people you love and care about for an emergency, it opens the door for conversations about pandemic preparedness.

We need to cultivate a culture of preparedness in this country, and around the world. We can start doing that, one gift at a time.

FEMA’s Twitter feed also recommended this morning that you restock your basic emergency supplies while in the stores today.

If you have some other ideas for good preparedness gifts, please post them.

TPM Live Wire has a helpful and humorous post, “Thanksgiving Travel Tips From The TSA: Pies OK, Gravy Not So Much,” by Rachel Slajda about the Transportation Safety Administration’s (TSA) “Helpful Hints For Holiday Travel”:

The Transportation Security Administration, which makes the rules about how many ounces of liquid you can carry on the plane (and whose employees have a spectacular grasp of how to use new media), has released a fantastic rundown of which Thanksgiving fixings you can carry on.

Pies are OK. Cranberry sauce is not. Neither are:

* Creamy dips and spreads (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.)

* Gift baskets with food items (salsa, jams and salad dressings)

* Gravy

* Jams

* Jellies

* Maple syrup

* Oils and vinegars

* Salad dressing

* Salsa

* Sauces

* Soups

* Wine, liquor and beer

And snow globes — which have “an undetermined amount of liquid” — aren’t allowed through security either.

So why did pie make the cut? Our guess: Cronyism, plain and simple.

I wanted to point out a story now playing out in Las Vegas, Nevada, which to me is another example of how the public is too often infantilized when it comes to information on serious terrorist threats, including weapons of mass destruction — And, as a result, why we as citizens are not as prepared or as informed as we should be.

FEMA has scheduled its 2010 “National Level Exercise” (formerly called TOPOFF) — which is designed to test the capabilities of local, state and federal responders to catastrophic events — for Las Vegas in May. The planned scenario is a mock nuclear blast; 10,000 responders are expected to participate in the drill.

However, the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority, backed by the state’s senior senator, Majority Leader Harry Reid, is asking FEMA to postpone the drill, and if not at least change the scenario from a terrorist attack to natural disaster, citing the city’s economic woes.

Reid sent a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano arguing:

“At a time when Las Vegas is beginning to recover from these economic ills, to simulate a nuclear detonation in the heart of the city would unacceptably harm the Southern Nevadan economy…at this time, economic recovery efforts would be stymied, or reversed entirely, by artificially creating anxiety surrounding tourism and investment in Las Vegas.”

The senator’s web site has this addendum:

“While Reid acknowledges the importance of these training exercises and appreciates FEMA’s recognition of Las Vegas as a high profile target, holding such an event at this time would create unnecessary anxiety and harm efforts to boost tourism and investment in Las Vegas.”

I realize the concern is that the exercise will highlight the fact that Sin City is a top potential terror target. But it probably is, something Reid acknowledges in the letter. I find somewhat farfetched to believe that having a drill there will impact tourist/conventioneer decisionmaking? I covered the TOPOFF 3 drill in 2005 in New Jersey and Connecticut, which also included a weapons of mass destruction simulation. I don’t think that had much of an effect on slot playing at Atlantic City and or Connecticut’s Foxwoods & Mohegan Sun casinos.

The opposition to the disaster drill is a bit ironic as the #1 movie on screens across the U.S. for the past couple weeks has been “2012″ in which the entire Vegas Strip is dramatically destroyed in a…disaster. Do you think audiences are changing their travel plans upon leaving the theater?

THE LAS VEGAS STRIP IN THE CURRENT DISASTER MOVIE “2012″ (ABOVE)

The thing that bothers me most here is not about the exercise itself, but the contention that somehow having a practice drill with a nuclear weapon would scare Americans from traveling to Vegas. It just plays into the narrative (I would say canard) that the public cannot handle any discussion of serious potential terror threats (particularly involving weapons of mass destruction) without becoming scared out of their wits. And as a result, it prevents our leaders from having an open dialogue which might actually improve our ability to respond to a scenario — which has been acknowledged as a possibility by U.S. Presidents of both parties.

One of the major themes of this blog is that there is a need for government officials to raise potentially ’scary’ topics with the populace but do it in a responsible, constructive way  – and that public can deal with that information if it is delivered in a trustworthy manner in the proper context. Conducting a nuclear explosion drill does not mean that officials expect such an incident to happen in Vegas any time soon, but the possibility makes it useful to train for such a catastrophic occurrence — and I believe Americans will comprehend that.

I understand that Senator Reid is just trying to be responsive to his constituents. But is his opposition here really serving Nevadans best interests? An article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week indicated that FEMA has already agreed to move the exercise off of the main Vegas Strip to another location in the County. With the Majority Leader up for reelection in 2010, I imagine there may be some armtwisting done on DHS to make further changes, including postponing the drill. But if the FEMA believes the Vegas nuclear exercise is important, I hope the agency ends up making the decision based on preparedness rather than politics.

New York State is experimenting with an idea to distribute emergency alerts (including the NYAlerts mentioned in the previous post) over online gaming networks. According to an InformationWeek.com article.

The goal, said New York State Deputy CIO Rico Singleton, is to reach younger residents who spend more time on the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii than with television or radio.

Singleton, speaking Thursday at the Interop technology conference in New York City, said the plan makes sense, “considering the amount of time our youth spend on video games.”

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo operate online networks that allow players to compete against each other over the Internet. Under the state’s plan, authorities would tap those networks to broadcast warnings about natural or man-made disasters. Singleton had few details, but confirmed that the plan is in the testing phase.

(Image Credit: Switched.com)

This edition of the “What Should We Tell The Public?” series features John Gibb, Director of New York State’s Emergency Management Agency. John is a leader in the field, and I have quoted him on previous occasions.

In the video, Gibb recommends that citizens subscribe to government emergency text/e-mail notifications such as the NY-Alert system that he oversees (and which I get on my BlackBerry). We shot the video after Gibb spoke to the White House’s Long-Term Disaster Recovery Task Force stakeholder forum earlier this month.

JOHN GIBB, NEW YORK STATE’S EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR

I wanted to highlight two points I heard during a terrific recent webinar, “Social Media and Technology Breakthroughs: H1N1 and Seasonal Flu Communication”:  one about the Centers For Disease Control’s (CDC) view that mobile phones have an increasingly valuable role in public health communications and another about Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management’s expanded use of Twitter.

In her presentation, CDC new media official Ann Aikin underscored the growing importance of cellphones in public health communications. She cited an April 2009 study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Mobile Access to Data and Information, that estimated there were 276.3 million cellphone users in the U.S., which is 87% of the population. She noted further that CDC surveys have found that cellphone-only households tend to be more at-risk on healthcare as a percentage than households that also have a landline phone (ie. 19% of cellphone-only households had a flu shot last year versus 36% for the cell and landline group).

This is a particularly interesting point, because there has been some concern expressed by government officials about using mobile devices as a distribution tool. The worry is that it would exacerbate a perceived “digital divide” putting less well off citizens at a disadvantage. That has, for example, kept many emergency management sites from adding a mobile phone (and backup power source) to their recommended list of supplies. But during the webinar Aikin made the point that the “divide” does not exist in mobile phones and that in fact the mobile-only population is being underserved if that channel is not fully utilized.

In a follow-up email, I asked Aikin to further address the “digital divide” worries of some in the emergency preparedness community about new media. She said that there continues to be a socioeconomic discrepancy on home computer ownership but not on mobile phones:

“As a part of our overall mission, we are committed to finding strategies and innovative solutions for reaching underserved populations and providing important health information to those who are disproportionately affected by health disparities…we’ve carefully looked at research from a number of organizations to better reach underserved groups and other target audiences. Mobile technologies, like the text messaging pilot, are a great way to extend reach across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines at a higher rate than, for example, the use of home computers or landlines.

Another example of using phones to reach underserved audiences would be a partnership with Community Voice Mail, a group that provides individual voice mail services. We’ve worked with them to provide important health information to their clients in the form of voice mails and emails. You can learn more about Community Voice Mail at their web site, CVM.org.”

The CDC text messaging pilot Aikin mentions above allows members of the public to receive updated flu information on their mobile devices. To sign up, go here.

In his webinar presentation, preparedness 2.o guru David Stephenson highlighted the Twitter page of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management. Stephenson pointed out that the site, PhilaOEM, was “following” more than 2000 Twitter feeds, many of which are those of Philadelphia citizens.

Most government Twitter pages tend not to ‘follow’ any non-governmental Twitter feeds and usually do not follow members of the public. PhilaOEM is being aggressive in adding Philadelphians to its ‘follow’ list, according to Stephenson, because they view the public as a resource during an emergency. And the Department sees Twitter as a way to begin setting up those two-way relationships in advance.

The webinar was sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton’s Center of Excellence for Risk & Crisis Communications, the American Public Health Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers. The other two panelists were: Corrie Conrad, Senior Associate, Global Public Health, Google.org and David Cerino, GM, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. The full webinar (along with another one on the same topic conducted last month) can be found here.

Today, November 19th, is the 34th annual “Great American Smokeout” aimed at helping smokers “use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking.” Here in New York, the Department of Health is continuing its aggressive anti-smoking effort by handing out free nicotine gum and patches at sites throughout the City.

Like the anti-smoking campaign, civilian emergency preparedness requires a major change in societal behavior. It will not happen unless the government gets really serious and takes advantage of some of the levers normally used when attempting to change public behavior. 

As part of that, we need to be willing to utilize limited but significant financial incentives — such as giveaways — to get people to prepare. And, in fact, a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine indicated that New York’s distribution of free nicotine patches has turned out to be an effective incentive to smokers in quitting. (The City also gives away condoms and smoke alarm batteries in similar social marketing initiatives.)

Obviously, you’d like people to do the ‘right thing’ (such as prepare for emergencies) without the need for incentives. But look around, when we really want to change public behavior we accomplish it either with the stick (’click it or ticket‘) or the carrot (tax breaks for retirement savings).

And if I may, I’d like to add one more personal thought on this day. It is a bit frustrating to know that I have little control over whether my leukemia– now in remission — returns. By contrast, smokers have it literally and figuratively in their hands whether they continue to increase their chances of getting cancer. No preaching, but I will say that it would be great to have that same opportunity to reduce my odds.

Using themes including “Stop, Wash and Go” and “Prevention can be Travel-Sized,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today launched a public awareness campaign about staying healthy while traveling on the holidays during the H1N1 outbreak.

According to campaign press release:

 “The holidays are one of the busiest travel times of the year,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “People are in close contact – whether they’re on a plane, train, ship or just visiting with loved ones. This campaign provides practical advice to help travelers prepare for their trips and stay healthy during their holiday travel.”

 CDC is urging people to take the following steps when planning their travel and to stay informed about what to do if they get sick while they’re gone, including:

• Traveling only when they are feeling well

• Getting vaccinated for flu (both seasonal flu and 2009 H1N1 if they are in a priority group)

• Washing hands often

• Covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or sleeve

 “We know that flu – and specifically H1N1 this year – is a big concern for people, but flu shouldn’t ruin the holidays,” Dr. Schuchat said. “By practicing a little prevention, people can enjoy their holidays and stay well at the same time.”