Community Emergency Response is only thing working?

It's National Emergency Preparedness Month and you wouldn't know it with few US Gov statements or even use of Social Media , besides BeReady.gov, taking time to mention September is when individual, family and community Emergency Plans are at the forefront. And this an other completlely lacking or care about this issue has me questioning our Nation's resilience.

Simple search of "National Emergency Preparedness Month" on any social media platform shows that local EMA's, Cities and Individuals are the only people talking about Emergency Preparedness. 

Now as a planner trained by the Government up to Multi-State-Incidents Command - I know and have documented, as during the Navy Yard shooting, that having a Joint Command with all parties at the table not exchanging business cards, they have to be exchanging information, resources or tactics.   Any delay in establishing a chain of command with proper POI out in front is critical and causes unnecessary damage or worse; And, during my 37 plus years of Emergency Management experience I've never see the US Government on the Side lines let alone from it's top official giving out improper  information.

This leads to the question - where are we has a Nation with regards to our All Hazards preparedness and have the gains from cycloid topdown Emergency Management been thrown aside?    

If this is the case won't Incident Command Systems have to be rethought and plans made from when the Federal Government is working against or doing nothing for local communities during and after disasters.

Need to deploy Crisis Free Agents with Crisis Health Programs

A very alarming growthing rise of MentalHealth issues in the USA; Including, new data showing a starting rise of 25% in sucides since 1999 CDC is saying. 

And, of course high profile death of Kate Spade & Anthoney Bordain leaving us scraching our heads and with often damaged hearts and more..mental health issues.  Looking at the general Mental Health of the US as tracked by Google.com/trends it's not hard to see the this growing and that we've got problems

While facing a Mental Health Crisis and without going into politics, there is with out a doubt the need to establish a Mental Health Corps, MHC (aka Crisis Free Agents) that should be tied to many agencies and efforts.  To jump start it let's ID existing health professionals and train new ones in Crisis Health Programs (CHP). From there have them spread out across the USA and start  taking a Community Mental Health Inventory (CMHI) to be fed into an open Blockchain database. 

Why a CMHI, We need to be on the ground in the cities and areas that are crying out for help via DATA.  The data is scredamnig that we have an issue and it's time for an all hands on deck approach;  However, we need both contextual data and other's efforts like Space Weather to see what professionals in this field are now showing energy from space and it's impact on humans. 

 Here's a shot from Ben Davidson's channel short video on this particual subject LINK

While we've said USA it's really a human and earth wide issue and it not going to get better by doing doing or saying nothing and it seems like country by country effort to seek more information via a CMHI and then UN based commission to adresss this growing Mental Health meltdown.

Humanitarianday and here's one of the best ~ Alison Thompson

Today is #humanitarianday

And this post, and blog, is dedicated to all of those that have decided to become part of the solution and on this day it seems right to pick one particular person and cause and give them an extra special shout out.

If you don't already know the Dr Alison Thompson and her decades of being the example and all around Huminitarian during so many disasters it's time to shine a bit of light on the one so often offering it.  

The woman who never shies away from disaster - https://t.co/2Zb1xBvCHx #GoogleAlerts

— Alison Thompson OAM (@AlisonLoveLight) December 20, 2015

"It's easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but Its Leadership to be in the wrong place at the right time." Alison Thompson

I first encountered Alison on Myspace during the Boxerday Tsunami in 2004 as early groups of #DigitalHumaintarian were working on how Emergency Management could use these emerging CommunitiesOnline to help those being impacted in a land so far and remote that before this horrible event few knew about Indonesia; Let alone the human suffering and damage to a whole way of life was unfolding, that is, until Humanitarians like Alison started acting as Crisis Free Agents and helping to connect to these communities online.

So on this Day of being human, the one that I've know the longest and still doing it needs some Love back.   Good on you Alison.  Nelson Jacobsen 

Please like Third Wave Volunteers on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @AlisonLoveLight

Weather is the main factor in our disasters today.

The last few days (really months) have been very intense and a large part of the earth based disruptions are from weather.  From fires in California or flooding in Utah (just sticking to USA) the driving factor in many of the large now multi-jurstritional incidents -- are weather driven and some of these are further influenced from Space Weather*. For now let's just look at the Jet stream and it's wide ride over this last week.  

16 Dead After Southern Utah Flash Floods; Four Still Missing - weather.com

The Weather Channel‎ - 2 hours ago

Meteorologist Domenica Davis has the latest on deadly flood water that swept through ...

Los Angeles Sees Unusual September Rains From Remnants of Hurricane Linda; Water ...

The Weather Channel‎ - 9 hours ago

How Foul Weather and Physics Can Turn a Crane Into a Tragedy

WIRED‎ - 17 hours ago

Sure the Jet Stream  is but one data point , however this wide divergence in it (Sept 14- 16th ) is very unusual, while I don't regularly follow the Jet Stream in detail I do keep on eye on it enough to have noticed the dip on the 14th.  And, from my local weather to the number of large scale disasters unfolding that I and others in the Digital Humanitarian Network are monitoring this was something that just stuck out. 

It also reminded me that better use of weather data in dashboards offered to Emergency Managers and public with a UI that presented what is often complex and dispersed information into a uniform an informative tool would be very helpful during emergency instead of after them reflected upon in a blog post.   As well as some experts in weather need to be injected into EMA and SMEM conversations. 

There's never enough good data....

*Space Weather is what comes from  outside our atmosphere  

FMChip on mobile phones can be used for PSA's and phone carriers won't activate it.

So I was doing some work with the radio with 94.7 Fresh on and was intrigued when I heard an announcement about a Campaign #FreeRadioOnMyPhone to get the word out that  Radio Broadcasters can use the chip in Mobile phone even if the network is down to allow Radio communications to be send out  and the our US based carriers haven't' simply activated this capability. 

Evidently: 

Every smart phone manufactured today contains an FM chip, but unlike in Europe, most in the U.S. are not activated. Increasingly, the device that people use for connecting to the world is their smart phone. For that reason, NPR and APM are working with our friends in commercial radio and religious broadcasting to urge the major cell phone service providers to activate the FM chip that is already in all the mobile phones they sell

http://digital.vpr.net/post/unlock-fm-radio-hiding-your-smart-phone

Yes there are broader implication to this about general broadcasting of FM on our mobiles if we choose; However there should be no barriers to Emergency Personal getting messages out to the public.  And for that alone Emergency Responder's should help get the word out about this missing tool in their PIO's and overall responsibilities to the public.



#FMCHIP4PSAs

Calling All to --Disaster App Challenge, atten APP development teams, help earth win cash.

The National Defense University’s Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) will be launching a Disaster Apps Challenge. 

The CTNSP Disaster Apps Challenge encourages developers to build upon an open source disaster relief application that is already being used in the field. The challenge is looking for disaster aps that are well built and useful to a broad range of users. The challenge offers developers the opportunity to demonstrate their application’s value to citizens and first responders.

A $3,000 cash award will be given to the winner. Second place will receive $1,500 and third place will receive $500. Winners will receive mentoring and feedback on further development of their applications, along with exposure to experts and organizations across the disaster response field.

The competition kicks off at 12:00 p.m. EST and submissions will be accepted between March 19, 2014 to June 20, 2014. 

To learn more visit disasterapps.challengepost.com

National Defense University is the Nation’s premier national security institution focused on advanced joint education, leader development, and scholarship. The University is an accredited graduate-level institution that provides an educational and research environment to prepare future leaders of the Armed Forces and civilian agencies for high-level policy, command, and staff responsibilities. http://www.ndu.edu/

2014 Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience Submissions.

The application period for the 2014 Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience is open! The Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience is the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) first national resilience award for superior leadership and innovation by an organization who exemplifies the qualities and achievements of Rick Rescorla, emphasizing leadership in effective preparation, response, and recovery in the face of disasters. DHS will present the 2014 Rescorla Award to honorees in three categories:

• Individuals;
• Not-for-profit organizations; and
• For-profit organizations.

Eligible candidates may be nominated for the award during the nomination period which closes on July 17, 2014 at 11:59 p.m (EDT). All nominations must be submitted by email to the following DHS email address:rescorlaaward@hq.dhs.gov.  The nomination form can be found athttp://www.dhs.gov/publication/rescorla-award-nomination-form. 

For criteria, eligibility and additional information check outhttp://www.dhs.gov/rick-rescorla-national-award-resilience.