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 Congratulations to Spartanburg
County, South Carolina, that won the 2015 National Public Awareness Award for
Large Counties at the International Association of Emergency Managers Annual
Conference on November 16 for their March PrepareAthon! event. Read
their story!
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Thinking about what to prepare for your
holiday feast? If your menu plans include deep frying a turkey, there’s
important safety information to keep in mind.
According to the U.S.
Fire Administration (USFA), Thanksgiving is the peak day for home
cooking fires. Keep your festivities from going up in flames; only
use turkey fryers outdoors.
USFA
wants to remind you of the dangers
that exist when deep frying a turkey, including:
- Turkey
fryers can easily tip over, spilling hot cooking oil over a large area;
- A
partially frozen turkey will cause cooking oil to splatter when put in the pot;
- Even a
small amount of cooking oil spilling on a hot burner can cause a large fire;
and
- The
sides of the cooking pot, lid, and pot handles can get dangerously hot.
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As winter weather moves in, many people use fireplaces,
space heaters, and other fuel-fired equipment to warm their homes. While
alternative heating sources can make your home cozy, using them increases your
risk of a home fire.
According to the
U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), heating
is the second leading cause of home fires following cooking.
Taking simple steps
can prevent a fire from happening in your home. The National Fire Protection
Association and USFA offer these heating
safety tips, including:
-
Keep anything that can burn at least
three feet away from a fireplace, wood stove, or space heater;
-
Make sure the fireplace has a sturdy screen to stop sparks from
flying into the room;
-
Always use the right kind of fuel, specified by the manufacturer,
for fuel-burning space heaters; and
- Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or
going to bed.
For more ways to
have a fire-safe home when the mercury dips, check out this USFA
resource guide to share with family and friends.
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Have you registered
yet? Join the upcoming webinar about disaster preparedness efforts to serve
populations that are disproportionately impacted during an emergency due to
risk factors related to language, cultural isolation, immigration status, and
national identity.
Title: Community Discussion: Preparing Individuals
Disproportionately Impacted by Disasters
Date: Monday, November 23, 2015
Time:
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. (ET)
Featured
Speakers:
-
Iskra
Gencheva, from Ready New York, New York City
Citizen Corps, New York City Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will share experiences preparing New York
City’s immigrant and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) populations
-
Sarah
Babcock, from New Orleans Medical Reserve
Corps will share experiences preparing New Orleans’s
Spanish-Speaking and Vietnamese communities
-
Dana
Perry, from Newport News CERT will share experiences preparing refugees from
various nations including Afghanistan, Cuba, Burma, Nepal, and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
-
Tom Hipper, from The National
Resource Center on Advancing Emergency Preparedness for Culturally Diverse
Communities will share helpful resources that support
emergency preparedness efforts for culturally diverse communities
How to Join the Webinar:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has
improved the online Citizen Corps/CERT Registration System and needs you to
update your information by Friday, December 4. This will help FEMA
provide you with better support. You can use
this link to log into the system. A slide presentation
is also available to help guide you through the update process.
There are several reasons to update your program’s
information:
- You will soon be able
use the registration system to generate a printable report that will
feature your specific program’s information. If your information in your
profile is up-to-date, the information in your individual program report
will be, too.
- We use this
information to develop reports, presentations, and talking points to
promote Citizen Corps and CERT to internal and external stakeholders. The
numbers that we use are far more effective and reliable when more programs
update their information.
- We have begun sharing
some CERT registration data through Open FEMA.
Please help us to ensure that this information is accurate.
- By updating your
information, you ensure that your program’s information is accounted for
in the National Preparedness Report.
- When members of the
public and other stakeholders look up your programs online, much of the
information you provide through the system is visible on your
public-facing online profile.
We value all of the information that you provide,
but the following data points are of the highest priority for the December 4
deadline:
- Number of Volunteer
Service Hours (Citizen Corps and CERT)
- Number of Volunteers
(Citizen Corps only)
- Number of Individuals
Who Have Completed CERT Basic Training Since Start of Program
- Average Annual
Deliveries of the CERT Basic Training
- CERT Classes
Graduated Since Start of Program
- Citizen Corps Council
Membership
- CERT Response
Activities
If you have any questions, please direct them to
your state point of
contact. If they are unable to resolve your request, you can also
contact us at citizencorps@fema.dhs.gov
or cert@fema.dhs.gov.
Disclaimer: The reader recognizes that the
federal government provides links and informational data on various disaster
preparedness resources and events and does not endorse any non-federal events,
entities, organizations, services or products. Please let us know about other events
and services for individual and community preparedness that could be included
in future newsletters by contacting citizencorps@fema.dhs.gov.
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