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FEMA and the Ad Council partnered with Warner Bros. to
launch a
new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) featuring scenes from
the action thriller “San Andreas,” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Created pro bono by Warner Bros. for the Ad Council, the PSAs include English
language TV and radio advertising and uses scenes from the upcoming feature
film San Andreas to amplify earthquake safety awareness and the
protective actions that can be taken in the event of an earthquake. The PSAs educate audiences to “drop, cover, and hold on” if an
earthquake strikes and directs audiences to www.ready.gov/earthquake for more
information on how to protect themselves, families, and property before,
during, and after an earthquake.
The earthquake safety tips in the PSAs are vital to help
individuals and families prepare to react quickly, which can help save lives.
It is critically important to highlight the steps people can take to protect
themselves from an earthquake. Earthquakes can occur anywhere in the United States
without warning. According to
joint research by the U.S. Geological Service
(USGS) and FEMA, nearly half the U.S. population, 150 million Americans, are
exposed to potentially damaging earthquake shaking.
When local emergency management efforts reflect the
diversity of the surrounding community, it’s a sign
they are adopting a whole community approach to emergency management.
One example, initiated in
collaboration with FEMA's Center for Faith-based & Neighborhood
Partnerships, is how Miami-Dade County connects houses of worship and
faith-based organizations with disaster preparedness and response efforts.
Through their Communities Organized to Respond in Emergencies (C.O.R.E.)
program, emergency managers have ongoing spokespeople in local faith-based
communities that can leverage resources during times of disaster.
During Administrator Fugate’s
visit to Miami to raise awareness of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, he met
with members of the C.O.R.E. program to discuss their progress,
challenges, and future plans. Miami-Dade started the effort by convening people
in the community. They listened to the potential needs and skills of
people in their faith-based communities and organizations, then tailored
trainings and service opportunities that leveraged these unique abilities and
concerns. As a result, those in the Miami-Dade C.O.R.E. program have a wide
variety of skills that break down traditional silos between emergency
management functions. This creates a connectedness within faith-based
organizations and houses of worship, which in turn links them to the larger
emergency management network in the county.
By connecting the C.O.R.E. program with Community Emergency
Response Teams, members from the faith-based community stay engaged with
non-emergency assignments like crowd control, preparedness fairs, and community
events. Today, the various C.O.R.E. groups are a collection of diverse skill
sets, backgrounds, and faith-based traditions – a set up reflecting the
diversity of Miami-Dade county itself.
Visit the Miami-Dade C.O.R.E.
program website for more information.
FEMA and the National
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (National VOAD) are a key partnership in FEMA’s whole community approach as it relates to working alongside a broad
cross-section of voluntary and faith-based organizations that partner with
other sectors. To reaffirm commitment to this partnership, FEMA and National VOAD
signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on May 14, 2015. The MOA states that FEMA and National VOAD will
continue to incorporate even more organizations and
volunteers to participate in the disaster life cycle in coordination with
state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.
National VOAD serves as the primary
point of contact for voluntary organization coordination in FEMA’s National
Response Coordination Center, supporting Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing,
and Human Service’s needs. National VOAD works with a network of more than 55
national agencies and 56 state and territorial VOADs, providing volunteers and
services to support preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.
More information about National VOAD
can be found at www.nvoad.org.
FEMA
released a consolidated online training catalog for the First Responder
Training System, including courses available through the Emergency Management
Institute (EMI), the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), the National
Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC) and the Continuing Training Grant
(CTG) program. The site was developed in response to customer requests and is known
as the “National Training & Education Online Course Catalog.” It
allows users to search for all FEMA preparedness training initiatives in one
location.
The
main entry page of the combined catalog briefly describes each training
organization—EMI, CDP, and the National Training and Education Division—while
providing a list of training courses in each catalog, along with links for
scheduling and individual websites for each training organization. First
responders can access the consolidated course catalog by clicking directly at www.firstrespondertraining.gov/NTE. The
catalog itself is searchable and can be viewed in full or by the individual NTE
training entities. Users are able to filter by organization and/or
training provider, delivery type, discipline, core capability and mission area at www.firstrespondertraining.gov/ntecatalog.
Course catalog feedback can be sent to firstrespondertraining@fema.dhs.gov.
On May 30, 2015, Home
Depot conducted Hurricane Preparedness Workshops in 700 of its stores from the
Gulf Coast to New England, to help prepare residents in storm-prone regions
ahead of hurricane season. Held during Hurricane Preparedness Week, these discussion-based
workshops were designed to educate residents on critical storm readiness
topics, such as understanding hurricane alerts and categories, creating a storm
survival kit, choosing a generator, weathering a hurricane safely, and repairing
a home after a storm has passed.
FEMA employees from FEMA
Region II, III, and IV staffed informational tables at 23 Home
Depot stores in Alabama, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
concurrent to the hurricane preparedness workshops. American Red Cross and Team
Rubicon volunteers supported workshops as well.
Customers who were
unable to attend the events can learn more about hurricane preparedness at www.ready.gov/hurricanes.
FEMA announced $180 million
in funding available through two Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grant
programs: Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) and Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM).
These two grant programs assist state, local, tribal, and territorial
governments in strengthening our nation’s ability to reduce the potential cost of natural disasters to communities
and their citizens.
Both HMA FY 2015 Funding Opportunity Announcements can be
found at www.grants.gov. Eligible applicants must apply for funding through
the Mitigation eGrants system on the FEMA Grants Portal accessible at https://portal.fema.gov. All applications must be submitted no
later than 3 p.m. EDT on August 28,
2015.
FEMA's HMA grant programs
provide states, tribes, territories, and local governments funding for eligible
mitigation activities to strengthen our nation’s ability to reduce disaster
losses and protect life and property from future disaster damages. Further
information on these grant programs is available at www.fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-assistance.
FEMA’s Emergency Management
Institute (EMI) offers a variety of Virtual Tabletop Exercise (VTTX) programs that are designed for a community based group of at least ten
or more personnel from state, local, tribal, or territorial emergency
management organizations with
representatives from other disciplines such as public safety, public
works,
public health, health care, government, administrative, communications,
military, private sector, non-governmental, and other whole community
partners. Participants must have an appropriate site
equipped with video teleconference capability that can access FEMA.
EMI will conduct VTTX programs between June
and September 2015 on a variety of subjects:
- July 7-9: Long-term Power Outage
- July 28-30: Psychology of Disaster: Long-term Mental Health Recovery
- August 25-27: Building Collapse Focused
- September 1-3: Public Health Infectious Disease (written and hosted by the CDC)
A complete listing of all the 2015 VVTX dates and scenarios can be found online.
To apply for a VTTX event, submit an email request to participate in the
exercise to Doug Kahn at douglas.kahn@fema.dhs.gov or call
301-447-7645. The deadline for applying to participate in a VTTX is four
weeks prior to the start date.
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