FEMA Bulletin Week of March 28, 2016

Seal of the Department of Homeland Security

FEMA BULLETIN

Week of March 28, 2016

View as Webpage | Subscribe

In this Edition:

Important Dates & Deadlines

March 30, 2016

America's PrepareAthon! Hosts #SafetyFacts Twitter Chat

March 31, 2016

Deadline: National Emergency Management Advanced Academy Application

April 6, 2016

America's PrepareAthon! Hosts a Periscope session on Financial Preparedness for an Emergency

April 7, 2016


Deadline: Comment Period for Tribal Declarations Pilot Guidance


Webinar: Discussing America’s PrepareAthon! with Tribal Communities

April 12, 2016

 

Deadline: National Training, Education and Exercise Symposium Application

 

Pre-Symposium Workshop Application

 

April 30, 2016

National PrepareAthon! Day

May 13, 2016

18th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium Registration Deadline

May 19, 2016

National Presentation: Road to Resilience - Joplin Disaster Recovery Summit

June 15, 2016

Deadline: Pre-Disaster Mitigation and Flood Mitigation Assistance Grants Applications

Take Action with America’s PrepareAthon!

APlogo

Americans have been moving from awareness into action to prepare for disasters and save lives with America’s PrepareAthon!, a grassroots, community-based campaign to create a more prepared nation. On April 30, National PrepareAthon! Day encourages all Americans to get involved and get prepared now and throughout the year and to know what to do when a disaster occurs.

 

Take Action to Prepare

By organizing an event or taking an action to prepare yourself and your loved ones for disasters, you will add to the national momentum of preparedness and keep everyone in your community safe. Any preparedness action, including the 10 Ways to Participate, could have huge impacts!

 

Make a family emergency communication plan so the entire family stays connected and knows who to contact, how to reach each other, and where to meet up in an emergency. Use wallet cards to keep personal information handy. Watch Don’t Wait. Communicate. Make your emergency plan today.

 

For information and tips on what you can do, we encourage you to take part in the following activities:

 

Join the #SafetyFacts Twitter Chat

America’s PrepareAthon! (@PrepareAthon) will host a Twitter chat on Wednesday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. EDT to discuss common preparedness myths and provide facts on how the public can prepare for disasters.

 

Join the chat by following #SafetyFacts. We also encourage you to tell others about the chat using the following tweet on your social media channels, “He said, she said! We say join the #SafetyFacts Twitter chat on 3/30 at 2 PM EDT.”

 

Periscope: Financial Preparedness for an Emergency

America’s PrepareAthon! will host a Periscope broadcast on Wednesday, April 6 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, as part of Financial Literacy Month. The broadcast will present a conversation among financial and insurance industry professionals to discuss ways to get prepared for a natural disaster, including documenting and insuring property, and safeguarding financial information.

 

Periscope is a live video streaming mobile application that is compatible on the Apple (iOS) and Android (Google) platform. To join the Periscope broadcast, the mobile application must be downloaded and enabled on your device. Follow @PrepareAthon on Periscope, and share this announcement with your family and friends.

 

Webinar: Discussing America’s PrepareAthon! with Tribal Communities

FEMA will host a webinar to provide an overview of America’s PrepareAthon! and offer ways tribal communities are able to participate in this national preparedness campaign. Hosted by the Individual and Community Preparedness Division and FEMA's Office of External Affairs, Tribal Affairs, the webinar will showcase preparedness efforts from tribal communities.

 

The Community Discussion: An Overview of America’s PrepareAthon! and the Ways to Participate takes place on Thursday, April 7, 2016 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EDT. Featured speakers include: Teresa Gregor, InterTribal Long Term Recovery Foundation; Kaleigh Good, Eastern Shoshone Tribe; and Helen Bonner, Sherman Indian High School.

 

To join the Webinar, register via the Adobe Connect web link. Test your Adobe Connect connection prior to the meeting. This webinar will offer closed captioning.

 

For ideas and information on other things you can do for America’s PrepareAthon!, visit the website at ready.gov/prepare to read preparedness stories, participate in events in your area,  access customizable resources,and register your preparedness activities.


Tsunami Preparedness Week

Tsunami Preparedness Week is Sunday, March 27 – Saturday, April 2 coinciding with the Great Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami, which occurred on March 27, 1964.

 

The 1964 earthquake in Alaska was a 9.2-magnitude event causing more than $2.3 billion in property loss. Due to the severity of a tsunami, everyone should know how to prepare for an earthquake, and resulting tsunami especially if you live, work, or play on the coast.

 

Many of the actions to prepare for a tsunami are the same as preparing for other hazards such as developing a family communication plan and creating a disaster supply kit

 

The National Weather Service also provides recommendations to help protect you and your loved ones in case a tsunami ever strikes your community:

•    Find out from your local emergency management office if there are evacuation routes identified for your community;

•    Plan to evacuate to high ground or inland, away from the coast and outside of the tsunami zone;

•    Map out evacuation routes to your safe place from your home, workplace, or other places you visit frequently;

•    Practice walking your evacuation routes; and

•    Find out about your children’s school evacuation plans.

 

Check out the National Weather Service to learn more about tsunamis and how to protect your family.


18th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium

FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) will host a symposium titled “Whole of Community-Talking about My Generation” on June 6-9, 2016, in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  The event brings together representatives of colleges and universities that have, or are planning to offer, a disaster management program.  This year’s topics include:

 

•    A panel discussion that spans millennial, mid-level and seasoned academic, practitioner and government perspectives followed by plenary dialogue to discover how we might facilitate greater understanding across these differing perspectives.

•    Focus group discussions on next generation emergency management higher education core competencies, accreditation, and discipline standards.

 

For more information, please go to the EMI website.  The registration deadline is May 13, 2016.


Course Offers Emergency Operation Center Simulation

Recently, FEMA’s EMI held its Integrated Emergency Management Course (IEMC) for Dorchester County, South Carolina. This four and a half day, exercise-based training simulates realistic, crisis situations that Emergency Operation Center (EOC) personnel may encounter during an earthquake-related disaster. IEMCs help increase the skills of participating officials and provide a forum to evaluate the effectiveness of their specific emergency policies, plans, and procedures that are designed to protect life and property in the event of a disaster.

 

Each participant is assigned a role similar to their real-life position in an EOC. Each IEMC addresses leadership and policy based decision making as well as the functional aspects of an EOC. Each IEMC uses one or more of the 15 National Planning Scenarios that were developed by the Department of Homeland Security to highlight a plausible range of major events that pose the greatest risk to the Nation.

 

Participants also have the opportunity to practice disseminating wireless emergency alert messages.  This allows for one of the ways public safety officials can quickly and effectively alert and warn the public during serious emergencies.


Reminder of Upcoming Deadlines

Comment Period for Tribal Declarations Pilot Guidance

In early January, FEMA entered the next phase of tribal consultation for the Stafford Act disaster declaration process for tribal governments. The draft guidance is posted to the Federal Register and will be available for comment until April 7, 2016. Additional information regarding the consultation process may be found at Second Draft Tribal Declaration Pilot Guidance.

 

Webinar: Road to Resilience

The Joplin Disaster Recovery Summit is hosting a two-day session on May 19-20 about the lessons learned through the recovery journeys of several southwestern Missouri communities affected by a devastating tornado in May 2011.   The opening session, "Road to Resilience, " will be available via webinar on Thursday, May 19 from 2:30 – 4:15 p.m. EDT/1:30 3:15 p.m. CDT. To register for the webinar, send an email to FEMARegion7info@fema.dhs.gov with your full name, organization, phone number, and email address.

 

The cost to register for the two-day summit is $75 per person and registration is limited to 300 participants. Individuals requiring reasonable accommodations for either the two-day summit or the webinar should contact FEMARegion7info@fema.dhs.gov by May 5, 2016.

 

Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant Application Information

FEMA announced the Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) for the FY 2016 Pre-Disaster Mitigation and Flood Mitigation Assistance grant programs. 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. The NOFO for each program is posted on Grants.gov and contains the key program priorities and application requirements.  Applications are due by 3:00 p.m. EDT on June 15, 2016.


Additional EMI Courses and Event Deadlines

National Training, Education, and Exercise Symposium: Requirements-Based Investments to Build National Capabilities, May 24-26. Registration deadline: April 12, 2016. For more information, contact the EMI National Training Liaison, Dan Lubman, at daniel.lubman@fema.dhs.gov.

 

The National Emergency Management Advanced Academy is accepting applications through March 31 with selections in June and announcements in July. 

 

For additional information, visit EMI's Emergency Management Training, Virtual Tabletop Exercises and Course Schedule.