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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
announced the selectees for the 2018–2019 Youth Preparedness Council.
The Youth Preparedness Council was created in
2012 to bring together young leaders from across the country who are interested
in supporting disaster preparedness and making a difference in their
communities, by completing disaster preparedness projects to fit their
community’s needs. This year marks the sixth year of the council.
“America’s youth can help build a true
national culture of preparedness,” said FEMA Administrator Brock Long. “FEMA
recognizes the outstanding contributions of the members of the Youth
Preparedness Council, their enthusiasm for service, and their commitment to
strengthening their communities to be more prepared for emergencies.”
FEMA selected the seven new members of the
council based on their dedication to public service, community involvement, and
potential to expand their impact as national supporters for youth preparedness.
The teens bring diverse experiences to the council. One new member is a medic
with the Sacramento Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and another is a
Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadet who currently holds the rank of
airman first class. Another new member is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s (NOAA) SKYWARN Storm Spotter and actively engaged in Amateur
Radio Emergency Service® (ARES).
The 2018 Youth Preparedness Council selectees
are:
- Maryam
Choudhury (FEMA Region 1, Connecticut)
- Katerina
Corr (FEMA Region 2, New York)
- Mackenzie
Hinson (FEMA Region 4, North Carolina)
- Hannah
Schultz (FEMA Region 5, Michigan)
- Camden
Larsen (FEMA Region 8, North Dakota)
- Roberto
(RJ) Cárdenas (FEMA Region 9, California)
- Grace
Harris (FEMA Region 9, California)
The returning Youth Preparedness Council
members are:
- Nyla Howell (FEMA Region 3, Maryland)
- Ruben Banks (FEMA Region 4, Mississippi)
- Marcos Rios (FEMA Region 4, Georgia)
- Naomi Winston (FEMA Region 6, Louisiana)
- Savannah Huff (FEMA Region 7, Missouri)
- Alissa Hsueh (FEMA Region 9, California)
- Lathan Chatfield (FEMA Region 10, Washington)
- Nicole Muñoz-Casalduc (FEMA Region 10, Washington)
The council supports FEMA’s commitment to
involve America’s youth in preparedness-related activities. It also provides an
avenue to engage young people by taking into account their perspectives,
feedback, and opinions. Council members meet with FEMA staff throughout their
term to provide input on strategies, initiatives, and projects.
Each council member participated in the
Youth Preparedness Council Summit, July 17–18, 2018, in Washington, D.C. The
summit gave members the opportunity to share their ideas and questions with
national organizations; plan their preparedness project; and meet with FEMA
community preparedness staff, who serve as their ongoing support and mentors.
For highlights from the summit, watch the Instagram Story on FEMA’s account: www.instagram.com/fema.
To learn more about the FEMA Youth
Preparedness Council, please visit: www.ready.gov/youth-preparedness-council.
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On this week’s episode, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recorded its podcast during the Youth Preparedness Council Summit at the American Red Cross headquarters in
Washington, DC. The event allowed council members to share their
ideas and questions about youth disaster preparedness with the leadership
of organizations working on this critical priority. FEMA’s
Individual and Community Preparedness Division Director, Dr. Natalie Enclade
and two members of the Youth Preparedness Council discuss how young people can
further develop a culture of preparedness in America.
The FEMA Podcast is a new audio
program series available to anyone interested in learning more about the
Agency, hearing about innovation in the field of emergency management, and
listening to stories about communities and individuals recovering after
disasters. The FEMA Podcast is available on Apple iTunes to stream or
download. Approximately 20 to 30 minutes in length, the podcast will be updated
with a new episode on a weekly basis. By subscribing, new episodes will
automatically update on a listener's device. For more information, visit www.fema.gov/podcast.
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Many parents and educators often
need to be creative teaching children how to prepare for disasters and
emergencies. To help with this important topic, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross have teamed up to introduce the Prepare
with Pedro Disaster Preparedness Activity Book (Prepare with Pedro).
Prepare with Pedro is a fun new way for parents, teachers, and community
leaders to talk about safety with young children.
The activity book features Red
Cross character Pedro the Penguin, who demonstrates how to stay safe during a
variety of natural hazards. The activity book is designed to be both
educational and engaging for young children, offering safety advice alongside
crosswords, coloring pages, matching games, and more.
“Reaching young people with
disaster readiness information is foundational to building an overall culture
of preparedness across the country,” said James K. Joseph, regional administrator
for FEMA Region 5 in Chicago. “With this tool, kids can be empowered with the
information needed to help stay safe during emergencies and to become leaders
in their families for preparedness.”
“Disasters can be very scary for
children,” said Sherri Brown, president of Humanitarian Services for the
American Red Cross. “Thanks to our collaboration with FEMA, youth and their
household members can learn how to prepare and what to do for a variety of
disasters from thunderstorms and heat waves to hurricanes and tornadoes.”
The Red Cross and FEMA launched Prepare with Pedro at a special event on July 18, 2018. A group of local
children joined the event to get their own copy of Prepare with Pedro.
Members of the FEMA Youth Preparedness Council also offered additional advice and information to guide children through the activity book.
Prepare with Pedro is available
free from FEMA in English and Spanish. Community members can call
1-800-480-2520 and request printed copies of publication number P-2005, or
download the book themselves by visiting www.ready.gov/youth-preparedness.
Fore more youth preparedness activities, please visit https://www.ready.gov/kids. Parents, caregivers and educators can also learn
about disaster safety for children by visiting the American Red Cross website
at http://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/disaster-safety-for-children.
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The Federal Emergency Management
Agency released the 2017 Hurricane Season FEMA After-Action Report. The report examines the agency’s performance during
the record breaking season. Last year, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria
devastated the nation at a time when FEMA was already supporting 692 federally
declared disasters. During response to the three catastrophic hurricanes, FEMA
also responded to the historic wildfires in California. The report
captures transformative insights from a historic hurricane season that will
help FEMA, the emergency management community, and the nation chart the path
into the future. The report identified 18 key findings across five focus areas
and offered targeted recommendations for FEMA improvements, as well as broader
lessons for partners throughout the emergency management community.
“I’m extremely proud of how FEMA and
its partners performed under extraordinary circumstances,” FEMA Administrator
Brock Long said. “We are prepared for the 2018 hurricane season and have
already applied lessons learned from last year to improve how our Agency does
business. We are driven by continuous improvement and remain committed to
helping people before, during, and after disasters.”
As a cornerstone of the discipline,
emergency managers use lessons learned in order to improve outcomes, minimize
errors, and better serve survivors. The agency has already taken immediate
actions based on the findings from the After-Action Report including updated
hurricane plans, annexes, and procedures for states and territories; increased
planning factors for the Caribbean and disaster supplies; and updated high
priority national-level contracts, including the National Evacuation Contract,
Caribbean Transportation Contract, and National Ambulance Contract. FEMA has
also tested its response and initial recovery capabilities in the National
Level Exercise (NLE) 2018, which occurred in May and focused on areas
identified from real-world continuous improvement findings in this report.
Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria
caused a combined $265 billion in damage and each ranked among the top five
costliest hurricanes on record. As a result, FEMA coordinated large deployments
of federal personnel, both before and after the storms’ landfalls, to support
response and initial recovery efforts across 270,000 square miles. FEMA
facilitated logistics missions that involved more than $2 billion worth of
commodities moving across several states and territories using multiple modes
of transportation. FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, composed of state
and local emergency responders, saved or assisted nearly 9,500 people across
the three hurricanes. In total, the hurricanes and wildfires affected more than
47 million people—almost 15 percent of the nation’s population. FEMA registered
nearly 4.8 million households for assistance.
FEMA has incorporated many of the
findings from this report into its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, which will guide implementation of long-term goals
to build a more prepared and resilient nation. For a copy of the full After-Action Report, go to https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/167249.
For National Parents’ Day on Sunday, July 22, help the
parents in your community prepare for emergencies.
The Ready Campaign offers several resources for parents.
Whether they have young children or college-age kids, parents can take the
following actions to prepare for a disaster.
- Create a family
emergency communication plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes.
Plan now for how you will connect with each other.
- Learn the emergency plans for their daycare or school.
- Get college-age kids Campus Ready. Gather information on the emergency
procedures for their school or dorm.
- Practice your family emergency plan. Conduct drills to keep
your family ready.
Disasters
can be stressful for kids. Try to make emergency planning fun for the children
in your family. Visit www.ready.gov/kids for exciting games,
quizzes, and other resources to help young children and teens understand the
importance of emergency preparedness.
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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 FEMA-prepare@fema.dhs.gov.
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