September Is National Preparedness Month

Image via Wikipedia

This September marks the seventh annual National Preparedness Month (NPM). Led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and The Advertising Council, NPM is a nationwide effort encouraging individuals, families, businesses and communities to work together and take action to prepare for emergencies.

NPM Coalition members will sponsor events and activities throughout the month highlighting the steps that individuals, families and communities can take to prepare. FEMA recently announced that more than 1,900 national, regional, tribal, state, and local organizations and businesses have pledged their support and joined the 2010 National Preparedness Month Coalition. The registration for the Coalition continues through September.

To register for membership in the coalition or to learn more about the Ready Campaign, including how to make an emergency plan and items to be included in an emergency supply kit, please go to http://www.ready.gov/america/npm10/index.html

To download the Ready Campaign widget, please go to http://www.fema.gov/help/widgets/index.shtm#5

To learn more about FEMA, please go to http://www.fema.gov/

To learn more about Citizen Corps, please go to http://www.citizencorps.gov/

To learn more about The Advertising Council, please go to http://www.adcouncil.org/

Oakland settles lawsuit with disability rights group

Image via Wikipedia

By Kelly Rayburn, Oakland Tribune

City officials reached a settlement this week with the Berkeley-based Disability Rights Advocates over a 2007 lawsuit that said the city was ill-prepared to help disabled people in the event of a disaster such as an earthquake or firestorm.

The agreement requires Oakland to implement programs to specifically address the needs of the city's disabled residents in its emergency preparedness plans. Both sides said they are satisfied with the outcome.

Continue Reading