HAZMAT ARCHIVES

Power Outages, Communication Failures & Healthcare

  All disasters have a health aspect, and all disasters, exercises, responses, and recoveries are deeply dependent on technology and communications. Two large-scale disasters affecting much of the United States – Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012) – provide vast amounts of documentation on the significant technological challenges that arose.

Nuclear Threats Against the Homeland: Impact and Preparation

How the war in Ukraine will end is unclear. However, research shows that there is the potential for devastating effects on a global scale. As such, it is important for emergency planners to reassess their all-hazards plans to ensure their communities identify the threats and ensure their planning processes include

Rationale for Structuring Pandemic Response on a War Footing

Given 20 years of pandemic planning, is it not surprising when people ask, “Why were we not ready?” This question should be explored whether the time has come to put the country on a warlike footing for pandemic response with a coherent, institutionalized, and tested pandemic policy.

A Communicator’s Overview of a Large-Scale Exercise

A June 2022 exercise challenged amateur radio operators with establishing a Communications Unit with no power or pre-positioned equipment. The exercise was successful, but the key takeaways are already helping to improve collaboration and communications throughout the region.

Monkeypox: A Public Health Update

  Declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO), monkeypox has been on the news since early May 2022 due to the high number of cases and its worldwide distribution. The current outbreak varies from the historical situation, in which the virus remained endemic

Earthquakes & Pandemic – Keeping People Fed Amid Crises

Even though food is necessary for survival, it is not common to see agricultural workers at a disaster training exercise. However, one organization demonstrates why training these volunteers with emergency preparedness and response skills is essential for future large-scale disasters.

Looking Back to Look Ahead to Protect the Food Supply

History reveals patterns that preparedness professionals can use to better protect communities from agroterrorism and supply chain threats. One historical study has been updated to reflect cases of intentional food contamination events around the world. Learn more about this research and how to protect the food supply.

Taking Flight – Creating a Robust Aviation Response, Part 2

Volunteer general aviation pilots have assisted their communities during emergencies and disasters for many years. This is the second of a two-part article on their disaster preparedness efforts in the Pacific Northwest. In this part, they participate in two separate yet coordinated functional earthquake and tsunami disaster exercises.

Chemical Sector Perspectives

The Chemical Sector is one of 16 sectors identified as critical infrastructure under the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency. Domestic Preparedness invited one subject matter expert to answer important questions about this sector and how the sector and its interdependencies can affect any community.

Lessons From Leading Virtual Operations

Over the past two and a half years, most emergency preparedness professionals experienced some level of virtual work, even at emergency operations centers (EOC). And it appears that some aspects of working virtually is here to stay – including during a response. This article describes some lessons learned from one

Military Combat Skills for Civilian Disaster Response

During their service, military personnel acquire a broad range of lifesaving skills that are critical when on the frontline during wartime. Effective medical triage is one of the skills needed during combat and any major disaster or catastrophic event. When preparing and training for all hazards, the learned experience from

Taking Flight – Creating a Robust Aviation Response, Part 1

General aviation pilots have been finding ways to assist their communities during emergencies and disasters for many years. However, over the past two years, significant advances in disaster preparedness have been made as emergency response plans were created and exercised to integrate volunteer aviation response into other community response efforts.

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