by Alex Sosnowski - accuweather.com - March 2, 2012

The setup and aftermath on Friday for the Ohio and Tennessee valleys could be similar to the weather pattern during and following the 1974 Super Outbreak.

Spanning April 3-4, 1974, a swarm of tornadoes tore through areas from Illinois and southern Michigan to northern Alabama and Georgia.

The outbreak produced 148 confirmed tornadoes, six of which were F-5 intensity. The most powerful of these storms slammed into Xenia, Ohio.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Mike Kraft

Homeland Security News Wire - February 29, 2012

According to the latest survey by the Persuadable Research Corporation, half of the poll’s respondents believe they are unprepared for a disaster.

When asked in further detail why not, 38 percent said preparing for a disaster never crossed their mind, while 48 percent said they lacked the money to prepare and 15 percent said they did not have time. Furthermore 20 percent of those surveyed, said they intended to “just wing it” during a disaster.

On the opposite front, of the minority who are prepared, 82 percent said they had a previous brush with a disaster and are now ready to act in the event of another. In addition, 27 percent of those who were prepared for a disaster said they did it because they needed to care for other family members like children or elderly parents.

Meanwhile respondents were uncertain on whether the government would be able to provide assistance in the event of an emergency. Twenty-eight percent were uncertain about the government’s response, while 30 percent were convinced the government was incapable.

submitted by Janine Rees

Stream Gaging Station by Beige Alert, on Flickr

by John Farrell - energyselfreliantstates.org - February 27, 2012

In a New York Times SundayReview piece last week – Drawing the Line at Power Lines – Elisabeth Rosenthal suggested that our desire for clean energy will require significant tradeoffs . . .

I disagree.

The future of American electricity policy is not about tradeoffs, but rather a chance to trade-in an obsolete, centralized paradigm for a local, clean energy future.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Source: NPR - Credit: Adam Cole, Maggie Starbard

by Adam Cole - npr.org - February 24, 2012

. . . "Surveillance is one of the cornerstones of public health," says Philip Polgreen, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa. "It all depends on having not only accurate data, but timely data."

Public health officials have been trying to speed up their responses to disease outbreaks since, well, they started responding to outbreaks.

There's still plenty of room for improvement.

The current system requires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compile reports about from physicians and labs all over the country — and that can take a while. There's typically a week-long delay between an outbreak and the release of an official report.

To get an early read on things, epidemiologists look for the first clues of illness — a rise in thermometer sales or increased chatter on hospital phone lines. Now, they're tapping into the Internet. . . .

tacmedia.wordpress.com - February 26, 2012

In the world of Twitter, Facebook , YouTube and everything else that demands instantaneous information sharing it is horrible to see an event occur and the only information that comes out is rumour, guesses and innuendo.

Today, I watched virtually as a passenger train derailment occurred in the region that I live in.  In fact, I was out with my family today and we weren’t to far from the location where the event occurred.

Like so many others, I learned about the event on Twitter and I stayed with the information all afternoon and into the evening.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has now posted the video from the conference "Crisis Management 3.0: Social Media and Governance in Times of Transition", which was held on February 16, 2012.

The video can be found through the link below.  (Also, the event photographs and Powerpoint presentations are available through links near the bottom of the page.)

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/crisis-management-30-social-media-and-governance-times-transition

(Some viewers might need to download the JW Player in order to view the video - see the link below)

http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/

Co-hosts: Global Health Initiative, Inc. and National Defense University

submitted by Jonathan King

By: Rich Miller - datacenterknowledge.com - February 20, 2012

Jesse Robbins is a trained fireman. He also has managed some of the world’s largest Internet infrastructures. Robbins says the lessons of fire readiness can be applied to building reliable systems.

“You cannot learn the lessons of failure without experiencing it,” said Robbins, the co-founder and Chief Community Office at Opscode. “That’s why we do fire drills.”

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Samuel Bendett

By Ben Gutierrez - hawaiinewsnow.com - February 21, 2012

EWA BEACH (HawaiiNewsNow) - Scientists say there are parallels between recent earthquakes and ground movement in the Pacific Northwest and what happened in Japan before last year's devastating quake and tsunami.

The research was discussed over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach are well aware of the new research.

Guest Post: Scott Reuter - idisaster.wordpress.com - February 13, 2012

I’m fortunate to be working with a group of #SMEM*  friends who like to help each other during disasters. We train on real disasters as well as live non-disaster events, such as conferences and fast-moving popular events, so that we can test new social media tools and techniques. We do this to learn for our own varied emergency needs, and to share what we learn with others in order to contribute to the development of social media disaster operations in all phases of disasters. We call ourselves the “Virtual Operations Support Team“, or VOST for those who prefer acronyms.**

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Samuel Bendett

by Zack Whittaker - zdnet.com - February 13, 2012

Summary: A new Forrester research report sees over 1 billion smartphones being used by 2016, while app store spending increases and ‘bring your own’ device becomes the norm.

In a world where already you cannot travel on the subway without someone flipping out their cellphone, or stand at a Starbucks without someone yapping away on their iPhone, imagine what’ll happen with 1 billion smartphones out there?

Forrester seems to think so. Analysts at Forrester believe that by 2016 — only four years away, and in time for the following Olympics — there could be as many as 1 billion smartphones on the planet. This isn’t to say that everyone will have two or more smartphones, that is.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image/Chad Hagen - The New York Times Company

submitted by Samuel Bendett

by Steve Lohr - The New York Times -February 11, 2012

GOOD with numbers? Fascinated by data? The sound you hear is opportunity knocking.

Mo Zhou was snapped up by I.B.M. last summer, as a freshly minted Yale M.B.A., to join the technology company’s fast-growing ranks of data consultants. They help businesses make sense of an explosion of data — Web traffic and social network comments, as well as software and sensors that monitor shipments, suppliers and customers — to guide decisions, trim costs and lift sales. “I’ve always had a love of numbers,” says Ms. Zhou, whose job as a data analyst suits her skills.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

by Alice Johnson - ae.zawya.com - February 1, 2012

Thad W. Allen, senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, recently retired from the United States Coast Guard. As the 23rd Commandant of the US Coast Guard, Admiral Allen was selected by President George W. Bush to lead the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as the Principal Federal Official. In 2010, he was selected by President Barack Obama to lead the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as National Incident Commander. He spoke to Zawya about effectively handling large-scale catastrophes.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Use Twitter hashtag <#Crisis 30>  and email <***@***.***> to submit comments and questions to the speakers during the session between noon and 2 PM.

Use Twitter hashtag <#Crisis 30>  and email <***@***.***> to submit comments and questions to the speakers during the session between noon and 2 PM.