SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A majority of Californians have taken initial steps toward earthquake preparedness but more than 60 percent of Californians have not done enough to make their homes safer and guard their personal finances in preparation for an inevitable, large-scale earthquake, according to a recent California Earthquake Preparedness

In the two months since a massive earthquake shattered Haiti, the U.N.'s World Food Program is still responding to the event and so far has fed over four-million people there. The WFP has dealt with catastrophes for decades, bringing food and other assistance to communities devastated by natural and man-made disaster. http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/at-the-u-n-preparing-for-the-next-world-disaster/19385181/  

http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/knw/epweek-eng.aspx

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

Your Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness Group has been very busy this year and achieved a number of important accomplishments.  Emergency generators have been installed at the community center and the church.

PREP MTG. MINUTES FROM FEB. 2ND, 2010

    

A low-level Tsunami warning is in effect for the Point Roberts area. NOAA Our risk is considered to be fairly low but we should monitor the effect of this event as it proceeds throughout the Pacific region today. Hawaii is under a moderate danger warning and coastal regions in that state are being evacuated. Watch Live Streaming Earthquake Coverage here.

Read full details       

With all the scams being perpetrated upon victims of disaster it's no surprise that crooks would organize to scam people trying to prepare for the worst as well. "Get your Disaster Preparedness Kit Now risk FREE for $1," the ad read. "Florida Residents! Prepare for the next Hurricane, Tornado, Earthquake Today." Don't fall for it. Read More:

"After a year of natural disasters that caused millions of dollars of damage to Georgia in 2009, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), its Ready Georgia campaign, the National Weather Service (NWS) and local emergency management agencies are supporting Severe Weather Awareness Week in the state, Feb. 1-5. Severe Weather Awareness Week is a time when Georgians should practice emergency preparedness and response procedures for all types of severe weather events that could occur." <press release>

It is interesting to see what other areas are doing to educate residents about how to be prepared for natural disasters. The state of Georgia faces severe weather challenges, they have even had to schedule a back-up day for their Tornado Drill in case of severe weather! Today's events include a radio campaign to get residents to obtain a weather radio (I found the Midland model they promote on Amazon for $30) that can be tuned to reports for their county.

Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report

Monday, January 25, 2010

Officials from 20 countries are meeting in Montreal, Canada, Monday "to discuss long-term reconstruction and arrangements for a donor conference to be held in March," the U.N. said, Bloomberg reports (Gaouette/Craze, 1/25). "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and others will examine eventual debt forgiveness and" a strategy for rebuilding Haiti at the one-day gathering, according to Reuters (Palmer, 1/25).     Read More

In collaboration with Project EPIC, a group of Tweeters have developed a new syntax to make it easier for computers to read tweets from areas that are affected by a disaster. If adopted widely, this new hashtag-based syntax will make it easier to automatically extract data about locations or the status of a road or person.

Main Tags

President Preval closed by passing a message to the American people, "from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the Haitian people, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Read the full article of Obama's talk with the Haitian President:

The American Red Cross is accepting donations through their International Response Fund.

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

WASHINGTON - HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released The National Health Security Strategy, the nation’s first comprehensive strategy focused on protecting people’s health during a large-scale emergency. The strategy sets priorities for government and non-government activities over the next four years.  Read the whole story at:http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/hhs-delivers-the-nationrsquos-first-health-security-strategy,1111204.shtml

WASHINGTON - December 7 - As world leaders descend upon Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW; www.ifaw.org) today released Unnatural Disasters: The Impacts of Climate-related Emergencies on Wildlife, Livestock, and Companion Animals, a comprehensive report highlighting the immediate impacts of climate change on wildlife, livestock, and companion animals. The report calls on U.S.

Safety of Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccines --- United States, October 1--November 24, 2009... Read the complete story at: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Drug/Swine_flu_vaccine_safe...

SYS-CON Media (press release) - ‎8 hours ago‎ ... Dr. Danielle Grondin, Infectious Disease and Emergency Preparedness at the Public Health Agency of Canada will provide an update on the H1N1 flu virus. ... http://php.sys-con.com/node/1200935

CTV Olympics - ‎2 hours ago‎ VANCOUVER - Officials with the BC government, Ottawa and the Olympic security force say they had to scale back their last emergency preparedness exercise ...http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=20670.html