Here is a link to the press release for todays FEMA awards in Washington, DC, fema.gov/news-release/2014/09/03/fema-honors-achievement-community-preparedness and below the specific writeup about the recipients of the John D. Solomon Whole Community Preparedness Award Fourth Annual Recipient of the John D. Solomon Whole Community Preparedness Award The John D. Solomon Whole Community Preparedness Award is named for the late creator of the groundbreaking blog, In Case of Emergency, Read Blog: A Citizen’s Eye View Of Public Preparedness, incaseofemergencyblog/about/ and awarded to the winner of the Preparing the Whole Community category. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate once stated that John “set the standard for what it means to be part of our nation’s emergency management team.” This year, the Fourth Annual John D. Solomon Whole Community Preparedness Award is presented to both the Smyrna Emergency Management Agency and the New York City Office of Emergency Management’s Ready New York for Seniors Program. Smyrna Emergency Management Agency (GA) In March 2014, the Smyrna Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) became the first municipality in the nation to fully participate in America’s PrepareAthon! Smyrna’s PrepareAthon! culminated in a two-day community preparedness event. On Friday, March 21, SEMA conducted a community wide tornado drill. Approximately 200 Smyrna businesses conducted an actual tornado drill, many for the first time. Every Smyrna employee participated in the tornado drill, in every municipal complex. Approximately 900 elementary school aged children participated in a tornado drill while at school. And more than 1000 middle and high school students downloaded a severe weather notification app. SEMA also conducted a full-scale Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) exercise at the Emory-Adventist Hospital that measures the capabilities of their Joint Emergency Operations Center and partial evacuation of the metropolitan hospital immediately after a severe weather event. New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM): Ready New York for Seniors (NY) From January 2013 to May 2014, Ready New York revisited its efforts to reach out to seniors living in the six new hurricane evacuation zones, encouraging them to create an emergency support network, to learn how to evacuate and choose meeting places, to pack a “Go Bag,” and to put together an emergency supply kit. Between January 2013 and May 2014, the program conducted approximately 200 presentations to more than 8,000 seniors throughout the city. At these presentations, more than 7,500 “My Emergency Plans” were distributed, along with more than 2,750 hurricane guides. In 2013 alone, the Ready New York program participated in more than 225 information and resource fairs around the city, distributing emergency preparedness education materials at these events to more than 84,500 people. Ready New York for Seniors has also attempted to reach a larger segment of the senior population through contact with houses of worship, gaining their assistance in distributing the program’s message and its brochures to their congregants. By means of this networking, in 2013 and the first five months of 2014, OEM’s hurricane guide was distributed to 127 houses of worship located in the new hurricane evacuation zones. The program is also continuing to work with the Queens Library system in their “Mail a Book” program—the book in this case being “My Emergency Plan.”
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:10:31 +0000
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