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Welcome
to the April 2006 Issue!
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This
is the Third (April 2006) Community Safety/Security Newsletter for
people who are interested in making their homes, families,
workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities safer. I think that
we've gotten most of the bugs worked out in terms of getting the
right people on the list and those who don't want to receive it off. If
you don't want to receive this email, there is an unsubscribe link
at the end. Again, we don't want to send this out to anyone who
doesn't wish to receive it.
This
month, as you should know, most of us set our clocks forward an hour
for daylight savings time. When I was with the Fire Authority, we
used to teach: “You change your clocks, you change your batteries.” So
make sure that you change the batteries in your smoke detector
this month if you haven't already.
Some
folks have had a few issues getting the free e-book we released last
month: How
to C.O.P.E. with Terrorism. It is free to all
newsletter subscribers and their
friends/families, but the way the system is set up, you actually have
to enter some information. This newsletter will describe
below how to enter dummy information, so you don't actually have to
give us your contact info. The only thing that we really need is
a valid email address, and yes, we'll add those emails to the mailing
list if they aren't already receiving it.
We
think that this information is valuable and we want to share it with
people, so this mail list is an easy way to share it with people that
you love and want to keep alive in an emergency. Of course, all
anyone has to do to unsubscribe is click a button, so it's not a big
cost of time and effort if they decide they don't like it. You'll
need to decide for yourself before forwarding the info on, whether
people will appreciate it.
Thanks for helping us make the
world just a little safer!
-Stephen
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An
Article on the Use of Amateur Radio Operators During Emergencies
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In the story of "The
Little Dutch Boy", a boy in Holland notices that the nearby dam was
developing a crack, and in an act of self sacrifice (he knew that if he
were late for school, he would get in trouble), he stemmed the flow of
water with his finger, and was able to prevent the dam from eroding
until some passersby were able to get help who could fix the dam.
Oftentimes, it seems like our planning for emergency response takes the
form of hoping that the little dutch boy will be there to save us, when
what we should be doing is resurfacing the dam.
A proper approach to emergencies, whether they be man-made or natural,
takes into account the "big 5": Prevention, Preparedness, Response,
Recovery and Mitigation. Most formal emergency response plans
that follow standard formats take into account the last four, since
Prevention is more geared toward man-made events, and man-made
emergencies are relatively recent as far as the emergency response
planning community at large is concerned. Each of these items
needs to
be included in a good emergency response plan, because they each build
on and feed the others. This article will point out a few
examples of
each, and show how they apply to communities, industry and even your
own families.
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| Photo courtesy of the US
Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). |
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Recent
and Upcoming Events
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The National Institute for
Homeland Security and Anti-Terrorism Preparedness conference has
been postponed to August 27-30. This year's theme is "School
Safety", and Stephen has been asked to speak not only his
original topic of Neighborhood Safety, but also to give the keynote
presentation to discuss the importance of a holistic approach to
Emergency Preparednes and Response planning and training. He
will be covering the basics of the five big items: Prevention,
Preparedness, Response, Recovery, and Mitigation. If
you would like to sponsor copies of Keeping
Our Neighborhoods Safe for
the conference, or if you know someone who might be interested in doing
so, please contact us. Additionally, if you are
planning a conference or other event and would like Stephen Melvin to
appear, please let us know.
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What
lies ahead?
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We
have over 550 recipients of this Community Safety/Security
newsletter. That's a lot of people to help make the world safer,
but it still barely makes a dent in the big scheme of things, so please
keep spreading the news about the newsletter.
As I mentioned above, some people have been having some problems
getting the free E-Book, How
to C.O.P.E with Terrorism. Use the following instructions
and you should be able to get it fairly easily:
1) Click on the "Order Now!" link on our website, or on the picture of
the
book and it will take you to the shopping cart.
2) Click
on "Add to Cart" to add the book to your cart.
3) Click on "Checkout" if you want to get the e-book (Or, to order
copies of Keeping Our Neighborhoods Safe for all of your friends and
family, click on "Continue Shopping")
4) If you have an account, you can log in. If you want, you can
create an account. If you just want to get the e-book and go,
click on "Continue
Checkout".
5) Enter your contact information. If you would like to go on
without entering your information, just enter dummy information.
Please don't enter contact information for a real person, just use
"temp" or "0" for numbers. The one piece of information that we
do need to get is a valid email address. Click on "Continue".
6) Select "Print and Call" as the payment method, and click on "Place
Order".
7) We will get an email letting us know that we need to complete the
payment, which we will do.
8) You will get an email with a link to download the e-book.
9) Download and read 14 short pages of information on how to keep
things a little bit safer!
We
are in the process of writing Keeping Our Schools Safe.
Hopefully, it will be completed in time for the conference in
August. If you are interested in contributing or reviewing the
book, please contact me quickly.
See you next month! |
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Useful
Information
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About
the Homeland Security Advisory System (from the DHS website)
The
Homeland Security Advisory System is designed to target our protective
measures when specific information to a specific sector or geographic
region is received. It combines threat information with
vulnerability
assessments and provides communications to public safety officials and
the public.
- Homeland
Security Threat Advisories contain
actionable information about an incident involving, or a threat
targeting, critical national networks or infrastructures or key assets.
They could, for example, relay newly developed procedures that,
when
implemented, would significantly improve security or protection.
They
could also suggest a change in readiness posture, protective actions,
or response. This category includes products formerly named alerts,
advisories, and sector notifications. Advisories are targeted to
Federal, state, and local governments, private sector organizations,
and international partners.
- Homeland
Security Information Bulletins
communicate information of interest to the nation’s critical
infrastructures that do not meet the timeliness, specificity, or
significance thresholds of warning messages. Such information may
include statistical reports, periodic summaries, incident response or
reporting guidelines, common vulnerabilities and patches, and
configuration standards or tools. It also may include preliminary
requests for information. Bulletins are targeted to Federal,
state,
and local governments, private sector organizations, and international
partners.
- Color-coded
Threat Level System
is used to communicate with public safety officials and the public
at-large through a threat-based, color-coded system so that
protective
measures can be implemented to reduce the likelihood or impact of an
attack. Raising the threat condition has economic, physical, and
psychological effects on the nation; so, the Homeland Security Advisory
System can place specific geographic regions or industry sectors
on a
higher alert status than other regions or industries, based on specific
threat information.
For more information, click HERE
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| ©
2006 SRM Associates |
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