In the aftermath of an active shooter incident in a Chicago area hospital that left four people, including a physician, pharmacist, and police officer dead, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response encouraged all providers to review its planning and response guide [<download link] for active shooter incidents, as well as other resources … Read more
The S.C. Governor has issued mandatory evacuation orders for the S.C. seaboard counties. He said schools and county offices in 26 of the state’s 46 counties will be closed starting Tuesday. A total of 177 health-care facilities, including 19 hospitals, also are being evacuated. Fleets of ambulances are being deployed to evacuate these facilities. See … Read more
This video of current volcanic eruptions on Hawaii offers a dramatic view of a kind of disaster that most emergency responders will likely never experience, but begs the question for those in Northwestern US whether the volcanoes in the Cascades or Yellowstone areas might produce such a threat.
The TRACIE Team has developed a “working draft” resource document for emergency planners facing response and recovery from a major hurricane impact with flooding and significant damage. [Visible link: https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USDHSCIKR/2017/09/10/file_attachments/877262/ASPR%2BTRACIE%2BMajor%2BHurricanes-%2BPotential%2BConsiderations%2BWorking%2BDraft.10Sep2017.pdf] The document was developed based on lessons learned and experience gained from past hurricane responses and provides potential considerations in four categories, based … Read more
While actual storm tracks can vary considerably from projections, the severity of Irma suggests that risk managers and hospital personnel in the South Eastern US should be preparing hospitals and their own homes for damages as bad as Houston—or worse. Consideration should be given to an orderly evacuation of unnecessary personnel in advance of a … Read more
September 1, 2017: West Bend Insurance is warning businesses, clinics, and hospitals to check their insurance before sending employees or staff into dangerous situations like hurricane relief in Texas. This applies not only to currently, but over the years of clean-up to follow. West Bend states: In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, service providers, particularly … Read more
Space weather — solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), geomagnetic storms and other disruptive solar and cosmic events such as Electromagnetic Pulse(EMP) with the potential to disrupt power grids, communications, and defense systems — moved onto the emergency planning radar screen for the entire country October 13, 2016, when the President issued an executive order … Read more
An interesting article in the LA Times points out that Califonia has the potential for similar quake damage along the St. Andreas fault line. I would suggest that the issues raised in the article are even more of a threat to the New Madrid area. In particular, many historic buildings in Memphis and Nashville and … Read more
This website turns out a semi-monthly disaster and strange natural occurrences log that shows brief clips of dozens of situations you probably missed in the news. View on Youtube.
Some risk managers and healthcare organizations have disaster plans for even the most exotic threat, while others have so few meaningful disaster plans that they are more appropriately labelled “Inconvenience plans”. Most folks who have news sources other than main stream media, however, are getting increasingly concerned about the deterioration in national and international situations … Read more