Emergencity Services
The Emergencity platform facilitates hyperlocal sustained emergency
communications with the intent of building resilient communities and saving lives.
Emergencity provides local communities with a proven and sophisticated web communications infrastructure, empowering citizens with access and interactivity for events, businesses, jobs, blogs, video and more.
By establishing a scalable, reliable community hub, Emergencity enables next-generation emergency and crisis management through effective aggregation and distribution of critical information, or actionable intelligence, from all corners of the community.
Emergencity's products are designed to benefit the social fabric of a community, including volunteerism, commerce, culture, and philanthropy.
Emergencity provides local communities with a proven and sophisticated web communications infrastructure, empowering citizens with access and interactivity for events, businesses, jobs, blogs, video and more.
By establishing a scalable, reliable community hub, Emergencity enables next-generation emergency and crisis management through effective aggregation and distribution of critical information, or actionable intelligence, from all corners of the community.
Emergencity's products are designed to benefit the social fabric of a community, including volunteerism, commerce, culture, and philanthropy.
Times are tough - is the economic climate a speedbump that prevents an increase in disaster preparedness? In a recent survey, 56% of coastal residents said they had no family emergency plan and 67% said they had no survival kit.
(hat tip Jason Womack)
People struggling to pay for gas and groceries may feel "much more pressing needs" than an extra three-day cache of water and food, plus expensive first-aid supplies and extra prescription medications (which insurers may prevent people from obtaining anyway).
(hat tip Jason Womack)
Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a fee that would be added to homeowner insurance bills to pay for disasters in California. While costly wildfires rage, debate also rages in Sacramento over whether the fee should be levied.
Guests on KQED's "Forum" with host Michael Krasny include:
- Bill Stewart, cooperative extension specialist in the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Natural Resources
- Carroll Wills, sitting member of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Task Force, a commission established by the governor to issue recommendations for fire protection and prevention efforts
- Henry Renteria, director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services
- Roger Niello, member of the California State Assembly, District 5 (R-Sacramento) and vice chair of the Budget Committee
Stream or download the program from July 16th.
Guests on KQED's "Forum" with host Michael Krasny include:
- Bill Stewart, cooperative extension specialist in the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Sciences, College of Natural Resources
- Carroll Wills, sitting member of the Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Task Force, a commission established by the governor to issue recommendations for fire protection and prevention efforts
- Henry Renteria, director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services
- Roger Niello, member of the California State Assembly, District 5 (R-Sacramento) and vice chair of the Budget Committee
Stream or download the program from July 16th.
There's a nice site up for the Northern California wildfires with well-aggregated information at norcalemergency.com, which has been created and coordinated by PIER Systems, where there is an interesting white paper titled “Welcome to the Post-Media World.”
This is a creative solution to a challenging situation, where the remote and rugged landscape of the Ventana Wilderness creates many communication challenges for firefighters trying to contain the Basin
Complex Fire. From the US Forest Service today:
...Incident Commander Mike Dietrich says they have found a unique way to address at least some of the problems.
Thanks to FEMA funding, the fire managers were able to call upon the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to provide one of their vessels as a floating platform for radio communications. Equipped with a portable radio repeater provided by the National Interagency Fire Center, the 58-foot Steelhead is now patrolling roughly 26 miles up and down the coast, significantly improving communications among firefighters in the rugged backcountry.
“This is the first time a California Department of Fish and Game patrol boat has been used to provide critical support to firefighters,” said DFG Captain Doug Huckins.
John Robb has a good discussion going on how alternative currency (which may be exchangeable with scrip, social currency, complementary currency, community currency and other names) can be used to keep business activity local and thereby increase community resilience to economic shocks.
Robb mentions scrip as an approach to disaster/crisis recovery, while I have been thinking of it as an accelerator for disaster preparedness. By establishing a redeemable point system for such individual and family preparedness efforts as making a disaster plan, building a kit and ultimately volunteering in an organization such as CERT, Red Cross or United Way, the demographics widen of who actually goes through the process, and data is collected that gives officials a better idea of just how resilient a community actually is.
Robb mentions scrip as an approach to disaster/crisis recovery, while I have been thinking of it as an accelerator for disaster preparedness. By establishing a redeemable point system for such individual and family preparedness efforts as making a disaster plan, building a kit and ultimately volunteering in an organization such as CERT, Red Cross or United Way, the demographics widen of who actually goes through the process, and data is collected that gives officials a better idea of just how resilient a community actually is.
