Was Fire That Devastated Gatlinburg Tennessee Preventable?
The death toll from a devastating blaze in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee rose to 13 on Friday December 21, 2016. The highest loss of [...]
History Can Better Prepare us for the Future – Week of November 27- December 3rd
In my last post I also looked back at history and was quite surprised during the week watching the news. The consequences of the killer smog event of 50 years [...]
History Can Better Prepare us for the Future
It seems stories are written about events occurring around the globe like it's the first time such a thing has happened. Unless multiple like-events happen over a short period of [...]
Hurricanes – Time to Review The Challenges
It's been awhile since we have had a hurricane season that actually produced hurricanes. I have pulled up a few posts from previous years that may have some value for [...]
Compliance or Enhanced Preparedness? The Real Impact of the New CMS Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the Emergency Preparedness Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participating Providers and Suppliers rule. Tipping the scales at 651 pages there is no [...]
Organizational Couch Potatoes – A False Sense of Preparedness
I was rummaging through some old files the other day and I came across my copy of the After Action Report (AAR) for Quakex97. This was a joint local, state [...]
How many people will learn to Scuba dive after a Cascadia?
I participated in the Cascadia Rising 2016 exercise to help add realism and stress. Not everyone appreciated the challenges and annoyances I caused but there was a method to the [...]
HICS – Incident Action Planning (IAP) Made Easy
I can’t tell you how many events and exercises I’ve been involved in and when I inquire about their planning efforts I am told “we’re too busy to plan”. The [...]
What’s Preparedness Worth? Is $3.5 Million Enough?
My experience has always been that preparedness is a tough sell. The value seems to go up after there has been an event and a bad outcome was a result. [...]
Medical Rapid Response Team – Ideal for Catastrophic Events
I've been involved in planning for a Cascadia earthquake/tsunami event and a New Madrid earthquake event so I know what a catastrophe will look like. I have not been involved [...]