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July 23, 2020

ANNUAL CONFERENCE UPDATE

'IAEM Reimagined' – virtual event replaces the in-person conference in November IAEM The 68th Annual Conference & EMEX is being reimagined as a virtual event to be held Nov. 16-18, 2020, to include all the bells and whistles of an in-person event. While nothing can replace the live experience of a professional gathering, IAEM’s new plan will actually give attendees access to more content than they are able to attend in-person. The conference will include top-notch speakers, networking events, exhibit hall live sessions, EMvision Talks, the Poster Showcase, CEUs, and more. Registration fees have been significantly reduced to help with the budget cuts we all are experiencing and to allow for multiple people participating from every organization. The Conference Committee is finalizing plans and information will be posted on the conference website as details are available. Mark your calendar and plan to participate in the conference with your colleagues in November.

IAEM SCHOLARSHIP

Don’t miss your chance to become a member of the IAEM Scholarship Commission – deadline to apply for open positions is July 31 IAEM The IAEM Scholarship Commission seeks applicants to fill several commission openings for the Class of 2022. Information on qualifications and openings are detailed in the Call for Commissioners. Applications must be submitted by July 31, 2020. Questions may be directed to IAEM Scholarship Program Director Dawn Shiley.

IAEM-CANADA COUNCIL NEWS

Federal regulators were warned national alerting system could fail years before Nova Scotia mass shooting The Globe and Mail Three years before the worst mass shooting in Canadian history, federal regulators were told that Canada's national public alert system could fail to warn vulnerable people and communities about imminent threats. READ MORE

Government of Canada announces creation of Essential Services Contingency Reserve through Safe Restart Agreement Public Services and Procurement Canada via Cision The Government of Canada is working to ensure that essential service organizations have access to the key supplies that they need to keep their members safe during COVID-19 as our economy reopens. READ MORE

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IAEM-USA COUNCIL NEWS

FEMA academies to remain closed until Oct. 1 Campus Safety The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will not be reopening its three training academies on August 2 due to concerns about the recent spike in coronavirus infections and fatalities. Now, the facilities in Maryland and Alabama won’t hold face-to-face, in-person training until October. READ MORE

Virus hits frontline workers in taxed public health system The Associated Press As a veteran public health worker, Chantee Mack knew the coronavirus could kill. She already faced health challenges and didn’t want to take any chances during the pandemic. So she asked — twice — for permission to work from home. She was deemed essential and told no. Eight weeks later, she was dead. READ MORE

US needs to unite and restructure to meet disaster demands, emergency management panelists warn Homeland Preparedness News The United States was just as dangerously unprepared to combat a coronavirus pandemic in 2020 as it was back in 2015, former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman noted in the opening remarks of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense’s virtual meeting, setting the tone for a critical examination of the nation’s COVID-19 response. READ MORE

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

EM NEWS

Twitter hack shuts down National Weather Service accounts during severe weather Homeland Security Today Several National Weather Service Twitter accounts were shut down Wednesday night as a line of severe weather and possible tornadoes moved across the Midwest. READ MORE

The jurisdictional coordinator model: Building resilient communities via trusted networks Homeland Security Today Trust is the foundation of any successful team. In a disaster, trust can make the difference between lives saved and lives lost. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear, trusted networks and trusted information are more important now than ever. READ MORE

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

Florida emergency operations center closes after 12 employees test positive for COVID-19 Homeland Security Today The Florida operations center running the state’s coronavirus pandemic response closed for deep cleaning this week after 12 employees tested positive for COVID-19, according to a report from the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper. READ MORE

A third of Texas city is likely to flood, but some areas aren’t on FEMA maps* TNS via Emergency Management About a third of Fort Worth’s roughly 350 square miles could flood regularly, but some of those at-risk areas do not show up on federal flood maps. READ MORE

How the coronavirus pandemic became Florida’s perfect storm* The Conversation If there’s one state in the U.S. where you don’t want a pandemic, it’s Florida. Florida is an international crossroads, a magnet for tourists and retirees, and its population is older, sicker and more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 on the job than the country as a whole. READ MORE

Accelerationists gain strength online, pose mass-casualty threat, lawmakers warned* Homeland Security Today Social media companies are often not seeing or are applying a double standard to “shockingly bad” content proliferating online — in much the same way that ISIS has used the platforms — to promote and recruit for domestic extremist movements, lawmakers heard at a hearing on accelerationism and militia extremism. READ MORE

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HEALTHCARE EM UPDATES

HHS to begin distributing $10 billion in additional funding to hospitals in high impact COVID-19 areas HHS The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is announcing it will begin distributing $10 billion in a second round of high impact COVID-19 area funding to hospitals. READ MORE

CLIMATE/WATER/WEATHER UPDATES

Report: High-tide flooding broke records last year. It will probably keep getting worse. Route Fifty Coastal communities across the country saw record levels of high-tide flooding last year, a trend that is likely to continue as sea levels rise and water creeps further inland, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. READ MORE

EM RESOURCES

New fema.gov coming July 29 IAEM On July 29, FEMA will launch the redesigned fema.gov website. The redesign focuses on the user experience with intuitive navigation options to help users find information more easily. It also features a geo-filtering option to quickly sort the most relevant updates for location. The redesign will bring the site in compliance with federally mandated requirements, to include those required by the 21st Century IDEA Act, Section 508 and Plain Language legislation to make FEMA’s resources accessible to everyone. In the coming months, FEMA will work to update the mobile version of the website (m.fema.gov), expand content and incorporate feedback into the new site. Users are encouraged to provide comments and feedback to the FEMA Web Team.

FEMA releases updated nuclear power plant preparedness course IAEM The updated Introduction "Criteria for Preparation and Evaluation of Radiological Emergency Response and Preparedness in Support of Nuclear Power Plants" (NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1, Rev. 2.) training course is now available. It contains information on emergency planning rules for nuclear powerplants and gives Reasonable Assurance guidance. It focuses on preparedness for radiological incidents at commercial nuclear power plants that could impact public health and safety. The course is open to FEMA Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) community stakeholders, including state, local, and tribal government offsite response organizations (OROs), FEMA staff, Licensee OROs and other supporting federal government agencies. Register for the course on the FEMA website. For questions or comments on the course, send an email to FEMA.

FEMA issues 'FAQ Reconstitution: Reopening After Coronavirus' IAEM FEMA National Continuity Programs (NCP) sponsored regional webinars to share information about best practices for the reconstitution of operations to enable organizations to return to normal following coronavirus (COVID-19) social distancing requirements. These webinars included factors to consider when reopening, and ideas on how to bring resources back to the workplace while preserving the integrity of essential functions based on the NCP Fact Sheet Planning Considerations for Organizations in Reconstituting Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic. FEMA also produced a document from the webinars that includes responses to frequently asked questions. NCP suggests that stakeholders review the Planning Considerations guidance as well as guidance posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and their state and local public health departments.

CISA releases COVID-19 recovery tabletop exercise package IAEM The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released the COVID-19 Recovery CISA Tabletop Exercise Package (CTEP). This exercise package was developed in coordination with interagency partners to assist private sector stakeholders and critical infrastructure owners and operators across all sectors in assessing short-term, intermediate, and long-term recovery and business continuity plans and addressing key questions related to organizational recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this CTEP is to provide critical infrastructure stakeholders and their public safety partners a customizable resource to internally identify and address areas for improvement, threats, issues, and concerns affecting their organization. Within the CTEP is also a compiled list of Federal COVID-19 resources that can assist organizations and their efforts.

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DISASTER TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Pandemic acts as trial run for many emerging technologies Governing The onset of the novel coronavirus forced many who were reluctant to embrace technology into Internet-dependent remote work environments, virtual meetings and even to government websites in numbers never before seen. READ MORE

Flood bot: New flood warning sensors Homeland Security News WIre Ellicott City, Maryland, suffered devastating floods in 2016 and 2018. The disasters left residents and officials wondering how technology could help predict future severe weather, and save lives and property. Scientists offer an answer: The Flood Bot network. READ MORE

Using techniques learned in astrophysics, researchers can now forecast drought up to 10 weeks ahead University of Sussex via PreventionWeb Researchers at the University of Sussex have developed a system which can accurately predict a period of drought in East Africa up to ten weeks ahead.Satellite imagery is already used in Kenya to monitor the state of pastures and determine the health of the vegetation using a metric known as the Vegetation Condition Index READ MORE

New Zealand scientists invent volcano warning system The Guardian New Zealand scientists say they have invented a warning system to predict volcanic eruptions that may prevent future tragedies such as the blast that killed 21 people on White Island/Whakaari in 2019. READ MORE

Google's building world's best earthquake-tsunami warning tech, says Sundar Pichai India Times As a disaster management initiative, Google has been conducting an experiment using subsea fiber optic cables to detect earthquakes and tsunamis early. READ MORE

CEM® UPDATE

Don’t miss your chance to apply to become a Certification Commissioner – deadline is Aug. 1 IAEM The IAEM Certification Program is now accepting applications for new commissioners. Any individual with the CEM® designation who has recertified at least once is encouraged to apply. The deadline to submit your application to KMcClimans@iaem.com is Aug. 1, 2020. The IAEM website has more details, including expectations and how to apply.

IAEM MEMBER NEWS

Bexar County emergency management coordinator passes away of COVID-19 KSAT-TV Bexar County announced that Kyle Coleman, the emergency management coordinator, died on Tuesday. Judge Nelson Wolff announced that Coleman died due to COVID-19. Wolff described him as a good friend. READ MORE

EM CALENDAR

Register today for July 24 webinar on remote sensing for disaster relief IAEM Join IAEM-USA Region 1 tomorrow, July 24, at 2:00 p.m. EDT, for a webinar on “Advanced Remote Sensing for Disaster Relief.” The presenters will provide an overview of how MIT Lincoln Laboratory is applying Geiger-Mode Lidar and AI/Machine Learning to assist in disaster relief. Register online.

IAEM-ASIA NEWS

When COVID-19 and natural hazards collide: Building resilient infrastructure in South Asia in the face of multiple crises Observer Research Foundation Almost overnight, COVID-19 shattered the global economy. What started as a biological event quickly transformed into an environmental, social, and economic one as well. And South Asia, known for its regularly occurring natural disasters, was particularly impacted by this transformation. READ MORE

How Taiwan's COVID-19 response saved lives without wrecking the economy San Francisco Chronicle In mid-March, few countries in the world were handling the coronavirus pandemic as well as Taiwan. While neighboring China struggled with more than 3,100 deaths from COVID-19, the island nation had just one. READ MORE

What happened to India’s flood management plan? DownToEarth At least 43 years after India’s first and last commission on floods was constituted, there is no national-level flood control authority in the country so far. READ MORE

China floods call into question sustainability of massive Three Gorges Dam Forbes A once in a generation pandemic, a once in a generation flood. Parts of China are literally up to their eyeballs in water, in what the Chinese government is calling a once in 100 years flood. The Three Gorges Dam, built to stop these things, is now in the spotlight. READ MORE

AROUND THE WORLD

Fires erupt following natural gas pipeline explosion in Giza* Egypt Independent Fires erupted on Sunday in Cairo following the explosion of a natural gas pipeline next to Terrat al-Zomor in the neighborhood of al-Omraniya in Giza. The Civil Protection Forces of the Giza Security Directorate, along with four ambulances, were sent to the area where the explosion occurred in an attempt to extinguish the fires and keep them from spreading to neighboring areas. READ MORE

Lightning strikes kill 16 in India's Bihar as floods affect over 350,000 Xinhua Lightning strikes have continued to kill people in India's eastern Indian state of Bihar as recent floods have affected over 350,000 people, officials said. READ MORE

Breached levees trap thousands as flooding in China worsens The Associated Press via Star Tribune Breached levees have trapped more than 10,000 people in an eastern Chinese town as flooding worsens across much of the country, local authorities said Tuesday. READ MORE

Flooding in India kills scores of people and at least 9 endangered rhinos CBS News Flooding caused by heavy seasonal rainfall has killed more than 80 people in northeast India. The deluge has forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes since May in the state of Assam, known for its lush green tea gardens and a famous wildlife park. READ MORE

China's Huaihe River flood response raised to highest Shine The Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources on Monday raised the emergency response for flood control to Level I, the highest of the four-tier emergency response system, due to the grim flood situation. READ MORE

IAEM Dispatch   Connect with IAEM Dennis Hall, Director of Publishing, 469-420-2656 | Download media kit Bob Kowalski, Executive Editor, 469-420-2650 | Contribute news Elizabeth B. Armstrong, IAEM CEO, IAEM-USA Executive Director Dawn M. Shiley, IAEM Dispatch POC, IAEM Communications & Marketing Manager *Article contributed by the Emergency Manager's Weekly Report. International Association of Emergency Managers 201 Park Washington Court | Falls Church, VA 22046-4527 | 703-538-1795 | Contact Us Click here to unsubscribe Learn how to add us to your safe sender list so our emails get to your inbox. ADVERTISE SUBSCRIBE PAST ISSUES 7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX, 75063