Jon Seals
Global Hawk Flies High, Offering a Detailed Hurricane Measurement
Scientists at the Earth Science Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are testing an airborne system that could drastically change the way hurricanes are forecast.
The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) flies on a Global Hawk unmanned vehicle to gauge the intensity of a hurricane out over the ocean. There are differences with this system and conventional hurricane forecast tools that could make HIRAD a game changer for forecasters and emergency managers.
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http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/Global-Hawk-Hurricane-Measurement.html
Disaster Recovery Plans Help Businesses Protect Lives And Property
On Hold Company CEO Stresses the Importance of Business Protection and Continuity Plans in Recent Blog Post
SHREVEPORT, LA — Many small and medium-sized businesses aren't just flirting with disaster, they're inviting it when they fail to plan for catastrophic natural events, says On Hold Company in a recent blog post. When Hurricane Sandy devastated many businesses and communities along the East Coast, barely a quarter of businesses had backed up critical data or prepared their structures to withstand the storm. Without up-to-date disaster and business continuity plans, a business may find it difficult to recover quickly and maintain relationships with suppliers and customers.
A disaster plan is worthless if nobody has read it, Bryant Wilson, CEO of On Hold Company observes. "Many businesses treat their disaster plans like casual readers treat a copy of War and Peace: they like having it on the shelf, but aren't interested in reading it." A company can't adopt a "write it and forget it" attitude, he continues, because the business models and tools they rely on change so rapidly.
For example, an outdated disaster plan may not address backup and recovery plans for key functions such as Web site backup and recovery, social media passwords and tools, databases, and other technologies. Wilson advises business owners to "blow the dust off" their disaster plans notebooks and look at them with a critical eye. "Ask yourself these three questions. When was the last time you reviewed it, as a management team or with the entire staff? Is it still relevant? Is it customized to your particular location?"
If a business owner doesn't like the answers, it's time to revise the plan - immediately. At a minimum, the plan should include basic precautions to protect employees and customers. Train all staff to move to safe places during an emergency and equip on-site shelters with emergency supplies like flashlights, blankets, food, and water. Assign someone to maintain the shelter area and inspect it regularly. Arrange for backup power such as a generator and train staff to operate it. Have an evacuation plan.
Plan for disaster recovery as well. Keep backup copies of Web sites, databases, and other critical documents in a safe place, preferably off-site. Create contingency plans for communication in the event that phone and Internet service is lost. Make sure employees have the information they need to communicate with each other, suppliers, and customers during the recovery period.
Wilson stresses the importance of communication. "After a disaster, this is one of the most difficult tasks, but it's also the most important – particularly for a local business. It's critical to have a team member assigned to this task and equipped with the needed tools." Be prepared to provide updates on the situation through all available communication channels: the Web site, social media, and on hold messages.
Many customers, vendors and partners will call to check the status of a business after a disaster, Wilson explains. "If things are not business as usual, don’t let your on-hold messages suggest otherwise. Through the years, On Hold Company has worked with clients to provide crisis communications on-hold to keep callers updated and informed in during emergency situations.
A disaster recovery plan helps a business protect its physical plant, vital records, and future profits. But the most important benefit, Wilson says, is that it protects a company's more important asset: people. "A good disaster plan gives your employees the tools and training to keep their heads during a crisis and protect lives."
Readers can follow the On Hold Company blog at http://www.onholdcompany.com/blog.
About On Hold Company
On Hold Company (http://www.onholdcompany.com) is a leading provider of custom telephone on-hold music and messages. The company has been in business since 1994 and provides on-hold marketing for more than 13,000 clients across North America. On Hold Company also provides digital signage solutions, telephone voice prompts and overhead music and messaging services.
Cultural implications of multi-stakeholder resilience building initiatives
Enhancing resilience requires a detailed understanding of the character of organizations. Culture is at the heart of organizational identities; it is part of what characterises organizations and, by association, what brings strength and success. It comprises perceptions of norms and standards and it encapsulates ‘ways’ of doing things largely based upon locations, organizational structures and interpretations of shared experiences. It is built from the aggregation of sub-unit standpoints as well as the interactions between those sub-units. Culture evolves in response to experiences as the perception of what occurred during particular episodes becomes part of the grain of an organization. More often than not, culture is thought of in positive terms, differentiating one organization as better or stronger than another.
When attempting to improve resilience, a ‘start state’ is an important feature in order to fully understand the scale of the task in attaining the desired end state. This is a truism which is equally relevant whether one is dealing with a single small organization or a grouping of states containing hundreds of millions of citizens. In both cases, cultural considerations are of the utmost relevance.
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Globally networked risks and how to respond
A paper in the journal Nature by Dirk Helbing, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, has looked at the various global networks that exist and illustrated how cascade effects and complex dynamics amplify the vulnerability of these systems.
Our global networks have generated many benefits and new opportunities. However, they have also established highways for failure propagation, which can ultimately result in man-made disasters. For example, today's quick spreading of emerging epidemics is largely a result of global air traffic, with serious impacts on global health, social welfare, and economic systems.
Helbing's publication illustrates how cascade effects and complex dynamics amplify the vulnerability of networked systems. For example, just a few long-distance connections can largely decrease our ability to mitigate the threats posed by global pandemics. Initially beneficial trends, such as globalization, increasing network densities, higher complexity, and an acceleration of institutional decision processes may ultimately push man-made or human-influenced systems towards systemic instability, Helbing finds. Systemic instability refers to a system, which will get out of control sooner or later, even if everybody involved is well skilled, highly motivated and behaving properly. Crowd disasters are shocking examples illustrating that many deaths may occur even when everybody tries hard not to hurt anyone.
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Surviving Sandy: Two Views of the Superstorm
LAS VEGAS - For Alex Delgado, things were going from bad to worse as Superstorm Sandy slammed the Jersey Shore. It was high tide, during a full moon. There was a 13 foot storm surge, and the data center was less than a mile from the beach. Six hours into the storm, the company’s operations team in India had to be evacuated due to a cyclone.
The staff at the International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) data center in Union Beach, N.J. used to joke about a single telephone pole that carried “half of the Internet and half of its power.” As Sandy came ashore, that was the pole that fell. In short, had Delgado won a raffle that week, it would have been for the Hunger Games. Everything was going wrong.
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http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/05/02/two-tales-of-sandy/
Data centers under water: What, me worry?
Computerworld - Given the dire warnings about climate change, some business and IT people are pondering this question: How should data center managers handle the crop of 100- and even 500-year storms, coastal flooding and other ecological disasters that climatologists predict are heading our way?
Some experts suggest that managers of mission-critical IT centers simply need to harden existing facilities, other observers say they need to move the centers to higher ground and a third group says both strategies are needed.
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http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238763/Data_centers_under_water_What_me_worry_
Human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus
As of 2 May 2013 (16:00 CET), the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China notified WHO of an additional two laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus.
The first patient is a 58-year-old man from Fujian province who became ill on 21 April 2013 and the second patient is a 69-year-old man from Hunan province who became ill on 23 April 2013.
Additionally, two patients earlier reported have died.
To date, a total of 128 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus including 26 deaths have been reported to WHO. Contacts of the confirmed cases are being closely monitored.
The authorities in the affected locations continue to implement prevention and control measures.
Investigations into the possible sources of infection and reservoirs of the virus are ongoing. Until the source of infection has been identified and controlled, it is expected that there will be further cases of human infection with the virus.
So far, there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission.
WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event, nor does it recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied.
U.S. Customs seizes 20 raw Chinese Silkie chickens at Dulles airport
The passenger from Vietnam didn’t speak English. And U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Dulles International Airport say they could not immediately find a translator. So they let the contents of the traveler’s luggage speak for itself and ran it through an X-ray machine.
That’s when they spotted the chickens, 20 of them, packed in Ziploc bags and tucked inside a cooler.
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FEMA and Premiere Networks Work Together to Increase Preparedness
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today announced a cooperative effort with Premiere Networks and private sector broadcasters that will provide an alternative method for radio stations to receive emergency information during a national emergency.
FEMA has added Premiere Networks -- a nationally-syndicated audio network that reaches more than 190 million weekly listeners -- as a Primary Entry Point station, which delivers information and instructions to the public in an emergency when there is no commercial power. As part of the cooperative effort, Premiere, would use its satellite program receivers in thousands of affiliate radio stations across the country as another tool for delivering national Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages. The radio affiliates would in turn broadcast the emergency messages to the public within its network.
“This cooperative effort between FEMA and Premiere Networks is one of the latest initiatives to engage the private sector’s cooperation in raising community preparedness across the nation,” said Damon Penn, Assistant Administrator of FEMA’s National Continuity Program. “We count on the broadcasting industry to alert and warn the public through the standard broadcast Emergency Alert System (EAS) including AM, FM, and satellite radio, as well as broadcast, cable and satellite TV, if a national emergency occurs,” said Penn.
FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System or IPAWS permits national emergency alert messages to be delivered simultaneously through multiple communications devices. While a presidential EAS message has never been activated, IPAWS provides the President with a way to address the American people within 10 minutes of a national emergency. Other alerting authorities include State, local, territorial, and Tribal public safety officials designated to communicate alerts.
For more information on FEMA programs, go to www.fema.gov/ipaws
Graybar Opens New Branch in Binghamton, N.Y.
ST. LOUIS – Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, today opened a new full-service branch in Binghamton, N.Y.
Located at 417 Commerce Road in Vestal, N.Y., the branch will serve the Binghamton metro area as well as Broome, Chemung, Chenago, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Tioga and Tompkins counties in New York and Susquehanna and Wayne counties in Pennsylvania. Branch Supervisor Lex Brown, a 27-year veteran of the electrical industry, will lead the branch’s five employees.
The Binghamton branch is part of Graybar’s Pittsburgh District. The branch will provide a more comprehensive service platform to customers in Southern New York and Northern Pennsylvania.
The branch will operate from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, with after-hours emergency service available. The branch can be reached at (607) 232-5400. A grand opening celebration is planned for June.
Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of more than 240 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR.
