Rhode Island Association of Emergency Managers
Public Safety, Public Trust
A recent article by NPR highlights the considerable challenges emergency managers face in helping elderly residents evacuate in advance of storms. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/09/05/757674278/they-just-panic-elderly-residents-face-evacuation-challenges-during-storms From the perspective of Alysia Mihalakos, Chief of the RI Department of Health’s Center for Preparedness and Response,…
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Last week the White House quietly released the federal government’s Fourth National Climate Assessment.
Their findings are profound: Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, with effects already being felt here in Rhode Island and around the globe. Emergency managers will play a critical role in our response to climate change. [Graphic: U.S. EPA]
On Thursday, August 10th, I was at the FEMA Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in Emmitsburg Maryland, taking the third and final week of the Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP). I had been selected by my MEPP group to be the…
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Like many of us, I remember exactly where I was when the twin towers fell on 9/11 – standing in Fire Alarm with now-retired Bristol Fire Chief Dave Sylvaria, watching the tragedy unfold on live television. I don’t recall exactly…
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My first serious introduction to the topic of climate change came in 2006 with former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth. At the time, I recall that Gore’s warnings were disturbing yet seemed theoretical and distant in an era…
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When veteran American Airlines pilot Bryce McCormick first examined McDonnell-Douglas’s new DC-10 airliner in March of 1972, he expressed immediate concern over its hydraulic-only flight controls. (Previous generations of commercial aircraft had always featured manual backup systems.) So confident were McDonnell-Douglas…
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