Tag Archives: FEMA

Climate Disasters Have Unequal Effects in Communities

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Severe weather events are on the rise. In fact, the U.S. set a new record for billion-dollar climate disasters in 2023. Extreme weather events do not discriminate. Hurricanes, fires, and tornadoes hit wealthy and poor areas equally. However, the recovery in those areas is not as equitable.

Realizing the Power of Power

A study found that low-income communities had to wait longer for power to be restored following hurricanes. The study found that a "1-decile drop in socioeconomic status in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's social vulnerability index was associated with a 6.1% longer outage on average." Continue reading →

The Lesser Known Missions of Homeland Security

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The mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is widely understood, "to safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values." However, in carrying out this mission, DHS touches a number of areas that may not seem intuitively tied to homeland defense but are nonetheless critical challenges facing the nation as well as agencies across government.

Artificial Intelligence

DHS has a key role in securing the homeland from cyber threats. The department's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the operational lead for federal cybersecurity and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience. With this responsibility, CISA and other DHS agencies play a key role in shaping policy and guidance around emerging technology use. Today, they are keenly focused on helping agencies safely and ethically use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve mission effectiveness.

DHS is leading by example. AI is currently being used to aid border-patrol efforts, combat drug trafficking, and create age-progression estimations of missing children. While implementing AI itself, DHS is also focused on how adversaries may use AI and creating ways to defend against the technology being used to spread disinformation, create more advanced cyber attacks, or speed the development of weapons. Continue reading →

Bridging Low Tech and High Tech for Improved Disaster Preparedness

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September is National Preparedness Month. This public service campaign is run out of the Department of Homeland Security and is focused on educating citizens about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time. The 2022 campaign has a theme of "A Lasting Legacy," urging people to "Prepare for disasters to create a lasting legacy for you and your family."

This theme of legacy also applies to how the government responds to disasters to aid communities in prevention and recovery. Increasingly, emergency managers are relying on Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and more to model and plan for disaster response. However, when disaster hits and electricity is unavailable, high tech solutions no longer function and first responders must rely on analog methods to communicate and execute response plans. Incorporating legacy low tech solutions into a high tech world is a critical challenge for emergency preparedness organizations. Continue reading →

United States Can Do More to Prepare for CBRNE Events

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Originally posted by Holly Gilbert on Security Management

How effectively could the United States respond to a CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosives) event, and how well are we able to assist our international partners in the face of such disasters? That was the topic of the keynote address delivered by Dr. Paul Stockton, president of Cloud Peak Analytics, at a workshop titled "An All-of-Government Approach to Increase Resilience for International CBRNE Events" held in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The event was hosted by the National Academy of Sciences and sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

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National Civic Hacking Event Takes Form June 1-2

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Originally posted by  on Government Technology

If you're looking for evidence that hacking for a cause is sweeping the nation, this weekend's National Day of Civic Hacking, which boasts 95 affiliated events across the country, may just convince you.

The White House led event, June 1-2, aims to unite everyday citizens, coders, hackers and entrepreneurs to build civic solutions leveraging government data.

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