Disaster Preparedness & Response Disaster Topics
Intentional Destruction
Learn from the past with these lessons learned from events such as September 11 and Oklahoma City.
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Hurricanes and Floods
Browse hurricane related data or learn how to prepare yourself for a hurricane or flood.
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Tsunamis
Find out how to survive a tsunami or read about lessons learned from previous tsunamis.
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Winter Storms
Prepare yourself for the winter months. Being prepared for an emergency in a winter storm could save you from hypothermia, frostbite, or worse.
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Wildfires
There are things that you should know to survive and be safe when working or living in wildfire prone areas.
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Earthquakes and Volcanoes
Learn key facts, preparation tips, and how to react to earthquakes and volcanoes.
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Projects
The Minority Emergency Preparedness Task Force
Together with the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH) and other community agencies, the Center is an active member of the Minority Emergency Preparedness Task Force (MEPTF), which has been formed to work with vulnerable communities in the Pittsburgh metropolitan region.
The MEPTF was founded by Eileen Smith of PADOH as her class project for the Center’s Pennsylvania Preparedness Leadership Institute and is committed to gauging the understanding of selected communities with regard to disasters and preparedness. Based on an assessment of their understanding, the MEPTF will develop appropriate means to educate the communities so that they are better prepared–including connecting them to the disaster response infrastructure of their respective areas.
The Duquesne Project: Development of an Awareness and Training Model for Community-wide Emergency Preparedness
The Center partnered with the Urban League of Pittsburgh, the City of Duquesne, and the Duquesne State Health Improvement Partnership to develop a public health preparedness education and training model for residents of this small city.
Staff worked with leaders and residents of a community, which is highly socially and physically vulnerable to disasters, in an effort to understand community perceptions and practices toward disaster preparedness and response. As a result, methods to raise awareness ultimately will assist residents to become better prepared using an all-hazards approach. Recommendations and lessons learned may be applicable to similar settings throughout the United States.
Weathering the Storm: Lessons from after the Floods
"Resilience" incorporates many things, including people's capacity to cope with stress and catastrophe; the ability of an organization, resource, or structure to sustain the impact of a business interruption, including recovering and resuming operations; and how far a system can be perturbed before it collapses or is fundamentally altered. The conference compared and contrasted the effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Ivan in Allegheny County.
Cross-Border Public Health Preparedness Conference
Public health agencies in five contiguous counties in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania participated in this project to determine how agencies with similar missions representing different jurisdictions communicate and share information and resources. An additional focus was to determine the barriers that make it difficult to create and sustain a working relationship across jurisdictions at the local level. After online surveys were completed, workshops were held to ascertain each county’s public health agency’s staffing, structure, resources and interconnected activities. A successful conference in Pittsburgh brought together personnel from public health agencies at the local and state level, hospitals, and local emergency management agencies; a second gathering is planned for 2008.
Points of Dispensing (POD) Manual and Training
At the request of the Allegheny County Health Department, the Center developed a Points of Dispensing (POD) Manual and online POD training, and a functional walkthrough of a POD for more than 70 public health professionals. The Manual and online training are being utilized in other jurisdictions as well, and POD exercises have been requested by numerous other entities, including counties and school systems.
Additional Resources
Hazards Map - National Weather
Live AlertMap - RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service
Global Incident Map - Reports of terrorism and other suspicious events
PubMed - Natural disasters and Public health preparedness entries - last 60 days
NLM Disaster Information Management Center
Public Health Preparedness: Strengthening CDC’s Emergency Response
FEMA Learning Resource Center's Disaster Bibliographies
HazMat Emergency Preparedness for Responders - Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Emergency Management References - Emergency Management Institute
National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD)
National Response Framework Released (January 22, 2008)
Special Populations: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness
Report ranks cities' terrorist attack risks
