Recent hurricanes Ike and Katrina may rank among the three costliest storms in U.S. history, but in preparing for disasters the federal government must think bigger still, says America’s top emergency planner.

“As devastating as those two hurricanes were, they’re not as bad as it gets,” said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Fugate told reporters Tuesday at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Fla., that his agency has been preparing for realistic worst-case scenarios – not just natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, but terrorist attacks, as well.

In crafting a strategic plan to guide FEMA through 2014, Fugate said he charged his organization to consider maximum devastation when it comes to disasters.

That includes dealing with catastrophic events in which medical care would be needed for 265,000 casualties, restoring and sustaining basic services for an affected area of 7 million people within 60 days, and helping communities of 1.5 million disaster survivors recover within five years.

Read more @ chron.com

The Emergency Management and Homeland Security Leadership Program provides a foundation in the core concepts, contemporary practices, and theories of emergency management and homeland security.  The courses offered through this program provide state-of-the art education, tools, and skills to effectively manage emergencies.

The program is specifically designed to improve the leadership and capabilities of those responsible for planning for, mitigating against, responding to, or recovering from emergencies. The program will benefit professionals working in the field of emergency management, persons who have assumed emergency management tasks in addition to their primary work functions, and those who wish to enter the growing field of emergency management. Students from public, private, and non-profit sectors will benefit from their experience in the program.

Courses may be taken individually or students may take all 6 courses and receive a certificate verifying completion of the program. The courses may be taken for upper-division undergraduate or for graduate credit (3 credits per course), or on a non-credit basis. Instruction is provided in a format that combines the value of in-person interaction with the ease and convenience of online learning.

The first classes begin in September 2012.

Read more @ www.pdx.edu

In February 2008 a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing five students and wounding 21.

Soon after, state lawmakers tried to make sure colleges and universities were prepared to respond to such an emergency.

They passed a law requiring them to create and practice detailed plans to prevent violence and manage emergencies by January 2009.

Three years later, only 66 of the state’s 185 institutions have filed the required plans, records show.

Read more @ www.chicagotribune.com

As our society becomes more complex and its problems more intricate, public safety agencies must gain the knowledge and understanding to keep up. Acts of protest and demonstration take place every day across the United States, and increasingly public safety agencies find themselves drawn into these types of events. They can affect EMS and fire agencies from all size jurisdictions.

While most protests and demonstrations unfold without violence or property destruction, those can occur in some incidents, as in some of last year’s Occupy demonstrations. With an election year on us and global economic turmoil continuing, it is prudent to study such cases and develop effective emergency response guidelines for them.

Read more @ www.emsworld.com