Article Out Loud

From small fire companies covering large areas of rural land to large fire departments covering highly populated urban cities, suburban fire departments are tasked with a mixture of both. One firefighter who has spent his career in a suburban fire department shares the five key lessons he has learned throughout

This 2010 article describes how the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) used the lessons learned from Hurricanes Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008 to develop an effective response and rebuilding plan that not only has been used by UTMB itself to cope with future disasters but also provides

In 2010, the Department of Homeland Security released two new publications to help federal officials throughout the country tighten the physical security of the office buildings, warehouses, and hundreds of thousands of other taxpayer-funded federal facilities entrusted to their care.

Each disaster a community faces must be effectively managed. By viewing each crisis as a project and each emergency manager as a project manager, communities will be better prepared to mitigate future threats, manage special events, and respond to emergencies and disasters. Narrated by MacGregor Stephenson.

Since this article was written in 2007, major developments have been made to bridge the communication gap for emergency response agencies. However, in times of crisis, the communications between neighboring jurisdictions can still be problematic.

The laws are in place but are often unenforceable. Transportation assets are available but are almost always overcommitted. Clear mandates from local, state, and federal decision-makers are obviously needed to restore order from the current chaos.