End of this chapter

Today is my last day at Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security. Be sure to check out the social networking page; it has links to all the websites where Johnson County Emergency Management has an account, and it's a partial summary of what I've done here.

I will miss the people I worked with for the last seven months. I learned a lot here I will always appreciate the opportunities given to me. Thanks JoCo!

JoCo Emergency Management

I just went on an office tour at Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security (even though I work here) and learned some new things. I can safely say that we have a very proactive emergency planning team in Johnson County.

This is my last full week as an intern, so I will promote our facebook page again! Visit the 5,000 Prepared Citizens page and become a fan. This page is getting a great response. Fans from all over the country are sharing everything from their emergency supply kit contents to instructions for making and using a solar oven. Asking questions on this page will certainly result in responses from prepared enthusiasts. Please check it out!

Projects

My time at Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security is nearing its conclusion. Before I go, I am doing a variety of research and data collection projects.

In response to the President's "United We Serve" initiative, we hope to launch a website dedicated to community service opportunities in Johnson County that support emergency management and emergency services organizations. More information will be posted once this website is farther along.

Looks like we will be having some lovely mild summer weather this weekend. Enjoy it!

Facebook

Happy July! I hope everyone had a nice holiday this last weekend. Last week I launched a new facebook campaign called "5,000 Prepared Citizens Campaign." This facebook page is looking for 5,000 fans by this September, which is National Preparedness Month. If you have a facebook account, please become a fan of this nationwide campaign and invite your friends to do the same!

Summer time

Welcome summer, thanks for that heat wave. A week of excessive heat warnings is not the way I like to celebrate summer, but I guess that's just part of life in the midwest.

Lately I've been doing some work for National Preparedness Month (which is September) 2009. Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security is participating in this preparedness campaign for the sixth time this year.

National Preparedness Month is organized by ready.gov. They encourage families to be prepared by getting a kit, making a plan and being informed. Johnson County residents are encouraged to do the same on the Johnson County Emergency Management website. Follow the links to learn more about preparedness measures you can take and about National Preparedness Month.

Funding

Lately I've been working on raising funds for Johnson County CERT teams. These are great county programs that promote both individual preparedness and widespread disaster response. With the economy being what it is, funding for these programs is dwindling.

The training and the backpacks full of equipment are provided for volunteers. Without enough monetary support, these Johnson County preparedness programs will cease to exist. If you have suggestions or want to help support CERT, please let me know! Thanks.

Disaster Simulation

The disaster simulation this last weekend for CERT training was crazy. There were multiple explosions, very realistic looking wounds, and there was a vehicle on fire. Most beneficially, the team had a long run-down after we had identified the hazards and moved all 30 "victims" to the medical treatment area.

Now I get to take all this knowledge with me in order to do my job promoting CERT and hopefully to help people when their worlds are turned upside down.

Fire and Medical

This past Friday and Saturday were my first 2 days of CERT training. We learned about different types of weather hazards, chemicals, fire safety, injuries and treatments, and triage. As part of it I used a fire extinguisher for the first time. We got to practice putting out real fires with some of the members of the Olathe Fire Department. But then I went home and checked the expiration date on my family's extinguishers...lets just say that if we had a fire at home in the last decade or so, we would not have had a working extinguisher. A trip to Lowe's solved that problem.

This coming weekend we are learning search and rescue techniques and some more medical information. Then we are running a practice drill complete with volunteer victims with realistic-looking injuries.

The stuff I'm learning will not only benefit our local community following a disaster, but it gives me more knowledge about how I can help my own family. Especially if I have children someday, now I know lots more about injuries and treatments than I did before. This training is so beneficial.

Training

This week I am going through CERT training. I am doing it so that I can learn more about the organization I'm working to help, but also because of the individual benefits. Volunteers who are CERT certified can be beneficial in local disaster response, but they are also presented with all the tools they need to become personally prepared. As Rita Hoffman, Chairperson of Olathe KS CERT, puts it "the fewer people we have to rescue, the better off we all are." People who have taken precautions and discussed family safety plans are less likely to need immediate assistance in a disaster situation.

I would also like to throw this out there: if your city does not have a CERT program, you can join a neighboring CERT team. Check this website to see CERTs near you.

CERT

Today marks the beginning of my official summer internship. I will be at Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security through at least the end of July. My new round of projects includes working on CERT program awareness.

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. The volunteers in CERT go through training that teaches them the skills and knowledge to assist in disaster situations. It will be my job to increase public awareness, obtain community promotions, and assist in managing local Johnson County CERT teams' resources.

In Johnson County, KS, the CERT teams are divided by city. For more information regarding individual CERT teams in this area, click here.

For more information on CERT in general, visit their website.

Intern Mania

We're getting more interns! I think this system is a win-win for everyone involved. The organization gets work done for free, and the students get experience in the working world. This time around we're getting our own "intern room." If you're looking for an internship, let me know!

April Showers

This morning was my presentation to the office justifying what I've done all semester. I think it went fairly well, but as usual I strayed from my planned notes and skipped over some information. And my hyperlinks didn't work because the computer I was using had social networking blockers up. That's okay, most of my audience has a profile on facebook so they know what's up. I'm very grateful for everyone's attendance and the huge amount of support I got. I assume interns would be easy to ignore, but I've been treated like part of the team since day one.

Keep an eye on water levels near you, the creek behind my house was much higher this morning than last night, and we may still get some rain later today.

One more shameless plug for the Facebook personal preparedness group! 5,000 Prepared Citizens needs you! 162 members is great, but still quite far away from our goal.

Hello

Well it's getting to be that time of the semester when students panic about the work they have left to do before summer gets here. I am no exception. I have papers and projects in almost every class, so coming to work at Johnson County EMHS is actually a nice break from the stress.
I have a project and presentation to complete for the office, but it's not nearly as stressful as the projects which require hours in the library and extensive knowledge on 18th century literature and theory.
Enjoy getting those taxes done!

April

Welcome to April! Can you believe we're already 4 months in to this year? Today is also the first Wednesday of the month, which means testing of the outdoor siren warning system at 11am. Today will be the first time I get to see them push the siren button. Listen for it at 11!

Preparedness Survey

This week I've been going through 2008 Preparedness Survey results and pulling out information from Johnson County participants. Congratulations we are among the most prepared in the KC Metro area! But there are still plenty of people here who are not prepared for emergencies and threats. The best way to fix this is to actually take the time to make a supply kit and a plan. (By far the biggest reason that people had not made kits or plans was that they simply hadn't ever taken the time to do so!) It is always just a matter of time until Johnson County gets hit with a weather disaster.

On a brighter note, it's spring break for many in the area. I hope the beaches are treating you well...I'm going to Chicago for colder, windier weather :)

Please take the time to think about what would you do during an emergency. A little preparation can really go a long way.

Assisted living facilities and nursing homes

Today's seminar was for assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Many of the representatives we spoke with had emergency plans and procedures and actively practiced them. Many also had programs and information available about facility emergency procedures so the families of clientele would know what would happen and would be notified in case an emergency occured.
We facilitated some discussion to share ideas and I learned a lot from this group. If you ever place a loved one into this type of environment, ask about the emergency procedures they have in place; you should get a good answer based on our discussion with representatives from the industry today.

Severe Weather Awareness Week

Welcome to Severe Weather Awareness Week. In Johnson County the monthly test of the tornado sirens will be conducted Tuesday (3/10) afternoon unless there are already stormy weather conditions.
Today was the first of 4 presentations given by Adam Crowe geared toward different types of business and the ways they can prepare for and mitigate following a severe weather event. It went really well and the people who attended asked lots of good questions and seemed interested in implementing and improving preparedness measures.
Check our YouTube channel in the following days for new videos!

Finally March

February is behind us and spring is just that much closer. While brushing the snow off my car this weekend, I realized that we've had fairly small amounts of snow this winter, right? We may get through the whole winter without my power going out! (It went out at least 4 times last winter)
Our facebook.com profile got a new name: Jo Management. We're still trying to reach 5,000 members on the facebook group. So get online and join us!
:)

Full Steam Ahead

Following recent severe weather events, we are reminded that dangerous weather and disasters can occur at any time, even in the middle of winter. It is never too early to start preparing yourself and your family for the unexpected.

On a happier note, my work on social networking accounts has been coming along very quickly. I've been fortunate to get great support and freedom to explore all sorts of websites that can serve as helpful tools in connecting with the community. I really hope people find these efforts to be useful! To connect with Johnson County Emergency Management on some popular networking sites, refer to a recent post in the JoCoPrepared blog to see our usernames.

Sunny 60's

I hope everyone is enjoying the glorious February weather! What a nice preview of spring. At work we've put the wheels in motion on an emergency management video project. The videos will cover a variety of areas, probably including a tour of the office and some bios of employees. Take a look at our new YouTube channel to see the existing preparedness videos. More will be added soon!

Good Morning Johnson County!

It's another quiet day in the office. Many of the employees hold seminars and classes to spread safety information, which means they pop in and out all the time. Something cool I got done this week was creating Johnson County Emergency Management's own network on a website called ning! Check us out here.

Looking forward to the weekend, especially sunny weather in the 50's on Saturday! I love little teasers of the spring weather that should be here in just a matter of weeks. That also means that our Severe Weather Awareness Week is coming up on March 8th through the 14th. Keep an eye on the Johnson County Emergency Preparedness Blog for details coming soon.

Oops

Today was interesting. I was alerted to over 300 Trojan viruses that were (supposedly) destroying my computer. After about an hour with an IT specialist, no trojans were discovered. Go figure. I was tricked by an internet pop-up. Embarrassing! But I'm glad I did not destroy any of the county's computers.

The Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Facebook pages and applications are going well. If you have a Facebook account, please feel free to check it out! We have a MySpace profile that has just been launched as well, so look for us on either site. Hopefully you'll like our attempts to utilize these communication mediums. If you have any comments or questions, please comment :)

Suggestions

My job is to create a stronger presence for the Johnson County Emergency Management office in social networking communities. I have the websites Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube on my list. Have any suggestions of other popular social networking sites where Johnson County Emergency Management should create a profile?

Please comment to share your ideas, I would really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you!

Week 1

I've been an intern at the Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security office for a week now. My job is to utilize online social networking websites and other web 2.0 communication avenues. So far work has been great! I've been received like a true member of the team and already have great support for my first project: Facebook pages.

If you have a facebook account, type in "Johnson County Emergency," click on our page, and become a fan! There is also a profile named "JoCo EmergencyManagement," and our group called "5,000 Prepared Citizens." Feel free to add JoCo as a friend and join the group! We have links to several websites concerned with emergency preparedness, and although we are in Johnson County, Kansas, we would like people from all over the country to use our information and links to better prepare themselves.

The people I work with are so knowledgeable in their areas...I feel like I have a lot to learn! :)
Check out http://www.jocoprepared.org to see the "Johnson County-- A Community Prepared" website. On this site I've already read about many things I can do to better prepare myself for all types of emergencies. Give it a glance and see what you can learn.