Homeland Security
Updated September, 2009
September – National Preparedness Month
US Department of Homeland Security
September is National Preparedness Month, offering DHS a great opportunity to talk to the American people about becoming better prepared for – and more resilient against – emergencies of all kinds.
As Secretary Napolitano has said many times, protecting the United States from threats like terrorism, natural disasters, and infectious diseases is a shared responsibility. The federal government will continue to educate people and coordinate responses to unexpected dangers, but every single individual has an important role to play.
That effort starts in our own communities. Take a moment and visit www.ready.gov or www.listo.gov to discover how to strengthen preparedness in your daily life. You will learn how to get a preparedness kit for your home and workplace; make an emergency plan for your family and co-workers; and find out the best way to be informed. You can also call 1-800-BE-READY or 1-888-SE-LISTO for more emergency preparedness information.
There are other ways we can all improve our preparedness. Receiving CPR training as Secretary Napolitano recently did, volunteering in the community through Citizen Corps, and sharing your views in the second Quadrennial Homeland Security Review dialogue, launched this week, are some excellent examples of how we can all be prepared and stay engaged.
You can also watch a new public service advertisement for the Ready Campaign. This is an important part of DHS’ national effort to educate and empower families, communities and businesses to prepare for emergencies and disasters.
By making citizen preparedness a part of your daily life – in September and beyond – together we can build a culture where preventing and responding to catastrophic events is every bit as common as planning for retirement or keeping your car and home in good repair.
And that will make a world of difference.
Updated January 22, 2009
FEMA Launches new Website for Disaster Assistance - DisasterAssistance.Gov
FEMA introduces the launch of a new user-friendly website called Disasterassistance.gov on December 31, 2008. The website was created as part of the Disaster Assistance Improvement Plan (DAIP). After Hurricane Katrina, President Bush signed Executive Order 13411 on August 29, 2007 in an effort to improve delivery of federal disaster assistance.
Disasterassistance.gov was developed to ease the frustration felt by disaster victims obligated to search through multiple federal programs to find aid. This website will centralize the application process for federal disaster assistance and offer a clearinghouse for information on programs administered at the federal, state and local levels.
To develop the website, DHS/FEMA partnered with 16 federal agencies that collectively sponsor more than 50 forms of disaster assistance. For the initial launch phase, the site will include only limited forms of federal assistance. Over the coming months the website will add federal assistance programs administered at the state level, then local, tribal and finally those of public non-profit organizations.
To learn more about www.disasterassistance.gov, information is available on the FEMA intranet at http://online.fema.net/homepage/hp_stories/122908.shtm. Anyone with specific questions or comments can email daip@dhs.gov.