Today's Top Picks
The Missing Plague Vials
A true story of missing bubonic plague vials, an airport bomb threat, and other suspicious activities again demonstrate continued national and homeland security vulnerabilities and threats. Perspectives may differ, but the concerns are real and provide an opportunity to learn and prepare.
Primary Care Investments to Increase Community Resilience
Community health centers are medical lifelines for millions of Americans. However, financial constraints and healthcare workforce challenges strain these critical resources. New initiatives and additional investments can help communities be more resilient and continue to meet community needs during a crisis.
Mental Awareness to Enhance Preparedness
Emergency managers, public health officials, and first responders often stress the importance of physical fitness, but what about mental fitness? Without focused mental agility in even one of the emergency management phases, mistakes or subpar performance are likely. Learn about this author’s new acronym that can help prioritize mental health in the planning process.
The “R” Word
Resilience has multiple meanings for public health, emergency, and homeland security management professionals. However, the objective of building resilience should go beyond hazard mitigation. With 2024 being FEMA’s “Year of Resilience,” it is a good time for professionals to start rethinking this concept.
Dungeons and Disasters: Gamification of Public Health Responses
New technologies offer new ways to train personnel and exercise public health responses like COVID-19 and prepare response agencies for many other threats and hazards. Gamification integrates realistic scenarios in a controlled environment that can enhance community capabilities and build interagency collaboration and coordination. Learn more about this training and exercise tool.
Interoperability During Mass Casualty Incidents
During a mass casualty incident, response agencies must be able to communicate in real-time. This means that interoperability plans need to include everyone involved in the response. One lesson learned from past incidents is that hospitals are an often overlooked “responder.” Learn what one agency is doing to close this gap in the Washington, DC, region.
Trending
Bridging Communication Gaps: Lessons from Hurricane Helene Hurricanes in 2024 caused widespread damage to infrastructure, leading to a critical but often overlooked issue: isolation. Physical and technological…
Agroterrorism: A Persistent but Overlooked Threat Agroterrorism is not new. Considered a subset of bioterrorism, it has become an increasing concern to the U.S. With so…
A Systems Thinking Approach to Improving Emergency… “PACE” planning helps organizations fail gracefully, but systems thinking reduces the likelihood of failure altogether. Combining both approaches helps organizations…
Disaster Stress Management in an Emergency Operations Center Disasters affect responders and community members, but they also bring trauma to those working inside emergency operations centers. Distance from…Trending
A Systems Thinking Approach to Improving Emergency… “PACE” planning helps organizations fail gracefully, but systems thinking reduces the likelihood of failure altogether. Combining both approaches helps organizations…Disaster Stress Management in an Emergency Operations Center Disasters affect responders and community members, but they also bring trauma to those working inside emergency operations centers. Distance from…Bridging Communication Gaps: Lessons from Hurricane Helene Hurricanes in 2024 caused widespread damage to infrastructure, leading to a critical but often overlooked issue: isolation. Physical and technological…Agroterrorism: A Persistent but Overlooked Threat Agroterrorism is not new. Considered a subset of bioterrorism, it has become an increasing concern to the U.S. With so…Domestic Preparedness Journal
Featured in this issue: Editor’s Note: Hazards That Can Affect the Mind, Body, and Outcome, by Catherine L. Feinman; A Holistic Strategy for Responders’ Well-Being, by Camilo Olivieri; Disaster Stress Management in an Emergency Operations Center, by Mary Schoenfeldt; Physical and Mental Injuries in First Responders: Why Wait?, by Pascal Rodier; Not Lost in Translation: A Multilingual Corps Approach, by Diana Sanchez-Vega; Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Child Survivors, by Emily Heard; Psychosocial Hazards: Preventing Human-Caused Disasters, by I. David Daniels; Caring for the Affected at Family Assistance Centers, by Jennifer Stansberry Miller; How I Became an Accidental Disaster Mental Health Specialist, by Adrienne J. Heinz; Podcast – Seasonal Forecasts & Their Limitations With Dr. Philip Klotzbach
Articles Out Loud
Article Out Loud – Managing Animal Loss: Emergency Carcass Operations
June 11, 2025
This is an article by Joshua Dise and Marshal Wilson, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, June 11, 2025.
Article Out Loud – Why Emergency Management Is a Good Career for Transitioning Veterans
June 11, 2025
This is an article by Mathew Perrill, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, June 11, 2025. For many service
