Emergency Preparedness

bfwebster on October 30th, 2007

[UPDATED 11/01/07 0734 PDT] – The San Diego Union-Tribune has an excellent article by Alex Roth and Mark Sauer discussing to what extent government agencies handled things better this time than back in 2003. It particularly notes the need for more fire stations (with matching firefighters and equipment) to meet the risk of large-scale fires [...]

Continue reading about San Diego Fires post-mortem: the government

Bruce Henderson on October 29th, 2007

I have to confess, ever since our community was saved by some brave guys who decided to jump in front of an inferno, I have been thinking about the kinds of problems they face. Now word comes that some clever folks have combined some off the shelf technology to create a “Smart Suit” that mashes [...]

Continue reading about Rescue Tech – Smart Suit Gives First Responder Geopositioning

bfwebster on October 26th, 2007

As per BruceH’s morning post, things are cooling down, literally and figuratively. There are still a few small communities under threat, but we no longer face the prospect of having Chula Vista, La Mesa, and/or Del Mar go up in smoke. This is the second major set of fires that San Diego has endured in [...]

Continue reading about The fire next time

Bruce Henderson on October 25th, 2007

Photo credit SD Union Tribune The fires in San Diego County are still burning, but the worst has probably passed. At last count over 1,000 homes had burned in the fire, and word from the Union Tribune is that the first permit to rebuild was filed this morning. Prior to the fires, one of the [...]

Continue reading about The Blessing Under The Ashes

Bruce Henderson on October 2nd, 2007

I will confess I am a lucky man. I was fortunate enough to marry a woman who is in many ways as nerdy as I am, which makes so many aspects of a technical life a lot easier. Thanks to her, we now know of LiveScience.com’s top 10 ways to destroy the Earth! 10. Total [...]

Continue reading about Destroying The Earth – No Easy Task

Gerard Van der Leun, one of the finest American writers posting regularly on the net these days, talks some important upgrades to his “go bag” (as in “grab and go” in case of a natural or man-made disaster): ABOUT QUARTER TO NINE this serene Sunday morning, as I was sitting down and wondering what to [...]

Continue reading about What to remember for your 72-hour emergency preparedness kit

Bruce Henderson on March 2nd, 2007

For all of you burka fans out there (short German intro with a song)

Continue reading about And Now For Something Completely Different

bfwebster on December 28th, 2006

Given that Colorado is, for the second time in as many weeks, in a declared state of emergency — and I, of course, am in the declared state of Colorado — I thought this might be a good time to join in the discussion that’s been going on around the blogosphere during the past year [...]

Continue reading about Some Thoughts on Emergency Preparedness