Over the past few years, there has been a great deal of unease about how well schools might be prepared for any number of emergency situations. Recently, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released this paper on the status of school districts' planning and preparedness. The 25-page document was released in May 2007, and while the report features some positive findings, all of the news is not good...

Number of Rare E. Coli Cases in U.S. Rose Last Year http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/08food.html Economic costs of E. Coli outbreak http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/economic-costs-of-e-coli-outbreak/16ifpbqes EU boosts E. Coli compensation offer for farmers http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15141284,00.html Q&A: E. Coli...

With a broad mission, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are involved in everything from disaster response and management to capacity building all over the globe. As one might expect, visitors to the site can learn about some of their more well-known programs in the "Get Involved" area on the homepage. Their homepage is also an excellent place to learn about some...

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks increased this country's expectations for future threats and attacks, thereby creating a new urgency for emergency preparedness. At the request of New York's fire and police departments, McKinsey and Company spent several months working with both departments' personnel to develop recommendations for structural changes that could enhance their preparedness...

The goal of ReliefWeb is to provide "reliable and relevant humanitarian information and analysis" and "help [people] make sense of humanitarian crises worldwide." ReliefWeb is administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and was started in 1996. The "Countries & Emergencies" tab across the top of the page allows visitors to choose countries on a...

Authored by Jennifer Brower and Peter Chalk, working on behalf of the RAND Corporation, this 140-page online book explores an in-depth analysis of the security implications posed by the dissemination of various infectious diseases. Throughout the work, the authors draw on two case studies, namely the HIV/ AIDS epidemic in South Africa and the public health response system within the United States....

Recently announced by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), this site offers fast and easy access to recent fact sheets and updates from the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). These are accessed via pull-down menus organized by country and emergency. For example, there are separate entries for floods and Cyclone Hudah for Southern Africa. The bulletins are presented in...