GOV. MALLOY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF CONNECTICUT EMERGENCY ALERT MOBILE APP

‘CT Prepares’ Mobile App Provides Residents with Emergency Alerts and other Useful Resources

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(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced the launch of a new emergency preparedness mobile application for Connecticut residents that provides information and alerts in emergency situation, and also helps residents prepare in advance of an emergency.

 

The “CT Prepares” app, which can be downloaded to most smartphones, incorporates and integrates text messaging, email, and social networking, allowing residents to communicate with family members during an emergency.  Real-Time notifications including emergency news, state office closings, and University Safety messages can be sent directly to the device, providing up-to-the-minute information for residents.

 

“We are constantly planning and constantly preparing to remain one step ahead of potential emergency situations.  This is yet another tool in our goal to be as resilient as we can be as a state.  As we have seen in past storms and emergency situations, communication is critical.  The CT Prepares app will no doubt help us in that effort by providing residents with critical information during emergencies.  I encourage residents to download this app to their mobile devices,” Governor Malloy said.

 

“With just a keystroke, anyone can download the CT Prepares app to their mobile devices and in a matter of a minute, be better prepared for any disaster or emergency they may face,” Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) Commissioner Dora Schriro said.  “And that’s especially important as we approach the height of this year’s hurricane season in Connecticut.”

 

Other features of the app include:

 

• Send an “I’m Safe” message to contacts via email, text, and social networks
• View real-time alerts for emergencies, weather and traffic
• View current and extended National Weather Service forecasts based on current location
• Access Connecticut Emergency Management Agency news and events
• View emergency preparation guides for different types of emergencies
• Locate Connecticut Emergency Management contacts and other useful emergency resources

 

The app can be downloaded for free from the iTunes Apple Store for Apple devices and Google Play for Android devices by searching the keyword “CT Prepares.”  It was developed jointly by DESPP and Connecticut Interactive.

 

 

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For Immediate Release: August 9, 2016

Governor Dannel P. Malloy is reminding Connecticut residents that as the state is experiencing its first heat wave of the summer, cooling centers are open in towns and cities throughout the state and can be located by calling 2-1-1.

Read More: http://portal.ct.gov/Departments_and_Agencies/Office_of_the_Governor/Press_Room/Press_Releases/2016/07-2016/Gov__Malloy_Reminds_Residents_Nearby_Cooling_Centers_Can_Be_Located_by_Calling_2-1-1/

Facebook: Office of Governor Dannel P. Malloy
Twitter: @GovMalloyOffice

GOV. MALLOY CONTINUES TO REMIND THOSE IN CONNECTICUT ON JULY 4^TH WEEKEND: IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING

 

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy urged residents to be safe during the July 4^th weekend. With the recent attacks that occurred in Turkey earlier this week, the state, the Connecticut Intelligence Center, and its partners at the local, state and federal levels are continuing to monitor domestic and international information. Should residents witness any suspicious behavior, they should report it.

 

“The new normal is continuous vigilance. At the state level, we’re doing just that. But the public is a critical partner to law enforcement, so as the saying goes, if you see something, say something,” Governor Malloy said.  “There are currently no credible threats to Connecticut, but we can never be complacent. That’s why this July 4^th weekend, we are urging all residents to be aware of their surroundings, report questionable behavior, and notify law enforcement authorities immediately if they witness any suspicious activity.”

 

Connecticut’s Homeland Security Tip Line can be contacted via telephone at 1-866-HLS-TPS (1-866-457-8477), via email at ctic@ct.gov, and via the web at www.ct.gov/demhs/sar.  If immediate attention is necessary, people should call 9-1-1 and inform the operator about what they saw and what struck them as concerning.

 

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For Immediate Release: July 1, 2016

UConn’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is excited to announce that the Emergency Hazard Guide can now be accessed through the myUCONN App! OEM collaborated closely with University Information Technology Services to bring this new feature to the UConn community. To access the new information on the app:

• Download the myUCONN App: http://mobile.uconn.edu/
• Open the app on your device
• Tap on the “Emergency” button
• Tap on the “Hazard Guide”

The Emergency Hazard Guide provides general guidance on how to prepare for and respond to different types of emergencies. The app can also be accessed via your web browser at my.uconn.edu. In addition to access to the Emergency Hazard Guide, UConnALERT sends emergency alerts to the myUCONN App. Ensure you enable push notifications from the app to get the most current emergency alerts from the University to the app.

Please contact OEM with any questions at 860-486-5174 or oem@uconn.edu. The Emergency Hazard Guide can be accessed online at oem.uconn.edu as well.

UConn’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) would like to inform the UConn Community that it is the National Weather Service’s Hurricane Preparedness Week. The week’s theme follows seven major steps:

• Determine your risk
• Develop an evacuation plan
• Secure an insurance check-up
• Assemble disaster supplies
• Strengthen your home
• Identify trusted sources of information for a hurricane event
• Complete your written hurricane plan

OEM encourages all to visit the Weather-Ready Nation’s website for more information:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/hurricane_preparedness.html#prepweek

By Tom Breen

If everything goes according to plan, you may not even notice UConn’s Office of Emergency Management.

It’s not always the giant, front page news-type events we deal with. — Chris Renshaw

The office, part of the Division of University Safety and fully staffed since January, is responsible for planning and coordinating the University’s preparedness and response to a dizzying array of situations, ranging from the annual rite of move-in weekend to routine disruptions like winter storms, all the way to potentially deadly hazards. It’s a huge undertaking that requires speed, efficiency, and flexibility – and mostly happens behind the scenes.

“It’s not always the giant, front page news-type events we deal with,” UConn Fire Captain Chris Renshaw, the Fire Department’s liaison to the office, says. “Emergency management is a way of coordinating the University’s response to everything from power outages to the spring concert.”

Although emergency preparedness had long been a part of the Division of University Safety’s mandate, it was relatively recently that the University realized that to effectively carry out that charge, a separate office was needed. Any given incident can require action from a huge range of diverse units at UConn, from Facilities to Transportation to Athletics to the Police Department. Bringing them all together, and coordinating an effective response to an incident that could last hours or even days, is something that can’t be handled on a catch-as-catch-can basis.

 

That’s where the new office – in which Renshaw works with UConn Police Lt. Christopher Casa and emergency management specialists Blaize Levitan and Mary Rose Duberek – comes in.

“We’ve become the central collaborative point for operations, administration, and academics to be on the same page for preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery of a significant event that affects not only UConn but the communities that surround us,” Renshaw says.

While most of OEM’s work happens in the background of daily events, the office has embraced the opportunity to help the broader public prepare for emergencies – whether that means students, faculty, or neighbors in the surrounding town.

The division’s web page, http://publicsafety.uconn.edu/emergency/, is a recently launched resource packed with information on responding to specific hazards, making plans for general preparedness, a glossary for some of the common emergency operations terminology that may sound strange to the uninitiated, and more.

Particularly important to the office’s approach, Renshaw says, are the individual parts of the site intended for specific audiences: students, parents, faculty and staff, and community partners.

“A critical incident doesn’t affect everyone in the exact same way, so we wanted to take a more holistic approach to preparedness, and really consider all the different stakeholders,” he says.

As a result, there are guides specifically for – for example – businesses, places of worship, and neighbors, while other information is tailored for the needs of students.

 

The office has also launched a safety and awareness campaign – called UConnREADY – that incorporates everything from social media to posters in residence halls and public spaces, all to promote a greater understanding of the importance of being ready for the unexpected.

So far, the office has been active in events ranging from winter weather to the victory celebration that followed the women’s basketball team’s record-breaking 11th national championship, and Renshaw says the dividends of the new approach are already apparent.

“We can’t develop plans at a snail’s pace if they need to be used in an emergency tomorrow,” he says. “We’ve built an office based on the understanding that, because of the nature of the work, it’s important to do things right the first time.”

Link to original article: UConn Today

UConn’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) recently hosted a Sport and Special Event Evacuation Training and Exercise course at the Storrs campus on March 8 and 9. The course was put on by TEEX, Texas A&M Engineering’s Extension Service. This branch of TEEX is federally funded by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The multidisciplinary audience spent two days reviewing best practices regarding the preparation and implementation of a venue evacuation plan. The following topics were covered:

• The importance of a well-defined approach to planning and managing an evacuation using the Incident Command System (ICS) within the National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework
• The essential components of developing an evacuation plan
• The concepts of planning and implementing an evacuation plan for sport venues
• The effective measures that ensure the evacuation emergency plan reflects the current operation strategies, organizational structures, and methodologies utilized by evacuation personnel
• Participation in a training exercise involving key partners and evaluate outcomes in order to address gaps and ensure an increasing level of preparedness for evacuations

UConn’s OEM was excited to host this training and is always exploring new educational opportunities for the Division of University Safety and the rest of our University partners.

March 15, 2016 (Falls Church, Va.) – Members of the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the premier international professional association representing more than 5,000 professional emergency managers worldwide, including more than 4,200 in the United States, believe there is serious confusion and misunderstanding of the use of the term “emergency manager” in the press and public related to the Flint, Michigan, water situation. Traditional emergency managers focus on preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters or crisis situations. The term “emergency manager” has been used to describe those in the business of saving lives, protecting property, and restoring communities for more than 40 years.

“One thing must be made absolutely clear:  the term ‘emergency manager’ in the Flint, Michigan, situation refers to a fiscal-only function that bears no relationship to the term as it is commonly and universally used on a national and an international basis,” stated Robie Robinson, IAEM-USA president. “In the context of the Flint situation, emergency managers are actually municipal ‘emergency financial managers’ (EFMs) established by the Michigan legislature and appointed by the governor to oversee jurisdictions in Michigan that are threatened with financial insolvency.”

The use of the term “emergency manager” to describe these appointed financial managers in Michigan has generated an incredible amount of dangerous confusion for the public, especially since the Flint issue has now become a national story. Dedicated emergency managers across the country now are being forced to address questions that underline a misguided sense of concern about the role of an emergency manager.  Unfortunately, an impression is beginning to take shape that emergency managers exist to “cut budgets and reduce costs at the expense of community safety and security,” Robinson noted, when indeed the exact opposite is true. “This confusion is damaging community confidence in real emergency managers both in and out of Michigan, and in doing so it is making our communities more vulnerable,” concluded Robinson.

IAEM urges all media, members of government, and other leaders to educate the public, and help clarify that, in Michigan, an individual who is appointed to oversee a governmental body or jurisdiction because it is threatened with financial insolvency is not an “emergency manager,” but rather an “emergency financial manager.” Further, real emergency managers work every day in support of University Safety agencies, local volunteer and service organizations, businesses, the media, and everyone in between, striving to build relationships in their communities to help keep people safe. They cannot do this without the trust of the people they serve.

Source: IAEM

Overnight outage affects four dorms across campus

By Mike Tommins

 

 

For some, the morning of Thursday, Feb. 25 began with a strange noise of a reset alarm clock. For others, their lights went out during a late night cram-session. But most students probably woke up to morning whispers or social media messages about an incident that passed unnoticed in the night.

Just before 1:30 a.m., the high winds of the thunderstorm damaged circuit #3, which caused power outages along North Eagleville Road and Route 195, including North Campus, Towers, Husky Village and East Campus.

The exact cause of the outage remains unknown, but natural forces during storms often cause damage to the power grid. Windswept debris, falling branches and direct lightning strikes are common storm hazards that are not easily preventable.

“In this particular outage, there were no electrical fires or electrical emergencies reported to the fire department,” Deputy Chief Gregory Priest said. The UConn Fire Department (UCFD) did assist, Priest said, by playing a “supportive role to our partners in Facilities.”

Their first objective was to establish situational awareness by becoming a part of an Incident Management System (IMS). The IMS provides a structure for centralized information distribution and decision making.

In this case, UCFD’s Command Staff and Office of Emergency Management responded to the Division for University Safety’s Emergency Operations Center.

“The staff that make up the Emergency Operations Team is dependent on the incident,” said Christopher Renshaw Captain of the OEM. The roster for a laboratory outage may be different than the one for a residence hall blackout.

The next support step includes, “verifying the function of emergency egress lights, and ensuring that the fire alarm systems are functioning on battery power,” Priest said.

To repower the circuit, Facilities Operations and Building Services (FOBS) was contacted by the Fire department and immediately activated their Emergency Response Team. They worked side by side the crew of Eversource, the utility company that helps power the university.

“It was a fantastic effort and partnership between our crews,” Associate Vice President of FOBS Mike Jednak said, “especially in the wee small hours of the night.”

The partnership worked for four hours until 5:30 am, when they fully restored power to the circuit. No other significant issues were caused by the power outage, and classes began as scheduled.

Despite the unpredictable nature of lightning storms, FOBS performs, “preventative maintenance to the entire electrical infrastructure to minimize risk,” Jednak said.

To help incident response, FOBS has a phone request service, the Work Order Control Center (WOCC).

For emergencies, students should call in a Facilities Emergency to 860-486-3113.  According to the WOCC’s webpage, “an immediate or imminent threat to life, or severe property damage,” is assigned Priority code #1, the highest level of request.

Link to original article: Daily Campus

The Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM) website has been updated to incorporate essential training on the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS).  This training, which is both a federal standard and best practice for incident management, will improve our University’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergency incidents. All UConn staff and faculty are encouraged to follow the links to FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute and take the online introductory courses. OEM is the central hub for tracking the University’s NIMS competency. If you are a faculty or staff member of the University of Connecticut, please forward your NIMS/ICS certificates to oem@uconn.edu.

 

Please visit our NIMS and ICS page for more information.