Preparedness and Communications

Hundreds of people called 911 last week when they had no heat in their homes because the power was out.

Chatham Emergency Management Agency will conduct a full-scale exercise March 26 at the Coastal Georgia Center and the Savannah Civic Center. This exercise will test the Evacuation Assembly Area plan for the county.

The need for preparedness was driven home last month, when a charter bus carrying the Stanford University track team burst into flames on northbound Interstate 5 near Columbian Way. What if a vehicle catches fire in the tunnel?

The protocol for when a certain EMS base is unable to respond to a call for dispatch to reach out to the second-closest ambulance. On a non-emergent call, dispatch’s policy is to wait four minutes before calling the second-closest ambulance.

Part of the reason for the disconnect, at least in Rhode Island and neighboring states, is that the region hasn't been hit hard or in a widespread manner by a hurricane or other extreme weather event in recent years.

Atlanta will reap the benefits of the Big Game and all that comes with added bandwidth to assure law enforcement will have sustained interoperability, even during a crisis.

'No one is interested in putting our residents at risk, but we need to look at ways to better support businesses and non-profits in seismically upgrading their buildings.'

Wednesday marked the first day of the three-day pop-up warming center organized by a group of churches in New Kensington and neighboring areas.

Police, fire, road commission and ambulance personnel, though, braved the below-zero temperatures and frostbite conditions for the second consecutive day to keep residents safe Wednesday, Jan. 30.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled across the Midwest on Wednesday. At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, over 600 flights — about half of the flights originating from the airport — were cancelled and over 600 flights into O'Hare were also cancelled, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

'The snow event itself, the high winds, mixed with the extremely cold temperatures are the things we need to be concerned about.'

The record low temperatures spurred dire warnings from meteorologists, widespread closures of schools and businesses and led to a disaster proclamation from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said a wide variety of state resources will be available to help communities affected by the winter storms and bitter cold weather.

Air temperatures from zero to 20 degrees below, with wind chills of 20 to 55 degrees below, are possible into early Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

The state of emergency authorizes the adjutant general of the Wisconsin National Guard to call up military personnel to active duty if the need arises, and for all state agencies to be available if called on.

Destructive wildfires in Paradise, wine country, Ventura County and other areas have prompted California lawmakers to consider new ways to improve regulatory oversight and hold utilities more accountable for prevention.