Preparedness

Among the recommendations of the task force is for the city to improve its winter safety public service announcements by having the city partner with Charter Communications to do several announcements about winter safety.

Riptides and the growing threat of sharks can make swimming dangerous, even deadly, at the popular beaches in Atlantic City, N.J. A new drone program aims to increase safety for beachgoers when lifeguards aren’t on duty.

No tropical storm watch or warning has been issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is expected to receive between one and two inches of rain over the weekend, with a possible maximum of four inches.

The alert buzzed the phones of some MyShakeApp users and jolted many awake at 3:19 a.m. Thursday, seven hours before an alert was planned for 10:19 a.m. as part of International ShakeOut Day.

In FEMA’s desire to focus more on disadvantaged communities, the BRIC and FMA projects aim to deliver 40 percent of their overall benefits to communities that are “marginalized, overburdened by pollution and underserved.”

“Our overall assessment of the initial response (that is, in the seconds after the initial call and prior to other agencies mounting a response effort) by MSU police officers is that the response was appropriate, timely and correct."

The investigation and evidence "indicate that track-train dynamics worsened a rail head surface condition until a complete sectional break out of the rail head occurred" underneath the train, according to the report synopsis.

"There were many reasons the county initiated the study. With the greater occurrence of emergencies due to climate change, we want to make sure we are staffed and organized to best serve our community in the future."

Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security and Illinois State Police are watching for potential threats in Illinois, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has been in contact with White House officials.

Virginia Tech provides information that anyone of any age and with any degree of technical expertise can use to help protect themselves from attacks that have gotten more sophisticated over the years.

Healthcare Ready has relaunched its website with new tools to help the public, the health-care sector and emergency managers to keep up with disasters and other health matters, including making it mobile friendly.

Citywide, violent crime has declined nearly 7% compared with this time last year, with 1,650 fewer incidents reported as of Sept. 30. And yet, grisly murders and wild police chases still lead nightly TV newscasts.

Realizing the challenge, the San Jose Police Department has committed considerable effort to teaching its officers to handle these situations, becoming a national leader when it required all of its officers to undergo specialized crisis intervention training beginning in 2017.

IUP spokeswoman Michelle Fryling confirmed that the party at the Chevy Chase Community Center was not affiliated with the university, but she added that at least two IUP students were injured.

Wednesday’s combined test from FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission included the Wireless Emergency Alerts, or WEA, and the Emergency Alert System, or EAS. Messages were sent to cellphones, televisions and radios at about 2:20 p.m. ET.

In a survey of 2,000 law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical personnel, 43 percent said they expect that drones and other robotics will be a major part of their arsenal within five years.

“This legislation, more than anything seeks to avert ... a violent situation where you have somebody that doesn’t have any experience on the scene and, because of that, we have a loss of life.”

Remembered by many names — Winter Storm Atlas, The Cattleman's Blizzard, The Great Blizzard of 2013 or The Shutdown Blizzard — the historic weather of Oct. 3-5, 2013, was a seminal event in South Dakota history.