Preparedness

Law enforcement officers in South Dakota recently learned that they can now connect with behavioral health professionals for personal support any time of the day or night.

In 2022, the county named the two commissions to follow up on a comprehensive study of the county's public safety services. The study, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, began in 2020.

As hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes grow in strength and frequency, first responders are increasingly adopting new digital tools like drones and integrated dispatch systems to improve response.

The Jeffersonville Police Department currently has a mobile command center that's more than 30 years old. Its replacement would be used for critical events, natural disasters and to assist other communities if needed.

On Friday afternoon, Scott Appleby, the city's director of emergency management said the Tradebe facility had a large explosion after a driver opened a valve while delivering about 4,000 gallons of "low-grade oxidizer."

The alerts are used when a law enforcement officer is either killed or seriously injured and the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the incident believes the suspects pose threats to the public or other officers.

“Maintaining and modernizing this infrastructure is core to ensuring system resiliency through our day-to-day needs and also ensuring that we’re resilient through droughts, including natural and manmade disasters.”

By the end of the blizzard, many hospitals were scraping by on food, with some reliant on community donations from grocers and restaurants. Clean linens were hard to come by.

With the impacts from climate change, in some areas there is now a higher concentration of rain in a shorter period of time and stormwater systems, typically in the West and Northeast, are being overwhelmed.

"It's certainly not unique to Orange County that an animal response team feels it doesn't have the resources to meet its current efforts," said William Burke, associate director of planning for the California Veterinary Emergency Team.

The grant is part of Gov. Maura Healey's ongoing commitment to ensure communities across the state are safe. The funding is going to support nine other communities' municipal police and fire services as well.

According to the Department of Emergency Management, San Francisco's 911 call dispatchers answered just 72% of calls within 15 seconds in October, the latest month available. That's the lowest share of any month in the last six years.

The National Weather Service issue a high-wind warning for most of eastern Massachusetts until 7 p.m. Monday, though peak winds are expected to cease around 2 p.m.

One New York State Mesonet station in Tannersville had recorded 4.3 inches of rain before 8 a.m. Monday, with that amount expected to rise as the storm lingers over the area through the early afternoon.

The bill initially required schools to hire either a trained, armed school police officer, a school resource officer or a school security guard for every school building, but was scaled back because of cost concerns.

Police told Channel 2 that three people were fighting when things escalated to gunfire. One man was detained at the scene, but it’s not clear if he is considered a suspect.

FEMA’s National Preparedness Report analyzed data from 2022 and looked at trends from previous decades to identify risk factors from large-scale disasters and cyber threats, as well as gaps in individual and household preparedness.

Researchers found that they could use generative AI to extract location data from tweets sent during Hurricane Harvey that would help first responders find exact locations for stranded residents.