Baltimore-area campaign to boost community preparedness | 07.11.2006 | 07:17:58 | Views: 5529 | ID: July 11 '06: The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs is working with several Baltimore-area organizations to promote citizen preparedness through a campaign called Ready? Set? Good, the Johns Hopkins Gazette reported Monday. Using public service announcements on TV, radio and print ads, "the campaign will urge everyone to have an emergency supply kit on hand with a radio, flashlight and water (one gallon per person per day for three days)." James Williams, the associate director at the CCP said, "Having these supplies on hand will help them better cope during the first three days, while the first responders are busy addressing other aspects of a crisis." The CCP is working with the Baltimore Urban Area Security Initiative which was designed to help create a response and evacuation plan for disabled and infirmed residents. The Baltimore UASI also provides "channels ... to combine expert knowledge from both the emergency and disability communities to develop practical and realistic approaches to preparing for emergencies and responding to them." According to research conducted by the CCP and Baltimore UASI, "half of those surveyed [in Baltimore] felt insecure and were more concerned about man-made disasters, such as terrorism," the Gazette reported. "Respondents want to be better prepared, and more than 90 percent said having these three basic supplies (flashlight, radio and water) on hand would be helpful in the case of an emergency." The Ready? Set? Good campaign is sponsored by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, a city-wide and area multi agency cooperative which is working to establish a broad preparedness foundation. The BMC also works with the Maryland Department of Emergency Management to "conduct table-top exercises and simulated emergency drills to test" the response capabilities of the metro area's first responders. Those efforts were furthered in 2002 when the BMC signed and Emergency Assistance Compact with representatives of Harford County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Howard County, and Anne Arundel County to enhance and provide "mutual assistance among the six member jurisdictions in managing a state of emergency."
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