Before, During & After Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

This summer, we launched a four-part series in support of FEMA's #SummerReady campaign, where we're exploring the effects of extreme heat and how collaboration among local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal partners can lead to more educated communities. In this fourth and final episode of the #SummerReady campaign, we'll dive a little deeper into how FEMA grants are being used to address extreme temperatures and mitigate risks posed by natural hazards.

This summer has been hot. We're seeing some of the hottest days on record, and the extreme heat is without borders impacting not just the United States, but countries across the globe. So welcome back to episode number three of our four-part series in support of FEMA's Summer Ready campaign, where we're exploring the effects of extreme heat and how collaboration among local, state, tribal, and federal partners can lead to more educated communities. Heat and extreme heat continues to impact communities across the globe. We've seen more frequent events and cascading disasters over the past few years. Staying ahead of them requires we review our response plans regularly and adjust as needed, but also think in both short and long terms to ensure a whole community approach to keeping people safe. With that in mind, and as individuals are experiencing more frequent and extreme heat waves, which we've seen throughout this summer. On this episode, we will discuss one state's innovative effort to keep residents safe from extreme temperatures. California recently launched one of the nation's first statewide multi-ethnic awareness and education campaigns designed to keep Californians safe during extreme heat. So in this episode, we'll learn all about what it means to be heat ready in California.

Our nation's, roads, waterways, hospitals, and utilities support the millions of activities that people conduct each day to transact business, travel, communicate with friends and family, maintain health and safety and more. They also include the venues where people gather to learn, worship, shop or find entertainment. In other words, the heart of our communities. These are all examples of our nation's critical infrastructure system. One of FEMA's sister agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is focused on protecting these systems. Its office for bombing prevention leads efforts to protect life and critical infrastructure from specific threats. They also work to prevent, protect against, respond to and mitigate, improvise explosive device incidents, or IEDs. FEMA works hand in hand with CISA to support our consequence management missions for all events. On this episode, we explore how the Office of Bombing Prevention is supporting our communities and emergency managers as they work to understand this threat landscape.

Disasters are devastating on multiple levels. Every year, our communities are affected by disasters which disrupt the mental health and wellbeing of millions of Americans. While the psychological effects of disasters on survivors and communities is well documented, the effects on responders can be dramatic. First responders, state and local officials, FEMA and other federal agencies work tirelessly in the aftermath of natural or manmade disasters to support survivors. This work often goes on for weeks, months, and sometimes years. For FEMA, supporting our employees' mental health is critical to creating a strong and resilient workforce. On this episode, we focus on the many ways we are supporting our employees through the stresses of our work as emergency managers.

Heat and Extreme heat continue to impact communities across the globe. We've seen more frequent events and cascading disasters over the past few years. Staying ahead of them requires that we review our response plans regularly and make adjustments as needed, but also think in terms of both the short and long term to ensure a whole community approach to keeping people safe. With that in mind, this episode is the second of a four-part series. In support of FEMA's Summer Ready campaign, we're exploring the effects of extreme heat and how collaboration amongst state, local, tribal, and federal partners can lead to more educated communities. Specifically on this episode, we talk through how emergency managers can identify impacts, gaps, and challenges that extreme heat has on our critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, and railways, and how we can all collectively increase awareness, provide resources, and make our communities more resilient.

Heat and extreme heat continue to impact communities across the globe. We've seen more frequent events and cascading disasters over the past few years. Staying ahead of them requires we review our response plans regularly and make adjustments as needed, but also think about both the short and long-term to ensure a whole community approach to keeping people safe. With that in mind, this episode is the first of a four-part series. In support of FEMA's Summer Ready campaign, we're exploring the effects of extreme heat and how collaborating among local, state, tribal, federal partners can lead to more educated communities. On this episode, we will recap FEMA's recent monumental agency-wide Extreme Heat Summit hosted in Chicago and discuss the events and the impacts for how FEMA will address extreme heat events and our look towards resilience efforts. We also discuss our upcoming Summer Ready campaign to provide awareness and education for high temperatures.