Mother Nature is causing all kinds of trouble across the country with extreme heat, flash flooding and wildfires affecting millions of people. The American Red Cross urges people to download the Red Cross Emergency app to help them stay safe and connected during severe weather and other threats.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced that it has licensed the Radio Internet-Protocol Communications Module to two commercial partners. This solution allows response agencies to upgrade and reconfigure legacy communications systems and potentially extend the life of the technology for decades.
In this current economic climate, where state and local government budgets are strained, expectations and demands on emergency response agencies and organizations continue to grow. Amid the threat of budget cuts, the nation's first responders increasingly rely on alternative solutions and grant funding to address its needs.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announces that its Board of Directors has authorized management to pursue a tax-free spin-off of the company's Biosciences business into a separate, stand-alone publicly-traded company. The new Biosciences company, to be named at a later date, will focus on providing novel oncology and hematology therapeutics to meaningfully improve patients' lives.
The NOAA Climate Prediction Center's updated 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook calls for a 90 percent chance of a below-normal hurricane season. A below-normal season is now even more likely than predicted in May, when the likelihood of a below-normal season was 70 percent.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the technology landscape. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has launched a pilot, the Incident Management Information Sharing Internet of Things Pilot, to apply IoT to the challenge of vastly improving responders' situational awareness during emergencies.
The U.S. Geological Survey has awarded approximately $4 million to support transitioning the "ShakeAlert" earthquake early warning system toward a production stage. A functioning early warning system offers people a precious few seconds to stop what they are doing and take precautions before the severe shaking waves from an earthquake arrive.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced awards of nearly $110 million to help strengthen state and community capacity to track and respond to infectious diseases. The $13 million increase over fiscal year 2014 funding will go to vaccine-preventable-disease surveillance, foodborne-disease prevention, advanced molecular detection, and other projects.
Just as the National Guard provides warfighting forces for the Army and Air Force and help during state and federal emergencies, Guardsmen now are ramping up their role in the nation's escalating cybersecurity fight, according to the chief of the National Guard Bureau.
As part of the Administration's efforts to create an interoperable learning health system that achieves better care, smarter spending, and healthier people, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced 20 awardees for three health information technology grant programs totaling about $38 million.
