Community-Based Preparedness

Written by Richard Harris: Medical marijuana appears to have put a dent in the opioid abuse epidemic, according to two studies published Monday. The research suggests that some people turn to marijuana as a way to treat their pain, and by so doing, avoid more dangerous addictive drugs. The…

Los Angeles Times: Coachella police have deployed drones at the two-weekend-long music festival that attracts over 125,000 individuals each weekend. Following the Las Vegas music festival attack that left 58 individuals dead, over 14 federal agencies and local law enforcement have beefed up…

With climate change increasing the frequency of so-called "hundred-year storms," northeastern cities, like Boston, are suffering from a near constant bombardment of catastrophic winter storms. City officials in Boston have recognized the increased risk of these types of storms, but little has been…

According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 13 million Americans live within a 100-year flood plain zone which is an area with a 1% chance of flooding during a given year. However, a new study published in the Environmental Research Letters shows that this number has likely…

In one of the biggest migration crises in Latin American history, thousands of people are fleeing the political instability of Venezuela. With thousands of Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia, the tensions between the two nations are rising. On a level comparable to the Syrian refuge crisis, nearly 1…

According to this Telegraph article, Bill Gates warned world leaders at the Munich Security Conference of the often underestimated risks of bioterrorism. Because of rapid advances in genetic engineering, using biological weapons can easily lead to a pandemic. Gates’ foundation is currently funding…

BBC News- Recently, Cape Town, South Africa was in the news as a result of a severe drought causing economic hardship on the city due to the low level of water supply. However, Cape Town is just one example of the growing water scarcity issue on the planet. According to the UN, fresh water supply…

Texas Tribune: Months before Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, an updated disaster preparedness plan was approved. Unfortunately, when the disaster hit many of the protocols made in the plan were not able to be carried out. Resources ran extremely low and emergency-official response time was slow.…

Harvard Business Review: The risk of intelligent devices will soon be greater than the risk posed by natural disasters, according to the article. Our growing dependence on artificial intelligence (AI) is pointing more and more towards the possibility of large-scale shutdowns. Natural disaster…

New York Times: There was a record increase in the number of new earthquake insurance customers this past year, according to the earthquake authority. The issue with this significant increase is that earthquake insurance companies have to buy more reinsurance, the insurance they buy for themselves,…

Africa News: A study center devoted to the prevention of terrorism, specifically the de-radicalization of jihadists has opened in the Chadian capital, N’djamena. Ahmed Ayong, a scholar and anthropologist at the Cameroon Institute of International Relations has facilitated this initiative with the…

The Verge: The Gulf of Alaska recently experienced a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. Tsunami warnings were issued, causing many to flee from their homes. These warnings were later cancelled after waves were less than a foot high. This type of earthquake is known as a strike-slip quake, and is less prone…

A Tuesday morning shooting at a Kentucky high school, which killed two students and left eighteen others injured, marks the 11th school shooting in 2018. The suspect was taken into custody at the scene, but his identity has not been released by authorities. As of now, 19 states require schools to…

"Tokyo became the latest Japanese city to hold missile evacuation drills on Monday, in preparation for a possible attack from North Korea." But not everyone is in favor of the drills. Protestors of the evacuation drills have said that the drills are nothing but fear mongering tactics. Read the full…