Friday Roundup – Pets, power outages and MONEY!

The summer weather here on the west coast has finally arrived.  We are basking in 20 degree temperatures after enduring a June that did not reach the high teens more than once or twice.  Natural disasters have struck across our fair country from flooding in the interior of BC to wildfires in Northern Ontario.  Emergency preparedness is being driven home time and time again.  This weeks round up includes our pets, a couple of companies that lack essential emergency preparedness and money, money, money by the pound.

What about fifi and fido?  Or fluffy and kitty?  As much as we prepare for our families and loved ones for an unexpected emergency, we must not forget our pets.  AdoptaPet.com blogged about emergency preparedness and your pet  and have come up with a number of  recommendations that all pet owner should be aware of.  Prepare extra food and water for your pet, medications if required, leashes and tags and collars.   Be aware of your pets favorite hiding places so you will know where to look when time is short.

A rather alarming picture emerged after the powerful storm on the Atlantic coast exposed the lack of emergency preparedness.  In Northern Virginia, 911 emergency phone service did not exist for most of the weekend.  The power company struggled to get electricity back on line in an area that has come to expect outages in extreme weather.  The two companies in question,  Verizon and Pepco have explaining to do but more importantly, what will be done in preparation for the next one.

Finally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded more than $971 million to continue improving preparedness and health outcomes for a wide range of public health threats within every state, eight U.S. territories, and four of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, including more than $10 million for Mississippi health care and public health preparedness.  A couple of the recipients are listed below.  Serious $$! I am all for this as long as the money is used to educate and put in place measures that will benefit the community as a whole.

RI to get $6.9M in emergency preparedness funds

Illinois receives $28 million for public health and health care emergency preparedness

Hawaii receives $6M for health care emergency preparedness

Till next week…