In Memoriam: John Solomon 1963 - 2010

| 01.11.2011 | 09:49:5318101 |

We were very saddened by the passing of our friend John Solomon last November. John was a friend and a great resource for inspiration through his blog In Case of Emergency, Read Blog. Throughout the years, his work provided the germination of many of the stories that I have used to work on community preparedness and resilience in the face of natural and man-made disasters. I also will remember warmly our wonderful and productive email exchanges. His stories and blog posts proved insightful and I will remember him fondly. Below are a few examples of the helpful work of John's we used to write about how our country is working toward sustainability, resiliency and preparedness during an emergency or crisis. John's obituary can be read here. Thanks John, we'll miss you.

Citizen Preparedness

May 22 '08: In a piece run in the Washington Post, blogger and citizen responder John Solomon wrote that emergency preparedness and disaster response within communities is essential: "The more prepared a population is, the more effective the response to and recovery from a catastrophe will be." To underscore the importance of personal preparedness among our communities, former Under Secretary for Preparedness at DHS George Foresman echoed Solomon's piece on the Security Debrief Blog, "preparedness is not an exclusive responsibility of government agencies. ... Our elected leaders must provide their citizens with clear expectations ... [of] what is expected from them as citizens."

NYC hosts Ready New Yorker of the Month contest

January 15 '08: New York City has begun a contest to encourage individual residents to increase their preparedness. Through the Ready New Yorker of the Month contest, city emergency management officials pick one resident to showcase. Winners of the contest receive a go-bag containing supplies like batteries, emergency radio, flashlight and bottled water.

Disaster response accountability group

October 17 '08: Thanks to John Solomon over at Incaseofemergencyblog.com for the tip regarding the Disaster Accountability Project and its article in the Natural Hazards Observer which appeared in last month's edition. DAP, begun in August 2007, was established to help improve the national disaster response framework through citizen oversight, research, whistle-blower engagement, and policy research, the website read.