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Help others! Together we are awesome! Tags: homeless food insecurity addiction needy

How you can help people in your community
Help people

Help for the homeless, or nearly homeless
Help homeless

Help for those who have little food
Help those who need food

Help for community issues like addiction etc.
Addiction etc.

Emergency Preparedness Planning for the Functional Needs Community Tags: functional needs disabled emergency preparedness disaster

I highly highly recommend Laura George's book on this - I personally believe her to be THE expert on Special needs and Functional Needs Emergency Planning. Her book is available here:
https://www.createspace.com/5284266

 

Laura points out things no one else does - like the fact that search and rescue teams (e.g. CERT) are trained to shout out "Can anyone hear me?" - and of course deaf people cannot hear that.. so search and rescue often leave behind deaf people..

Also that functional needs people who leave hospital after surgery or treatment from an accident that caused their functional need (e.g. Laura's husband who was made a paraplegic) have no care plan for emergency situations when they leave hospital.. social workers should talk to them/their caregivers about how they will be helped in emergencies BEFORE they leave hospital.. also lots of stuff about special needs kids - in Snowedoutatlanta, schoolbuses were stranded for 18 hours with no food, water or bathrooms available to the kids - that is bad enough for "normal" kids but for special needs kids that was very very life threatening - kidney problems etc..


Contact Laura here https://www.facebook.com/laura.george.3532
She should speak at EVERY event around the country regarding this topic in my opinion

https://www.createspace.com/5284266

 

 

 

My report to Governor Deal's Office Tags: snowedoutatlanta task force

I tried to give a presentation to Governor Deal's Chief of Staff, Bart Gobeil, and I gave him a copy of the presentation and a copy of my report.


Here is the Presentation I gave to Bart Gobeil 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QdRawkh6PBBu28liEC8q25tr6ZdZ_PO87AT3Za-_RQk/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the Report to the Severe Weather TaskForce in which I worked with many members of EMAs throughout Georgia, Health Depts throughout Georgia, personnel from GEMA, personnel from FEMA, personnel from Georgia Tech, people who work for the American Red Cross and other Voluntary agencies (VOADS), people from various charities and foundations who help those with Functional Needs in Emergencies, etc.  Together we listed many projects needed in order to improve Emergency Response and I even gave a detailed breakdown of one project which I felt was the highest priority project at the time:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6cDJKzfqVJUcENOaFgyMEE5YWs/edit?usp=sharing

Bart Gobeil was clearly far too busy to pay attention to what I had to stay.  He stopped me halfway through my presentation and told me that they had already changed the way they handle social media - that "GEMA tweets are now much more user friendly" - and he clearly felt that that meant he no longer needed to listen to my presentation.

He also seemed annoyed that I had costed out in detail one of the projects because I am not an "approved vendor" and "would have to go through the Procurement process for a project like that" - I did not get a chance to tell him I had anticipated working full time for GEMA (along with my team) while we implemented the project, he clearly wanted me out of his office asap.

So after that I started trying to work on these projects in other ways.  I have spoken to various groups about different ways of implementing some of the things needed:

- The Weather Channel have taken on board a lot of my findings and will use them to help them to help people better in future disasters/emergencies

- Nextdoor.com have started to implement selective neighborhood alerting and cross-neighborhood groups in order to support people locally in emergencies/disasters http://vimeo.com/96643490

- I have spoken with EMAs all over Georgia, many Electric Utility companies, people in Health Departments and various Voluntary organizations and Foundations/Charities about ways in which Emergency Mgt / Response can be improved. 

- I have personally taken the CERT course and various FEMA certifications as well as the Storm Spotter course and various Red Cross courses, and am working hard to get the word out about these courses.  I truly believe that EVERY person who lives in the US should do CERT and I am trying to spread the word about that.

- I have worked with Laura George and various organizations including GEMINI (Georgia Emergency Management Interpreting Intitiative) to try to raise awareness of the areas in which we are severely lacking in terms of looking after those with Functional Needs during disasters (including deaf, blind, paraplegic, wheelchair-bound, even those who are pregnant or just out of hospital after surgery).

- I will not stop.  I have created a team of experts and a Facebook group where we can discuss projects and initiatives https://www.facebook.com/groups/disasterreliefatlanta

PLEASE JOIN US if you feel you have some expertise to offer to help raise awareness or to help get these projects done!

[email protected] or https://www.facebook.com/msollicito

 

Peek inside the book! Tags: snowedoutatlanta michelle sollicito book

 

Opening quotation

Alicia Hernandez quote sample

Table of Contents
 

 

People opening homes to strangers

People offering homes to strangers

School buses lost

school buses sample

Fairfield Inn, Hammond Drive

Fairfield Inn Hammond Drive

Jason Patrick

Jason Patrick

 

Support independent publishing: Buy this e-book on Lulu.The Inside Story on the Fastest Growing Facebook Group In History. Find out how Michelle Sollicito, Facebook and 50,000 of her friends saved Atlanta!

Author Spotlight page

Buy my book about SnowedOutAtlanta! Tags: snowedoutatlanta michelle sollicito book

This is the link to buy my book!

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/snowedoutatlanta

Note that Lulu charges are very high so I am making very little profit.  Any profit made will go towards my Disaster Relief/Management work

 

SnowedOutAtlanta Book Out Soon! Tags: snowedoutatlanta michelle sollicito book

I am putting the finishing touches to the book, then it has to be proof read.  Then it will go to publishers - hopefully this weekend!  I hope to have an eBook and a Print version ready to purchase sometime in the week of 25th March 2014.  The eBook will probably cost $3.99 and the Print version probably $12.  This price only just covers costs, but any profits made will go to Disaster Relief / Management efforts.

Welcome to the SnowedOutAtlanta Community Tags: snowedoutatlanta michelle sollicito book movie

This community is a place to keep up with developments arising out of SnowedOutAtlanta, including the book, the DocuSeries, developments in the Disaster Management arena and developments in the Social Media arena.

You can join this group and discuss items surrounding SnowedOutAtlanta and have input on future direction.

For details about the DocuSeries click here.

Contact Michelle here:

https://www.facebook.com/msollicito?fref=ts

678 357 3661  or [email protected] or skype msollicito

 

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