HR Talk

In recognition of National Volunteer Week we are highlighting some stories about individuals who made a difference in the lives of those impacted by disaster. Today we spotlight the winner of the President's Choice Award - Catherine Graham.

President’s Choice - Honor Award. This volunteer recognition medal is awarded to the volunteer selected by the President for leadership and team work. This volunteer excels in self-directed performance during disaster and throughout the year. The High Paw can be awarded in any of the disaster response clusters and represents outstanding performance in one or more disasters.

Cat responded to almost half of all emerging events in 2012 and deployed in person to Rockaway where she led the development and coordination of communications within a spontaneous community command center.  She has provided outstanding leadership to the volunteers of Humanity Road as well as direct support for people impacted by disaster. 

In a single week at the end of October, Cat organized the Humanity Road online response activities for Hurricane Sandy along the Caribbean and Atlantic Eastern seaboard, collaborated with Maryland State emergency management officials for some crowd sourcing in Maryland, facilitated the rescue of of dozens of people stranded in rapidly rising flood waters in the Dominican Republic and then deployed a physical response team to Rockaway New York where she remained to support the local operation for several weeks.  She is shown in the photo above with local volunteers Simon MacLean and Janice Dean meeting with Maryanne Schretzman from the New York City Mayor's office. The local response was featured in this independent film.

A note from a couple in New Jersey; “Cat has been working so hard for me and my husband as well as giving us guidance.  I cannot express our appreciation enough for her.  She has been like the only flower blooming within a dry desert. If all your workers are like Cat it must be an amazing place. Thank you for giving her to us and God bless all of you.”

That would be quite enough to earn recognition, but above and beyond that - In 2012, Cat spent more than 2 full months on the road in support of Humanity Road programs.  She participated in exercises from a tent in the woods of Massachusetts, a tent in the desert of California, and another tent on an island in Honolulu bay.  She represented our organization in conducting presentations, training and exercises in Cambodia, Singapore, Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, Washington DC, New York and Florida.  Among the exercises she participated in, she led the world’s largest crisis mapping exercise during the first ever humanitarian exercise for RIMPAC and participated in a 22 nation table top communications exercise for the Pacific Endeavor Workshop Multinational Communications Interoperability Program in Singapore and then presented an Ignite Talk about this important exercise at the International Crisis Mappers convention in September in Washington DC.

She worked on process improvement initiatives with Rutgers University, Arizona State, Harvard, the Wilson Center, University of Colorado, University of Hawaii, the National Defense University and United States government agencies both civilian and military including the Department of Defense, Army, Navy, Office of Naval Research, FEMA and Health and Human Services. 

Mercury Award
The recipient of the Mercury award is our responder of the year. This is a volunteer who is quick footed and consistently provides coverage for emerging disasters throughout the year, whether it’s the disaster desk, social media support or administrative support. This individual is selected based on the hours and responses worked during the year

Global Fellowship Award
The Global Fellowship award is chosen by team mates for a volunteer’s contributions during the year. The recipient of this award is selected by the team for team MVP and shines in fellowship and Humanitarian Principles. This is the highest award for Humanity Road, and represents honesty, integrity, community, engagement, collaboration and commitment.

For the first time, a single Humanity Road volunteer has received both the Mercury Award and the Global Fellowship award in the same year.  

We are pleased to announce that Cindy Becker has received the Mercury Award for her outstanding active response in 2012. Throughout the year, Cindy responded to 165 events representing more than half of all responses for the year in 2012. 

In April Cindy activated the disaster desk in support of #NYFire in the Long Island area.  Animals in Disaster team worked an urgent need for horse trailers for evacuation of over 110 horses.  In May Cindy responded to 14 events as well as publishing articles articles for the blog including  “Happy Mother’s Day”, to all pet Mom’s and “A Pet’s Summer Wish List”, and from the Animals in Disaster Digest “Horses, Hurricanes and Floods”.  As well as “Toad Power. 

Among the many events throughout the year, Cindy took part in the Great ShakeOut in October 17 and supported our UN OCHA Effort for Typhoon Pablo/Bopha. Also in October and early November she worked tirelessly in support of Hurricane Sandy.  She helped develop a cohesive multistate coverage approach during the event for which Humanity Road received much praise.  In addition to researching pet-friendly shelters and animal rescue groups for disasters monitored by Humanity Road, Cindy leads the Animals in Disaster (AiD) Team in tweeting animal preparedness information and updating its Facebook page and AiD Digest.

Cindy’s team mates have also recognized her with the Global Fellowship Award.  As team lead for Animals in Disaster, Cindy supports a group of volunteers who respond to emerging events with a focus of helping animal owners find critical information about how to prepare and shelter their livestock and pets during disaster.  Her support in helping her fellow volunteers respond to both people and animals in disaster in 2012 earned her this recognition.

 “Cindy is passionate about HR's work and has spent many late nights monitoring disasters. She was a great help to me when I first began volunteering for HR and the AiD team. During Hurricane Sandy, she put in many long hours monitoring and researching information for both people and animals, and she was an indispensable part of the team.” - Aline Carr

On Memorial Day in 2012 Cindy wrote a tribute to salute animals who serve.  Her words are quite fitting today to honor her - “Cindy you act with remarkable loyalty, faith, courage, and strength and we are in awe of your valiant spirit of giving”.

Da Vinci Award
Significant and noteworthy service or product contribution, this medal is awarded to a Patron or contributor who has added significant value in support of Humanity Road programs. Through donations in kind or contributions they have helped mold shape and support the organization.  Award recipients of the Da Vinci Medal are chosen by the Humanity Road Board of Directors.  Because of a unique and innovative joint response, this year, for the first time, the Da Vinci Award is being presented to two organizations for their joint response in support of Humanity Road for Super Storm Sandy.  We are very pleased to announce both Disaster Tech Lab and ITDRC – as recipients of the 2013 Humanity Road Da Vinci Award.  

Disaster Tech Labs (Evert Bopp)
Humanity Road contacted Evert Bopp of Disaster Tech Labs in Ireland on Sunday afternoon November 4th. His team was on the ground in Rockaway on Monday afternoon.  Throughout the following weeks, Disaster Tech Labs provided site support for the installation of the signal to St. Francis De Sales Church and School.   But this is just a small part of their overall deployment. 

The team provided signal assessment across the Rockaway Peninsula and also provided crowd sourced information on availability of communications in the area. Disaster Tech Labs worked closely with ITDRC during the deployment of communications services and equipment in Rockaway.



ITDRC (Joe Hillis)
The Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC) was founded in 2009 to provide communities with the necessary resources to protect and recover their technology infrastructure from disaster. For Super Storm Sandy, their deployment activities in New York included locations in Coney Island, Staten Island, Red Hook (Brooklyn), Point Breeze, Breezy Point, and the Rockaway peninsula.

Twenty Six (26) ITDRC technology volunteers, augmented by a host of strategic partners and nearly a thousand local tech volunteers mobilized to provide temporary communications, resources, and technology assistance to communities, NGOs, and small businesses. Technology teams installed computers, networks, WiFi infrastructure, and Internet based telephones in fire stations along the Rockaway peninsula, and in community Disaster Response Centers (DRC) throughout the region. ITDRC strategic partner ViaSat donated and installed satellite Internet connections for many of the sites, providing critical communications in the absence of commercial public networks.

The ITDRC team was highly responsive in providing the equipment and signal needed to facilitate the ability for the local community to communicate online and through VOIP technology. Joe Hillis also represents ITDRC as a member of the FEMA Innovation team.

Volunteers Receive Volunteer Service Award

Bettie has been a volunteer with Humanity Road since its founding in 2010 and is very active in responding to disasters.  She responded to more than 90 emerging events in 2012. She has provided support for monitoring social media, testing new technology and has represented Humanity Road at the SmileCon conference in Richmond and at meetings with Virginia VOAD. Among others, she activated for Hurricane Isaac, Tropical Storm Debbie and Hurricane Sandy. In recognition of more than 750 hours of volunteer service has earned the Gold Presidential Service Award.

Aline joined us September of 2012 and quickly became a very active volunteer. In addition to providing support for disaster response online, she is also a team lead for volunteer engagement, helping new volunteers get oriented, and is co-team leader for the Animals in Disaster team. Among her responses are numerous earthquakes, several man made disasters, and Hurricanes Rafael, Paul, Pablo, Evan, and Sandy where she provided both social media and crisis mapping support. In recognition of her volunteer hours in 2012, Aline has received the Silver Presidential Service Award

About The Presidents Volunteer Service Awards

In 2011, Humanity Road, announced it has teamed with the White House to become a Certifying Organization for the President’s Volunteer Service Award, a national program recognizing those who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to volunteer service.  Through their demonstrated commitment and example, volunteers inspire others to engage in volunteer service. Recognizing and honoring volunteers sets a standard for service, encourages a sustained commitment to civic participation and inspires other to make service a central part of their lives.  The Presidential Service Medals are awarded by hours of service for the calendar year. 

America has a long and proud tradition of volunteer service. Now, more than ever, volunteers are renewing their commitment to help others and making new connections that bring us closer together as families, as neighbors, as communities and as a nation.

The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation (the Council) was established in 2003 to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers are making in our communities and encourage more people to serve. The Council created the President’s Volunteer Service Award program as a way to thank and honor Americans who, by their demonstrated commitment and example, inspire others to engage in volunteer service. The program continues as an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

Recognizing and honoring volunteers sets a standard for service, encourages a sustained commitment to civic participation and inspires other to make service a central part of their lives.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes United States citizens and lawfully admitted permanent residents of the United States who have achieved the required number of hours of service over a 12-month time period – or cumulative hours over the course of a lifetime.

It’s Our B’Earthday!
2013 marks our third year anniversary here at Humanity Road and to celebrate, on Saturday April 20^th we had virtual cake and recognized the outstanding contributions of our volunteers.  It is no mistake that we celebrate our organizational birthday on Earth Day.  Our volunteers hail from countries all over the world and monitor emerging disaster every day globally.  We are very grateful for the many hours they provided in support of the public impacted by emerging disaster in 2012. 

2012 Event Summary
Volunteers responded to 312 emerging events in 2012, doubling our response of 147 in 2011.  Earthquakes, severe weather and public safety events comprised more than 70% of our responses.  Among major responses was Super Storm Sandy.  Also, as a member of the Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN) and on behalf of the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), we provided media monitoring support for Hurricane Bopha in the Philippines and on behalf of Samoa for Typhoon Evan. These are just a few of the many event responses in 2012. 
                                           
National Volunteer Week
We are very pleased to recognize volunteers for their outstanding contributions and some amazing individual stories of support for 2012.  This year in recognition of National Volunteer Week and to honor these extraordinary people, we will be publishing one story a day.  Today, we would like to announce the winners of our annual Humanity Road Volunteer Service Awards.

Da Vinci Award – ITDRC and Disaster Tech Lab

Finding sense in a tweet storm is sometimes like trying to hold back the storm itself.  The magnitude of the data that emerges in social media is only equal to the number of questions asked about information needs, situational information and the integrity of that information. 

Accurate analysis of data using standardized statistical methods in scientific studies is critical to determining the validity of empirical research [source].  But in the emerging paradigm of the use of social media during disaster, there is little in terms of documented good practices for data collection and analysis.  What facts can be derived from the data?  Is the data ‘good’ enough to analyze?  What types of questions or statistics can be applied in a manner that would allow ongoing empirical research for future events against past events.

Researchers are only beginning to explore these questions.  There is much more work to be done. 

But today, we are very pleased to release the report Analysis of Twitter Data during Hurricane Sandy.  The report provides a unique snapshot about the tweets emerging in the initial days just before and after the storm made landfall in New York. This study was a focus as much on how data should be handled during collection in order to preserve data integrity.

One of the most interesting statistics we found was that the top 4 publishing modes accounted for 80% of the geocoded tweets; the top 8 account for 90% of tweets. These should be kept in mind when considering any type of device-specific content program.  Another statistic showed a drop in geocoded information, this did not come as a surprise but it was useful to see it charted.  The tweet traffic remained the same but the actual geocoded information dropped by half, which could have been in part, attributed to users turning off their GPS signals to extend battery life.   What we did confirm was that partnering with Statistics without Borders in future events is a wise move.  Statistics without Borders volunteers responsiveness and willingness to study and return the results on the data was great.  They are one of our partners in the Digital Humanitarian Network and we look forward to working with them on the next event.  Also, special gratitude to Joanna Lane from NY VOST who provided expertise and guidance and direction for this report and Cathy Furlong for putting together such a great team.

Special thanks to the following for contributing their time and dialogue to the preparation of this report

Team selection Cathy Furlong, Statistics without Borders
GIS and heat map results Paige Stover, Statistics without Borders
Network Relationships Joshua Saxe, Statistics without Borders
Analytics & data considerations by Tim B. Gravelle, Statistics without Borders
Additional guidance and recommendations by Joanna Lane, NY VOST
TweetTracker developed by Shamanth Kumar, Fred Morstatter and Dr. Huan Liu Arizona State University DMML Lab under a grant from the Office of Naval Research
Storm surge data acquired from AccuWeather 

   








                         Its Game Time!
Join us this week and pledge to be a force of Nature.   March 3, begins National Severe Weather Preparedness Week across the USA.  As a committed leader for weather readiness Humanity Road is hosting daily game challenges to spread the word.

 Severe weather happens here on earth but also in space.   Below are some great resources for teachers, homeschoolers and parents to share with their children.   We have also put together a series of resource links that we will be releasing each day. 

Each day we are focusing on different severe weather challenges   Join us in sharing, caring and chasing the fears away from our smallest and most treasured resource - Children  For the bigger kids, Each Day we'll be releasing fun disaster preparedness games to test your knowledge and your skill!  Compete for Highest Game score and let us know how you're doing, convince us to send you a Humanity Road Tshirt and why!

We ask all volunteers to take a Pledge and Take Action : Be Force of Nature by taking the Pledge to Prepare at ready.gov/severe - weather. When you pledge to prepare, you will take the first step to making sure that you and your family are prepared for severe weather. This includes filling out your family communications plan that you can email to yourself, putting an emergency kit together, keeping important papers and valuables in a safe place, and getting involved .

Children & Youth

Printables:
Ready Kids Comic Strip – [PDF]
Ready Kids Crossword Puzzle – [PDF]
Ready Kids Great 16 pg Activity & Coloring Book – [PDF}

Videos:
Cell Phone Sally teaches the Easy 911 song
Sesame Street Emergencies (Captioned)  Video
Lets Get Ready (Captioned) Video
Family Emergency Kit video

En Espanol (subtitulos en Espanol) Video
Preparemonos (subtitulos en Espanol) Video
Kit Familiar de Emergencia (subtitulos en Espanol) Video

 Teen & High School

Understanding Solar Storms

Did you know outer space has weather too? Learn about space weather scales, solar flares and coronal mass ejections.   http://1.usa.gov/VVqGkq

A primer on Space Weather http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/primer/primer.html

Introducción al Clima Espacial  http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/primer/primer_in_spanish.html

Space #Wx Storms from the sun & Solar Storm Forecasting 6 min Video http://bit.ly/XxndIk

Game on Dude! – Games & Interactive 

                Solar Game https://spark.ucar.edu/sun-space-weather-memory-game-new (SWF required)

                Disaster Game : http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.html

   Wild Weather Game from NASA http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/wild-weather-adventure/

   Predict the Weather Grades 4 – 9 Teacher guide and Game

   Create A Cane Game http://1.usa.gov/14e2jyO

HF Radio: Limited blackout of HF radio communication on sunlit side, loss of radio contact for tens of minutes.
Navigation: Degradation of low-frequency navigation signals for tens of minutes.

The second strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 24 and the Second X-Flare from Active Region 11429, after further investigation there may have been a double X Flare as another spike was registered shortly after the initial X 5.4 event with a possible X 1.3 registered. This major event measured X 5.4 at 00:24 UTC and triggered a strong R3 Level Radio Blackout. A coronal mass ejection was captured shortly after and is likely to be headed earths way. more information shortly.

The expected CME from March 4 has impacted the earths magnetic field moments ago, causing the Bz component of the IMP to deviate sharply southward to - 20 nT. Geomagnetic storm should result. A strong Proton event is now in progress.

The flare was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), a cloud of solar plasma that was ejected from the solar atmosphere in the direction of Earth. The CME was observed by the STEREO and SOHO spacecraft with an initial speed of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,400 miles) per second. It was estimated to reach Earth sometime on January 24 and Mars on January 25. NOAA forecasters were predicting a G2 geomagnetic storm, though a G3 was possible.

Spaceweather: CHANCE OF FLARES: Earth-facing sunspot 1356 has developed a "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of such an eruption during the next 24 hours. Solar flare alerts: text, phone.  Northern Lights were visible in the past 24 hours prompted by small magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind.

Educational Video: NASA Guide to Solar Flares

here