Nothing grabs headlines like fear. In some circles, yesterday’s earthquake in Southern California was cast as a foreshock to the apocalypse. Cue the scenes of a volcano erupting in Los Angeles and an asteroid hurling towards earth. Somebody better call Tommy Lee Jones and Bruce Willis because we need a hero!

Are we scared yet? Okay, now let’s all take a step back from the ledge.

By Anne Kronenberg, Executive Director, Department of Emergency Management 

We think it’s a safe bet that many of us plan our Sunday night around AMC’s The Walking Dead. SPOILER ALERT! Do you think Andrea is really going to take out the Governor? 

Sure, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (SFDEM) is a government agency, but that doesn't mean we aren't into social innovation. As early adopters of social media, we hold true to a cultural value that technology and how we as a society use it, should be integrated into the principles of emergency management methodology (to meet the masses where they are).

I’ll admit it, I breathed a silly sigh of relief when I woke up (intact) December 22^nd having called bluff on the Mayan calendar’s end of the world deadline. And about ½ a second later, I was on to my holiday to-do list and to life as usual.

We are looking back on the DEM's team to visit Van, Turkey and the series of blogs and videos chronicling their experience.

It was about a year ago that DEM visited Van, Turkey. At the time of the visit, the region was a few months into its recovery from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. In this em4SF we are taking a look back to this series of blogs chronicling the team's experience in a city recovering from this devastating earthquake: Van, Turkey: Dispatch One.

With a deep exhale and as we look forward to a new year, the DEM Community Engagement Team is taking a look back upon this energetic, dynamic, and FUN fall season of preparedness. And without further ado, the DEM 2012 fall preparedness lineup!

As the DEM team winds down its support to the Westchester County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), DEM Deputy Director, Rob Dudgeon, shares the importance of always 'leaning forward' in our our personal preparedness.

It is day 3 of the DEM team’s deployment to support the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services. In the wake of the nor'easter that hit last night, DEM Deputy Director, Rob Dudgeon, shares how this storm illuminated one of the fundamentals of preparedness: have your creature comforts with you at work so in the event you are stuck there overnight--which includes even an emergency operations center (EOC)--you can freshen-up for the next day.