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.

It is day 2 of the DEM team's deployment to support the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services. In this em4SF Blog our Deputy Director, Rob Dudgeon, shares his sentiment about two of the guiding principles of emergency management: step in where needed and support each other; and always learn. 

This em4SF Blog comes to us by way of Westchester County, New York, where our Deputy Director Rob Dudgeon and a team of fellow DEM'ers have been deployed to help the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services support its community's recovery from Hurricane Sandy. In this Blog, Rob Dudgeon shares his thoughts and observations about team's first day on the job.

In this em4SF Blog, we are taking a look back to late August (on the eve of the hustle and bustle that our fall outreach brings) and are enjoying the unique perspective from a San Francisco neophyte on Burning Man. Our author is Polly Zebrowsk who joined DEM as an intern last Spring. Polly came to us by way of passion for emergency management through her studies in emergency management at Tulane University. 

Last week 9.4 million people in California participated in the largest earthquake drill in the state...in the country…in the world! Now in its fourth year, ShakeOut aims to arm Californians with the knowledge of what to do during an earthquake, which is to drop, cover and hold-on.