Governor McAuliffe sets September as National Preparedness Month in Virginia

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Join America’s PrepareAthon! by taking action to prepare for emergencies

RICHMOND – Governor Terry McAuliffe has recognized September as National Preparedness Month in Virginia, calling on families, business owners and communities to take specific steps to be ready for emergencies.

“Most Virginians know they should be prepared for emergencies, but they haven’t completed an emergency plan or participated in an exercise or drill to test their plan,” said Governor McAuliffe.  “It’s never too late to get ready, so I encourage all our people to take at least one action during September to make sure our families, businesses and communities are prepared for the next emergency.”

Among the most important actions people can take toward disaster preparedness are:

·       Practice going to your protected place to be safe from tornadoes.

o   Know what to do and where to go when a tornado warning is issued for your area: http://www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia/stay-informed/tornadoes/preparingfortornadoes

o   Get a NOAA Weather Radio to hear tornado warnings issued directly by the National Weather Service.

• Sign up for text alerts/weather warnings that may be offered by your locality.

• Download the free Ready Virginia app for iPhone® and Android™.  Features:
  • Weather warnings issued for your location by the National Weather Service
  • A customizable emergency plan that can be easily shared with family and friends
  • A checklist for gathering emergency supplies

• Create a family emergency communications plan. 
  • Decide how and where everyone will meet up with each other if separated
  • Choose an out-of-town emergency contact for your family and give that person’s phone number to each family member
  • Make a sheet of emergency contacts and post it in visible places in your home and workplace.  Don’t rely on your smart phone or online contact lists.
  • Get a free emergency plan worksheet at www.ReadyVirginia.gov orwww.ListoVirginia.gov or use the new Ready Virginia app.

• Talk to an insurance agent about flood insurance.
  • Most homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover flooding; renters and business owners also can get flood insurance.
  • Just one inch of water in a mid-size home or office can mean $20,000 in repairs.
  • Go to www.floodsmart.gov or call 1-800-427-2419 for more information.

People with disabilities or access and functional needs may need to take additional steps.  Plan how to handle power outages and/or being asked to evacuate.  See www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia/getakit/disabilities

This year, National Preparedness Month features a day set aside specifically for taking actions to get prepared for emergencies.  September 30 has been designated America’s PrepareAthon! Day.  To sign up for America’s PrepareAthon! go to www.ready.gov/prepare and register how you will take action to prepare in September.

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Governor McAuliffe Announces VAWorks Job Search Mobile App

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~ Available for both iPhone and Android, Virginia’s new mobile app provides job seekers with a convenient new way to search for jobs ~

App is an extension of the Virginia Workforce Connection website, the Commonwealth’s advanced workforce development tool.

RICHMOND – Governor McAuliffe announced the launch of Virginia’s new employment app, VAWorks.  Now, wherever Virginians may be in the Commonwealth, they can have thousands of jobs at their fingertips. 

“Job seekers in Virginia now have a more convenient way to find employment,” stated Governor McAuliffe.  “The VAWorks app is an advanced workforce development tool that matches employers with qualified candidates.” 

Available on iPhone and Android, Virginia’s new app provides job seekers with free access to jobs.  Using a mobile device, users can search for jobs by occupation, location, or keyword.  They can also share their job search activity and information via email or social media.  “This mobile app gives today’s job seekers an easier way to access thousands of job from more than 16,000 sources, including military, government and federal jobs while on-the-go,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice A. Jones said. 

The VAWorks app is one of many job seeker services available through the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).  App users now have the option to receive notifications from the VEC when new job openings are available, filter their results by occupation and expand job listings to review details and locations.  For more information about the VEC or the new mobile app, please contact Joyce Fogg, VEC Director of Communications, at (804) 786-7592 orJoyce.Fogg@vec.virginia.gov.

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Ready Virginia app presented to President Obama during hurricane season briefing

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

App users will now receive instant notification of weather hazards

WASHINGTON – The free Ready Virginia mobile application that helps people prepare for emergencies and stay informed during disasters was demonstrated to President Barack Obama May 30 in preparation for hurricane season, which started yesterday and extends through Nov. 30. The president’s annual briefing was held at FEMA headquarters and included three presentations on innovative apps that reach people with critical emergency information. Virginia was the only state invited to present.

“I am proud of the work the Virginia Department of Emergency Management has done on this innovative app that will help Virginians stay informed and prepared in the event of a hurricane or other disaster,” said Governor McAuliffe.

“We were very proud to showcase the Ready Virginia app,” said Brian Moran, Virginia secretary of public safety and homeland security. “We know it’s important to meet people where they are, particularly during emergencies, and many of them are on mobile devices.”

“The invitation to present during this high-level, pre-hurricane season briefing was very timely,” said State Coordinator of Emergency Management Jeff Stern, who described the app’s features to President Obama following an introduction by Secretary Moran. “In fact, that day we had added push notifications to the app that allow users to receive instant weather warning alerts for their area from the National Weather Service. This is a critical safety feature to have, especially when you’re not tuned in to local radio or television.”

The Ready Virginia app for iPhone® and Android™ devices was developed by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) as an interactive tool that makes it easier to be prepared for emergencies. Users can make a customized emergency plan, identify and collect needed emergency supplies, and get the latest disaster news when there are widespread or high profile disaster events in the commonwealth.

Among the app’s features are:

• Alerts: real-time weather and hazard alerts for your location
• Plan: make your emergency plan and share it with family and friends
• Local: GPS-enabled evacuation routes, flood risk updates, emergency manager contacts
• Checklist: essential emergency supplies to have in your kit
• Threats: learn what to do to prepare for the most likely disaster events in Virginia
• Disaster news: stay informed on current emergency events or browse through previous disaster blogs

When Hurricane Sandy impacted the commonwealth in 2012, 40% more people used mobile browsers to access VDEM’s website than during Hurricane Irene the previous year.

The hurricane preparation briefing was moderated by Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. NOAA Administrator Kathy Sullivan briefed the president on hurricane season. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed progress on the federal government’s efforts to prepare for and capacity to respond to severe storms. 

Read President Obama’s pre-hurricane briefing remarks:  www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/30/readout-president-s-briefing-ahead-2014-hurricane-season

Learn more about the Ready Virginia app: http://www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia/additional-resources/mobileapp

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Burner wants to help you temporarily obfuscate your phone numbe

Image via CrunchBase

App turns your digits into a disposable number—for a small fee, of course.

by Cyrus Farivar - Aug 8 2012, 7:15pm ED

"Burning" a communication device has been a mainstay of those interested in privacy, from the IMF (you know, from Mission: Impossible) to the corner boys on The Wire, and everyone in between. Those of us who aren’t superhuman secret agents or clever criminals may have a much more mundane reason for wanting to create a temporary phone number that routes to your actual number. Someone creating an online ad, a telemarketer trying to appear local so you'll pick up, or an uncertain party in a blind date could all use a throwaway number. Enter Burner, an iPhone app that debuted on Wednesday.

Sure, these days, you can use Google Voice, SkypeIn, or a number of any other services, but what’s nice about Burner is that you can do it from your own iPhone (an Android version is coming soon) in an instant. All I had to give Burner was my phone number. The company doesn’t even know my name or have my e-mail address. And yes, as expected, some people are already using it to create "casual encounters"-style personal ads (possibly NSFW).

I created my own Burner number in about 20 seconds. It defaults to your actual area code (in my case, 510), but you can choose a different one if you like. The app costs $2 and comes with a single temporary phone number and enough credits for a 20-minute phone call, which I burned through (excuse the pun) while on the phone with Greg Cohn, the co-founder and CEO of Ad Hoc Labs, the app’s parent company. Users can buy more numbers or add credit if necessary, or disconnect themselves from the temporary number by "burning" it in the app.

"There is a broader thesis that we have around identity and privacy," Cohn told me. "We definitely think that communications, and telephony specifically, have been left behind by the wave of social innovation that’s been happening. The network should be smarter, it should be more socially aware and more privacy-aware."

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