Preparedness Campaign Urges Families, Businesses to 'Drill' this September; Parents Urged to Learn How to Text

Atlanta, September 01, 2009

200,000 Volunteers Focus on "Pledging to Drill;" 15 Cities Plan Coast-to-Coast Rollout of Practicing 'How to Communicate' in an Emergency

The Safe America Foundation has announced plans to encourage American families to conduct 'communication drills' on September 11 as a first step in an annual practice of rehearsing what they would do during a natural disaster or national emergency.

A month-long 'drill season' that coincides with National Preparedness Month will launch on 9/11, with drills planned in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, South Florida, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Tucson, Washington, D.C. and a variety of smaller communities from Maine to California.

As part of its project, The Safe America Foundation is working with wireless carriers to focus on non-voice communications, including SMS text messaging. In emergencies where digital communications may go down, text messages may still 'get through' or be held in the queue for delivery. Because having parents learn how to text is a valuable safety tool, Safe America will offer texting 'lessons' from a newly-created www.safeamericaprepared.org web site.

The "Pledge to Drill"/pre-9/11 initiative will also focus on social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, which can help keep families and friends 'in touch' if voice networks are knocked off line. Individuals can sign up at www.safeamericaprepared.org to pledge to drill and then post post-drill 'success stories' online and compete for prizes and recognition.

In addition, "Pledge to Drill" focuses on the importance of educating children about how to communicate in adverse situations. As part of this, Safe America is urging parents to have their children pre-load emergency URLs and messages into their mobile devices, as well as set up text messaging templates that can speed up communications and provide immediate access during an emergency.

"Much as been written about how to gather food and water during a crisis, but we want Americans to think about how they'd communicate if phone lines were down or networks go offline. How they'd get in touch with loved ones is a critical issue, as we learned during Katrina. We want families to plan now how they will communicate, and have the tools like texting - or newer ones like Twitter and Facebook - loaded into their phones and mobile devices, ready to use in an emergency," said the Honorable Norman Y. Mineta, Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation, who is also Honorary Chairman of the "Pledge to Drill" campaign. Secretary Mineta played a pivotal role on 9/11 and in investigation that followed.

The Honorable Mr. Mineta will join other non-profit and corporate leaders in kicking off the program on Sept. 1 at USA Today Headquarters for a 'Pledge to Drill' luncheon.

Organizations that are partnering in the kick-off include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) and ten national emergency associations:; the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM); the National Emergency Managers Association (NEMA); the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN); the U.S. Medical Reserve Corps (under the Surgeon General's Office); the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC); the National Association of State EMS Officers (NASEMSO); the National Association of EMTs (NAEMT) and the National Volunteer Fire Corps (NVFC).

"We're delighted with the response to-date, before we have even gone public," said Len Pagano, president and CEO of Safe America. "Safe America believes that individuals are the 'missing link' in preparedness; and, through this program, we will annually involve millions - teaching them that in an emergency, THEY are their own first responder.

"UPS is a successful company largely because of our focus on planning and execution. Safe America's program takes that concept into the homes of more than 345,000 UPS employees." said UPS Foundation President Ken Sternad, a program sponsor. "Having our people practice how they'd respond to a crisis at home - and improve their communications' readiness - is as critical to their families as stockpiling water and food."

The "Pledge to Drill" communications project was created by the Safe America Foundation, a suburban Atlanta-based 501C-3 that has worked on a variety of preparedness programs with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA over the past seven years.