Description:
This session will feature case studies on different ways to prepare for and learn from emergency events. The first will present ways that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) uses formal drills and tabletop exercises to improve public health preparedness. The second and third presentations will look at the coal ash release that occurred in December 2008 near Kingston, Tennessee including a discussion of the event itself, the aftermath, and many of the existing and new tools (e.g., satellite imaging) that were used to respond. The fourth session addresses lessons learned from carbon monoxide poisoning surveillance conducted after the floods in Iowa in 2008, Hurricane Ike in Texas in 2008, and the ice storm in Kentucky in 2009. The session will conclude with a discussion of choices made to dispose of debris and from Hurricane Katrina in un-lined landfills, and asks the question, did we learn from the last time we did this? |