Tag: Preparedness

Happy Holidays from CREW!

Peaceful snow-covered landscape.

2022 was another active and productive year for CREW, and we want to thank all of our partners and friends in the fields of emergency management, disaster preparedness, and earthquake insurance for their contributions to CREW’s activities and for their daily efforts to help households and communities prepare for earthquakes and other disasters.

Reflecting on CREW’s work this past year brings to mind a number of accomplishments, including working with our partner CUSEC to orchestrate the first hybrid National Earthquake Program Managers Meeting; presenting the national Mind the Gap earthquake insurance forum; and hosting both a webinar and podcast to explain and publicize CPACE as a potential instrument for financing the seismic mitigation of commercial buildings.

And we can’t pass up this opportunity to mention again the tool chest of materials—including videos, a website, and social media graphics—that CREW developed to help our disaster preparedness partners educate people about earthquake insurance and financial preparedness for disasters.

We look forward to a very productive new year and to collaborating with both old friends and new partners in the months ahead. In the meantime, we wish everyone a very happy holiday season and a resilient new year!

Guidance for Verifying Sources of Emergency Information Online

laptop with internet icon and magnifying glass

Knowing how to find and recognize valid information during an emergency is critical, but it can also be a challenge, especially when social media changes so rapidly. An article in a recent bulletin of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management offered some helpful tips for verifying sources of information on Twitter:

  • Check the spelling of the agency name, location and when the account was created.
  • Click the blue checkmark* on Twitter profiles to see why it’s verified. 
  • Check a Twitter account’s Followers and Following lists. Do other government agencies and officials follow the profile? Do news media agencies follow the profile?
  • Check multiple sources to verify emergency information.
  • Check official government agency websites.
  • Check what the agency posted on other social media platforms.
  • Check local news media sources.
  • If you suspect an imposter or false information, report it to Twitter.

The best way to verify official government social media profiles is to search for the agency website with a web browser. Most government websites provide links to their social media. The web address should match the link in the profile and be a trusted domain like “.gov.”

Read the article in the OEM Weekly Watch bulletin.

*Since the publication of this article, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that checkmark “verification” badges in additional colors will shortly be introduced.