VOLK FIELD, Wis. - The Wisconsin National Guard and the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs Division of Emergency Management (WEM) coordinated and conducted the Miles Paratus Special Focus Event at both Volk Field and Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, June 5-9, aiming to fulfill part of its unique dual mission as the first military responder when disaster strikes here at home.
MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker joined Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, and Hartland Police Chief Robert Rosch to stress the continued importance of the “If You See Something, Say Something”™ campaign in Wisconsin.
To give families a chance to test their emergency plans, a statewide tornado drill will be held the evening of April 14. The drill is part of the annual spring severe weather campaign to encourage people in Wisconsin to get ready for possible tornadoes and severe weather.
Registration is underway for the 49th Annual Wisconsin Governor's Conference on Emergency Management & Homeland Security. The conference will be held at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton March 9-10, 2016. In addition, pre-training classes will be held March 8.
Eleven thousand students across Wisconsin will be better prepared for an emergency, thanks to the STEP program.
STEP, or Student Tools for Emergency Planning, is a turnkey classroom curriculum for teachers to prepare 5th graders for various emergencies and disasters, including tornadoes, flooding and storms. The program also shows students how to put together an emergency kit and develop an emergency plan.
A cyber attack on the energy sector could be devastating and would be felt at homes, schools, businesses and government as our reliance on technology continues to grow. That’s why the time is now for the private sector and government to come together to prepare and respond to these threats.
MILWAUKEE - Power outages. Crashed government service websites. Pilfered personal information from corporate or government databases. A world increasingly interconnected through the Internet also provides numerous opportunities for individuals or groups to visit malice or mischief upon people, businesses, utilities and government agencies.
The focus of Wisconsin's third annual Cybersecurity Summit was defending the state's operational infrastructure, such as power grids, information databases, communication networks and utilities. But an underlying theme was expanding knowledge of the adversary, of one's own weaknesses, and the difference between an attack and a routine system scan.
Gov. Scott Walker opened the summit by noting that cybersecurity has only become more important over the past two years.
How would utilities and state agencies respond to a massive blackout or grid failure to hit Wisconsin? That question was discussed at a national energy infrastructure security summit held July 20-22, 2015 in Washington, D.C.
As part of the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Summit VI held at the U.S. Capitol, some of Wisconsin's top utility, emergency management and homeland security officials were invited to discuss Wisconsin's plans to such events. Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin adjutant general and Wisconsin's Homeland Security Advisor, chaired the panel on opportunities and challenges facing Wisconsin. Joining him were Wisconsin Emergency Management Administrator Brian Satula; Mike Huebsch, commissioner with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission; and David Wojtczak with American Transmission Company (ATC).
It wasn't quite the movie Wizard of Oz, but there was still a small dog, talk of tornadoes and a puff of smoke last Friday at Miller Park, as 11,000 students and teachers from southeastern Wisconsin attended Weather Day.
Weather Day provides students an opportunity to learn about seasons, precipitation, climates and storms in a fun environment. Participants are divided into two teams, and questions were asked on the jumbo screen, along with videos and demonstrations on the field. The event was sponsored by the Milwaukee Brewers and WTMJ-TV, whose meteorologists were the hosts.
A major tornado outbreak might be a chance occurrence in Wisconsin, but one with very real repercussions.
The response to the potential damage and threat to life cannot be left to chance. That’s why local and state agencies teamed up July 15-16 for the Tri-County Exercise — a training scenario in which several tornadoes touched down within hours of each other, causing numerous fatalities and major damage to roads, bridges and buildings throughout southeast Wisconsin.
