On June 18th, the Scott Conference Center will be the site of a one-day disaster preparedness symposium.
Dr. Phil Smith, co-director of the Nebraska Center for Preparedness Education, says they will cover a broad spectrum of different aspects of response to disasters.
He says these include both natural disasters and terrorist events. Smith says the money and interest for the symposium, now in its 13th year, followed the 9/11 and anthrax attacks.
So the initial focus in early years was bio-terrorism and terrorist events.
As time went on though, Smith says it became obvious that weather events could be just as troublesome.
"There was SARS, monkey pox, Ebola, avian flu, the 20009 pandemic of influenza so it seemed like every year there was something new and different. So now it’s an all hazards approach. Don’t just get ready for drought. Don’t just get ready for avian flu. But try to practice things you can apply to any different scenario whether it’s a terrorist event or a natural event.”
The Preparedness Symposium takes place in Omaha at the Scott Conference Center on June 18th. Continuing education credit is available. To register or for more information, the website is preped.org.