Community Conversations: Planning for Disaster

According to USA Today, “more often than once a week, the physical and computerized security mechanisms intended to protect Americans from widespread power outages are affected by attacks, with less severe cyberattacks happening even more often.”

Outgoing Head of Homeland Security stated that it was a matter of “when” not “if” the power grid would go down due to a cyber attack. In addition, extreme weather could cause power disruptions among millions of people, according to FEMA. Though the nation is preparing to shorten downtime when attacks occur, what can we in our community do to prepare, to reduce disruptions and unpleasant impacts and to assure assistance for those in need?

Speakers

• Ed Walker: Fire Chief, Peterborough, NH
• Tricia Wadleigh: Public Health/Emergency Preparedness Coordinator and the Regional National Strategic Stockpile Coordinator for the Greater Monadnock Public Health Network
• Laurel Boivin: Community Relations Manager, Eversource
• A representative from the NH Homeland Security and Emergency Management

After short presentations from each speaker, the floor is open to moderated discussion with all participants.

Community Conversations is a series that explores many of the issues impacting our communities. A partnership between the Monadnock Center for History and Culture and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, each Conversation features local experts talking about challenges faced by our communities. Some issues are global in nature, but each conversation is designed to examine the topic from a local perspective. The program provides residents with the opportunity to learn more about key issues impacting their communities, to engage in a civil dialog with speakers and with each other, and to come away with a sense that there are things that individuals and communities can do to foster change and improvement.