Dear Preparedness Partner:

Today, more than 53,000,000 participants across the globe will hold drills and activities to increase earthquake preparedness. Statistics from the Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills Website show that more than 44,000,000 of them are K-12 schools, districts, institutions of higher education (IHEs), and local, state, and federal emergency management agencies like the ones you represent. We would like to send a virtual round of applause for your participation in this international preparedness effort, and in National Preparedness Month, held last month, and America's PrepareAthon!, happening throughout the year. Your participation illustrates your commitment to helping ensure that your school and higher ed school communities are ready!

In support of National Preparedness Month and the Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills, U.S. Department of Education (ED) Secretary John King has prepared a short video highlighting the importance of education agency preparedness and the support that ED provides to assist state and local education agencies with engaging in preparedness activities. The video may be viewed via the America's PrepareAthon! page on our site: http://rems.ed.gov/Prepareathon.aspx. We encourage you to share it with the schools, colleges, and universities that you serve.

If you haven't already, it's not too late to register for the Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills here. Another way you can participate in the Great ShakeOut Earthquake Earthquake Drills or plan for future earthquake preparedness drills is to listen to the TA Center's newly released Earthquake Exercises for Schools Podcast with Mark Benthien, Director of Communication, Education, and Outreach of the Southern California Earthquake Center. In this podcast, Mr. Benthien presents information that schools, school districts, and IHEs may want to consider when planning an earthquake exercise, including how they can work collaboratively with local community partners to be better prepared for an earthquake. This podcast is available on the TA Center's Great ShakeOut Web page, which also hosts region-specific information on Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills and TA Center resources that may assist with incorporating earthquake preparedness into emergency operations plan (EOP) development.

For information and resources on America's PrepareAthon!, please visit the TA Center's America's PrepareAthon! Web page or follow @remstacenter on Twitter and search #PrepareAthonforSchools and #CampusPrepareAthon.

Thank you, again, for your participation in National Preparedness Month, America's PrepareAthon! and Great Shakeout Earthquake Drills this Fall, and for your continued support of the REMS TA Center's efforts to engage practitioners nationwide in school and higher ed emergency preparedness. We look forward to collaborating with you to promote future national preparedness events!

Sincerely,
The REMS TA Center Team