(TNS) - Don’t be alarmed if you hear gunshots coming from inside the Henry County Courthouse Thursday evening.

It’s only a drill.

Henry County, Iowa Emergency Management director Walt Jackson and the Henry County Sheriff’s Department will host the drill at 4 p.m. Thursday, using blank rounds in real guns to simulate the sounds of a shooting incident.

“We want to give employees here more tools in their tool bags if something like this happened,” Jackson said.

(TNS) - A new source of reimbursement for ambulance providers in the state could provide Skagit County providers with millions of dollars, but would require restructuring the county’s current ambulance system.

Ground Emergency Medical Transport legislation, which was recently signed into law, provides certain ambulance providers with a partial reimbursement for care given to Medicaid patients, according to Scott Clough of AP Triton, a consultant who worked on the legislation.

(TNS) - The map above Alene Tchourumoff’s desk shows lines that appear, at first, to denote rivers -- they sprawl and branch off, weaving and curving across the state.

Instead, they depict a vast network of railroad tracks.

In her new role as Minnesota’s rail director, Tchourumoff will refer back to the map often as she leads Gov. Mark Dayton’s efforts to improve rail safety, train first responders and track the movements of the rail cars that transport Bakken crude oil and other hazardous freight.

Walmart and Wells Fargo are two unsung heroes of the emergency management world. While most corporations focus mainly on their bottom lines, these two titans make major, tangible contributions to emergency management agencies in their communities. In doing so, both companies combine a sense of civic responsibility with enlightened self-interest — because the disasters that affect their communities also affect these corporations’ properties, employees and paying customers.

More Than $50 Million Contributed

Wal-Mart won for price; first-aid kits and gallons of water were particularly inexpensive.

TNS) - The National Hurricane Center will launch storm surge inundation maps for the first time this summer, predicting where and how deep flooding will hit here and elsewhere.

Two years ago the maps were tested on the Outer Banks. Data from hundreds of hurricane forecast scenarios was fed into a supercomputer.

(TNS) - MIAMI — Normal could still be bad.

On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast an average number of storms for the Atlantic hurricane season, with 10 to 16 named storms, four to eight hurricanes and one to four major storms packing winds over 110 mph. But that doesn’t mean that the season, which officially begins Wednesday, could be without trouble. Already a storm has bucked the odds by threatening to form off the coast of Florida over the holiday weekend.

(TNS) - Seven months after two firefighters died fighting a fire on Independence Boulevard, the Kansas City Fire Department produced a report on the deaths and a set of recommendations to improve firefighter safety.

Kansas City firefighters John Mesh and Larry Leggio died when a brick wall collapsed and fell on them during the Oct. 12 fire.

This year's season, from June 1 through Nov. 30, could be more active than those the past couple of years.

(TNS) - Tropical storm and hurricane season kicks off June 1, so it's not too early to get ready.

That was the message federal, state and local emergency planners delivered last week during Hurricane Preparedness Week.

The message is simple: Be prepared.

This year's season, from June 1 through Nov. 30, could be more active than those the past couple of years, experts say.

Since 2004, the population of Marion County has grown by 41,500 people, to more than 330,000 people. No one knows how many of the new residents have experience with hurricanes.

(TNS) - Marion County emergency officials say that each time they speak to community groups, they become more concerned about inexperience and complacency as hurricane season approaches.