Updated from original entry 10-8-18
Sites geared to helping you prepare for poisoning, pandemics, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, flood and flash floods, fires, and disasters and emergencies generally. Let me know in comments of additional useful websites and online information. See also Weather and weather-related events (Search engines, Writers and Editors)
PREPARING FOR DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES, GENERALLY
• A preparation & safety awareness guide for travellers (Postcard Travel)
• Disaster Distress Helpline (SAMHSA, Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration) The Disaster Distress Helpline, 1-800-985-5990, is a 24/7, 365-day-a-year, national hotline dedicated to providing immediate crisis counseling for people who are experiencing emotional distress related to any natural or human-caused disaster. Stress, anxiety, and other depression-like symptoms are common reactions after a disaster. Call or text 1-800-985-5990 to connect with a trained crisis counselor. This toll-free, multilingual, and confidential crisis support service is available to all residents in the United States and its territories. SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline provides 24/7, 365-day-a-year crisis counseling and support to people experiencing emotional distress related to natural or human-caused disasters.
• DisasterAssistance.gov Do you need help after a disaster? We can help you apply for FEMA disaster assistance and guide you to other resources to help you recover. Links for Red Cross and other emergency shelters, state emergency management offices, SBA disaster assistance
• King and Firefighter Syndrome: Disaster Response Goes Beyond the Front Lines (Seth C. Hawkins, Erin R. Eldridge, and Sharon Watson, MedPage Today, 12-23-24) As one Asheville resident explained in a widely shared social media post just days after Helene, "If you are coming to offer help or resources, you need to stay flexible and be ready to be turned away or redirected...We do not need Indiana Jones right now, we need adaptable team players." The same degree of flexibility in interpreting types of disaster response needs to be applied to goods valued as contributions.
• Find Open Shelters and Disaster Relief Services (Red Cross)
• How to prevent drowning: a ground-breaking report that's startling yet hopeful (Melody Schreiber, Goats and Soda, NPR, 12-13-24) More than 300,000 people die from drowning every year – and nearly all of these cases are preventable, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). The first-ever global report from WHO on how to prevent drownings, drawn from surveying 139 countries.
• How to Pack an Emergency Kit for Any Disaster (Kenneth R. Rosen, NY Times, 7-3-17) The Life Straw "is Mr. Smyth’s choice for purification straws you can drink water through." If you have a container to drink from, iodine water purification tablets are a simpler, nearly weightless alternative." Read More