Disability Prepared
All talk and no action is sometimes as bad as no talk and all action—that’s why a new site launched by the University of Kansas' Research and Training Center for Independent Living aims to get people talking about best practices to help people with disabilities weather disasters. Center staff have collected the resources they found most helpful and paired them with a variety of tools—Facebook, Twitter, a forum, and a blog—meant to let others weigh in. Those with tips and tales of disability preparedness gone right should head on over—site organizers want to hear from you.
FEMA: The Blog
It was only a matter of time, and now the time has come—the Federal Emergency Management Agency has joined the blog rolls. So what can a reader expect from the “first-ever FEMA blog?” A lot, according to social-media-savvy Administrator Craig Fugate, especially two-way communication. “This won’t be another way to put out our press releases—this is a way to communicate directly with you,” he writes in the first entry. The blog will soon highlight emergency management insights and innovations from FEMA and beyond, Fugate says. Guest bloggers are already volunteering.
U.S. Fire Administration Fire Estimates
The latest data in the U.S. Fire Administration’s Fire Estimates series have been released. The series contains graphs and summaries of information collected by the National Fire Incident Reporting System from 2003-2009. Visitors can download PDFs or view fire trends ranging from residential fire deaths to nonresidential economic losses.
All Hazards Preparedness for Agricultural Threats
Homes on the range are far from hazard-free, and now there’s a site made especially for farms in harm’s way. Prep for Ag Threats takes a rural perspective of a variety of dangers, allowing visitors to easily find information on how a given disaster might affect their home, family, livestock, crops, and business. With topics that include natural and manmade hazards, biological threats, and general preparedness, farmers will have lots of help when they cowboy up to their next disaster.
Stuff Ex-Pat Aid Workers Like
We thought Stuff Ex-Pat Aid Workers Like might be a handy gift guide for filling the stocking of your favorite Red Cross volunteer, but instead we found a quirky, often tongue-in-cheek look at the experiences of those who pitch in during disasters and humanitarian emergencies around the world. From the scatological perversity of parasite infections to a poignant treatise on the solace of having a driver, this blog offers insights into the real life of aid workers.
Coastal County Snapshots
This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tool breaks building in flood zones down to a simple equations, such as “People+Floodplains=Not Good.” And while that might seem like a no brainer, the snapshots show how U.S. coastal counties’ realities add up or don’t. (About 99 percent of the people in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, for instance, live in a floodplain along with 89 percent of the critical facilities and 95 percent of the roadways.) Data on vulnerable populations, infrastructure, environment, and demographics is all available at a glance.