All Hazards

The 7 core areas of preparedness

2011-12-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

If you get a chance, go out and buy Backwoods Home magazine this month (Jan/Feb 2012). It's worth the $6 just to read Patrice Lewis' superb article on the 7 core areas of preparedness. There are lots of articles and guides out there that treat this subject trivially (as I've mentioned in one of my previous posts), but this one really nails the family preparedness steps you should be thinking about. Hopefully the article will come out on the Backwoods Home Website before long.

Three must-read books to help you prepare your family for disaster

2011-09-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

We all know we should be better prepared for a disaster, but once we've put together our "disaster kit" and know how to switch off the gas supply, what comes next? Well these three books will help you take the next step in three different ways - through understanding the psychology of disaster survival, through a highly practical guide to disaster organization, and through understanding how you can make your life more self-sufficient - and thus more robust.

1. The Unthinkable - Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why. This book sets the stage for your whole approach to disasters and reveals some of the basic instincts that can affect your chances of survival. Through a series of stories, and interviews with experts in neurology and psychology, it gives you an understanding of what your brain thinks you need to do, what you really need to do, and how two switch from the former to the latter in a disaster (for example, our natural instinct is to freeze and look to see what others are doing, rather than to lead and take action). Very readable and very helpful.

2. Organize for Disaster: Prepare your Family and your Home for Any Natural or Unnatural Disaster. This highly practical book written by a professional organizer is packed with useful tips on everything from where to keep your documents, preparing your house for disaster, what food supplies to have in and how to evacuate safely. For those who like checklists, the appendix has a pack of templates for things like a family communications plan and a home inventory.

3. The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Lead it. This book is to prepare you for the really big disasters - e.g. the ones that might knock out your power for months, or change our very way of life. But the gem of this book is in both dusting off some of the pearls of wisdom built up over generations (how to grow potatoes in a small space in your yard) and in some really innovative things that come from an author that has been doing this kind of thing all his life (like how to build an outdoor toilet that also makes compost!). Whether you want to set up a 1-acre farm or just learn how to grow a few vegetables on your deck, this nicely illustrated book is the one to go for.

Hurricane Katia Resources

2011-09-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources for tracking Hurricane Katia. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops. Please also check out the dashboard and resources tabs on this site for more resources.

For those in the path of Katia, you can get official general forecasts from the National Hurricane Center, and local information from the NWS Hurricane Local Statements. You can also find twitter feeds of your local emergency management officials on the excellent Map of reliable twitter feeds which was originally set up for Hurricane Irene. General preparation advice can be found on the FEMA blog.

Check out this book and this book to help you prepare for the next disaster!

Tracking tools and general information sources

National Hurricane Center - official watches, warnings, advisories, probability cones, etc
Hurricane Local Statements - for specific areas

Stormpulse - Hurricane Katia - high quality maps and tracking tools

Weather Underground Katia Tracking Page - nice tracking resources
Weather.com Irene Tracking Page
VueToo Katia Situation Page - multiple concurrent maps of Katia's status
FEMA blog (weather updates) - updates and preparation information.
Hurricane Katia Wikipedia Page
Central Florida Hurricane Center (aggregates information relating to Florida)

Tampa Bay Online Hurricane Guide - with local resources for Florida
Florida Sun-Sentinel Hurricane Page

Social media tools

Google News on Irene- hits for Katia on Google News
Irene Twitter/Weather Map - shows radar image plus markers linking to twitter hashtags for locations
Map of reliable twitter feeds - shows feeds of local emergency management agencies, etc (originally for Irene)

Twitter updates for #hurricane OR #katia
Hurricane Katia Facebook page

Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - blog with updates and discussion
ESRI Tweet Map - map with hurricane track and tweets
Red Cross Shelters on map

Other tools and information

Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio during active events

Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters (should they happen)

Virginia Earthquake Resources

2011-08-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit in Virginia August 31 at 1:51pm EST. No reports of injuries but buildings evacuated, and nuclear power plants shut down. Here are some resources on this:

USGS Information page for this earthquake
Google News search for earthquake virginia
Twitter search for #earthquake OR #equs OR #vaeq OR #dcquake
Washington Post blog entry
Virginia Seismic Zone on Wikipedia
Radioreference.com live scanner feeds
ESRI earthquake map (crowdsourced)

Hurricane Irene Resources

2011-08-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

As of the 7PM EDT Saturday update, Irene was a Category 1 hurricane weakening slightly to maximum sustained winds of around 80 mph. Here are some resources for tracking the storm. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops. Please also check out the dashboard and resources tabs on this site for more resources.

For those in the path of Irene, you can get official general forecasts from the National Hurricane Center, and local information from the NWS Hurricane Local Statements. You can also find twitter feeds of your local emergency management officials on the excellent Map of reliable twitter feeds. General preparation advice can be found on the FEMA blog.

Check out this book and this book to help you prepare for the next disaster!

Tracking tools & general information sources

National Hurricane Center - official watches, warnings, advisories, probability cones, etc
Hurricane Local Statements - for specific areas

Stormpulse - Hurricane Irene - high quality maps and tracking tools

Weather Underground Irene Tracking Page - nice tracking resources
Weather.com Irene Tracking Page
VueToo Irene Situation Page - multiple concurrent maps of Irene's status
FEMA blog (weather updates) - updates and preparation information.
Hurricane Irene Wikipedia Page
Central Florida Hurricane Center (aggregates information relating to Florida)

Tampa Bay Online Hurricane Guide - with local resources for Florida
Florida Sun-Sentinel Hurricane Page

Social media tools

Google News on Irene- hits for Irene on Google News
Google Map - Annotated with information about Irene (also below)
Irene Twitter/Weather Map - shows radar image plus markers linking to twitter hashtags for locations
Map of reliable twitter feeds - shows feeds of local emergency management agencies, etc
Project EPIC Tweak-the-Tweet map - categorized twitter posts plotted on a map
Google Crisis Response Map - a variety of information can be projected on a map

Twitter updates for #hurricane OR #irene

Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - blog with updates and discussion
ESRI Tweet Map - map with hurricane track and tweets
Crisis Commons Wiki - lists of data sources for Irene
OASIS map with NYC evacuation centers
Red Cross Shelters on map

News reports & pictures
Pictures of Irene impact from Puerto Rico (Washington Post)
Video of Irene taken from International Space Station (NASA)

Other tools & information

Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio during active events

Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters (should they happen)

View Hurricane Irene in a larger map

Strong geomagnetic solar storm hits earth

2011-08-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Last night's geomagnetic storm was classified as "strong" on the NOAA Space Weather scale, threatening to cause some disruptions in satellite communications, and possibly in power systems. At one point, the Kp index (a measure of the amount of geomagnetic disturbance - see my guide to solar weather) hit "8" which is pretty impressive (see picture). As it happens, there don't seem to have been any really significant disruptive effects from this storm, but we should take this as a wake-up call. As we approach the 2013 solar sunspot maximum, NASA is predicting around four "extreme" events, and many severe events. As I discussed previously, such events could cause a widespread, long-lived power outage. Even a widespread outage of a few days could cause some big problems for nuclear power plants. Such a long term power outage really needs to be on our preparedness radar - both for individuals (e.g. by keeping a rolling food store) and for emergency managers.

Tropical Storm Emily Resources

2011-08-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

As of 5PM Thursday, Tropical Storm Emily has been downgraded and is not expected to produce significant wind damage (although 2-4 inches of rainfall are expected). Here are some resources for tracking the storms. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops. Please also check out the dashboard and resources tabs on this site for more resources.

National Hurricane Center - official, watches, warnings, advisories, probability cones, etc

Stormpulse Atlantic Tracker - high quality maps and tracking tools

Weather Underground Emily Tracking Page - nice tracking resources
Tropical Storm Emily Wikipedia Page

Tampa Bay Online Hurricane Guide - with local resources for Florida
Florida Sun-Sentinel Hurricane Page

Google News on Emily- hits for Emily on Google News

Twitter updates for #emily

Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - blog with updates and discussion

Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio during active events (not yet for Igor)

Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters (should they happen)

How long will my cell phone work in a power outage?

2011-08-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Having lived through the Great Northeast Power Outage of 2004, one thing that struck me was the that some peoples' cellphones stopped working immediately (i.e. couldn't find a tower) and some kept on working throughout the outage. That was 2004: in 2010, with our daily reliance on cell phones and smartphones for communications, one would image that cell towers would as standard practice have power backup to last at least a couple of days. However, this may be over optimistic. In 2008 a proposal by the FCC to require cellular carriers to have 8 hours power backup on their towers (yes, that's just 8 hours!) was fiercely resisted by the cellphone carriers on the basis that it would be impossibly expensive to implement, and was subsequently nixed by the White House.

Of course the most useful information would be to know what provisions different carriers take to keep their sites going in a power outage, but this information seems almost impossible to find. Anecdotally, most towers seem to be active for several hours in a power outage, but this seems to vary widely by region and carrier. There are some encouraging signs for the future though: for example T-mobile just installed their first grid-independent solar powered cellular tower.

Does anyone have any clues on this one? Either experience as a user or actual knowledge of what particular companies' policies are? If so, please leave a comment!

Emergency Preparedness Week May 1-7: taking individual and community preparedness to the next level

2011-03-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

There is a day or a week declared for every cause: some more useful than others. One which has proved useful is Severe Weather Preparedness Week. It's not as well known, but there is also an Emergency Preparedness Week - this year May 1-7 - which seems especially strong in Canada. I propose we should consider spending this week examining, as both individuals and communities, how we would respond to a widespread disaster which might knock out power, services and supplies for months (think Japanese earthquake or worse). This could be real fun and build self-sufficiency skills. One can even imagine communities working towards a "Disaster Ready" status (just like Storm Ready status) which might involve things like having community gardens, farms and wells which promote self-sufficiency for the community.

Texas Wildfires Information

2011-02-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

These are the first resources I can find for the wildfires in the Palisades, TX area Feb 27 2011. Please post comments with more resources if you have them. Note that the #txfire, #amafire and #wildfire tags are being used on Twitter.

National Weather Service 6.15pm update

Texas DPS Situation Reports

Texas Forest Service updates

Texas Forest Service situation report

MyHighPlains.com - including evacuation instructions
Live video feed from ChaserTV
Impact map from National Weather Service
Amarillo Office of Emergency Management
Twitter search for #txfire OR #amafire OR #wildfire
Live Audio Scanner Feed for Lubbock County
Live Audio Scanner Feed for Potter & Randall County Fire, Sheriff, and Amarillo PD/FD
Google News search for Texas Wildfire
CBS7 Wildfire Status Page
KWES NewsWest9
KWTX News
INCIWEB - this fire is not there yet, but when it is it will have updates and links to other resources
Satellite images of Amarillo wildfire

Feb 2011 New Zealand Christchurch Earthquake

2011-02-21T17:46:00.000-08:00

An 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Feb 21, 2011 at 23:51 UTC near Christchurch, New Zealand. Here are some information resources for the earthquake. There are reports of building collapses and fatalities.

If you are looking for someone use the #eqnzContact or #ruok hashtags in Twitter or call 1300 555 135. There is also a Civil Defence number - 800-779-997 You can also try the Christchurch Earthquake Person Finder

Top Twitter Hashtags for the quake are #eqnz, #chch. You can try a Twitter search for #eqnz OR #chch Earthquake OR #christchurch: use #eqnz for tweets

AGGREGATION PAGES - aggregating social media and other sites

All Hazards Blog (this one)

SM4EM page aggregating social media resources

Examiner.com earthquake aggregation site

The Evolving Newsroom - another aggregate page
Google crisis response page for Christchurch earthquake - people finder, maps
FEMA's blog post with a list of resources

FINDING MISSING RELATIVES

1. Search or post requests on Twitter with the #eqnzcontact tag. For example, if you want to find someone called Fred Blogs, go to http://twitter.com, and type the following in the search box: fred blogs AND #eqnzcontact . If you find nothing, post a request for information for example: Please help me find fred bloggs on xxx street christchurch who is missing #eqnzcontact #eqnz

2. Look on the Project EPIC map for #eqnzcontact colored tags in the area of the person you are looking for

3. Try the Google Christchurch Earthquake Person Finder

FINDING ACCOMMODATION

QuakeEscape - finding people accommodation
Christchurch room finder

SOCIAL MEDIA RESOURCES

Project EPIC crowdsourced tweetmap of Christchurch quake
Crisis camp earthquake wiki
Twitter posts from near Christchurch
Twitter search for #eqnz OR #chch Earthquake OR #christchurch: use #eqnz for tweets
Google map showing damage (see below)

Some relevant twitter accounts: @NZcivildefence, @CanterburyEM, @Police_NZ (auto feed only), @ECan, @geonet

NZ TrendsMap of twitter posts in New Zealand
EagleGIS Earthquake map

Christchurch Earthquake Person Finder
eq.org.nz report aggregator
QuakeEscape - finding people accommodation

View Christchurch earthquake: Map of the destruction in a larger map

NEWS AND INFORMATION SITES

USGS site showing earthquake details plus reports from the public
USGS PAGER initial rapid assessment of earthquake
New Zealand Civil Defense with earthquake updates
Christchurch Quake Map showing location of today's earthquakes
NZStuff page with video, pictures, maps, eyewitness accounts
Latest updates from Radio New Zealand (blog-style)
Live updates blog-style from 3News
3News Running Report
3News earthquake RSS feed - faster since site is slow
New Zealand Herald
MSNBC New Zealand Live Stream
3News Live Video Stream
Youtube Video of immediate aftermath of quake
NEW Youtube video of earthquake aftermath (graphic)
Christchurch Crowdmap of reports (new)
Wikipedia page for this earthquake

Quick guide to Space Weather and Solar Flares

2011-02-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

If you have an interest in astronomy, or follow those "end of the world" blogs, you've probably heard about solar flares, and the potential impact of extreme events on the earth. Solar flares are associated with sunspots, are a regular feature of the Sun, and are normally not something to be worried about. However, due to solar cycles, about every 11 years or so there is a period of increased sunspot activity which can result in flares which actually have an impact on the earth. Recently we have heard stories of potential doom, including worldwide power outages and GPS satellites being knocked out. We are now entering a solar maximum, so should we be worried?

Well, yes and no. Most of the concern revolves around the potential for a very strong solar flare which could potentially overload transformers and cause widespread, and possibly permanent power outages. This is a real threat, and was described recently in a National Academy Of Sciences report. In particular, a repeat of a very large flare which occured in 1859 (known as the Carrington Event) could, according to the report, cause an electromagnetic overload of power grids, cause transformers to explode, with damage that might not be repairable for 5-10 years. Yes, that's a 5-10 year widespread power outage. Now, the Carrington Event appears to be quite unusual, and most solar events are much less spectacular. But it should be on our preparation radar. Smaller scale events can still cause regional outages (such as in 1989, when a solar flare resulted in a widespread outage in Quebec, lasting 12 hours and affecting 5 million people)

Fortunately, we have some wonderful resources available, especially from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center which, like its terrestrial counterpart, offers warnings of activity that could cause problems. However, to be able to use these warnings and resources, we need a quick lesson in solar flares. Here is the super-quick version: for a more detailed account see the SWPC FAQ. Basically, sunspots can result in solar flares which are intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation. These only really affect the earth if the sunspot is pointing right in our direction. The most immediate impact of these earthbound flares is a very quick increase in X-ray flux. You can see current X-ray flux values in this plot from the NOAA GOES satellite (also available on the SWPC site):

See the letters on the right (A, B, C, M, X)? That represents the intensity of the flare. The really interesting ones are "X" class flares, and we get a few of these each solar cycle. Very quickly after the flare an X-class (and sometimes an M class) can cause shortwave radio outages on the sun-facing side of the earth. These rays reach the earth very quickly. The possible impacts on radio are given by the R scale on the NOAA Space Weather Scale.

A solar flare can also produce a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). This is a cloud of geomagnetically charged particles which reaches earth usually a couple of days after a flare. This is the one which can cause power outages. It is measured using Planetary K-index (Kp) values - you can see the current Kp values in the plot below (also taken from the NOAA site):

Anything over "4" is classed as a storm, although it's really 8's and 9's which spell trouble. Again for a mapping to real effects, see the G-scale on the NOAA Space Weather Scale.

So that's the quick intro to get you started! For more information, as well as the NOAA site, I recommend SolarCycle24.com (check out the forums) and SpaceWeather.com.

Emergency managers - are you ready for #smemchat?

2011-02-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

If you haven't picked up on it, the world of Emergency Management is a-buzz with talk about Social Media. In many recent emergencies, from the Australian floods, Egyptian revolt to the Midwest icestorm, Twitter, Facebook and Blogs have played an increasingly important part in both dissemination of information and in providing a medium for gathering information from the public.

But of course there is a lot for us to think about: how reliable is all this information? Do false rumors spread like wildfire (or icestorms)? How do you get information out into the "blogosphere" or "tweetverse"? How do you get started? Is there a simple place to get the basics?

Well the good news is that help is at hand. Twitter is no longer just the home of spotty teenagers, and there are some really good resources popping up. Here are my recommendations

1. Take a look at the website sm4em.org. This is a new site run by a leading emergency manager with great resources for getting started.

2. Check out what FEMA is doing - their blog, the twitter account of Craig Fugate, head of FEMA, and their news release on Social Media tools

3. Check out the #smem tag search on Twitter. You don't need an account, just go to this search page and take a look at some of the things people are posting about Social Media and Emergency Management.

4. Join us for #smemchat! Every Friday from 12.30-1.30 EST, we have an online chat about social media and emergency management using the #smemchat tag on Twitter. This is a a safe place to air opinions and have a lively debate. To participate, you need a twitter account and the easiest way is to use your twitter account to log into TweetChat.com and enter #smemchat as the tag. If you want to watch but not participate, just do a Twitter #smemchat search on Fridays at lunchtime!

Tips for a power outage

2011-01-31T07:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some tips for preparing for and dealing with a power outage:

Food & Water
Stocking up on canned goods is preferable, since they keep for a long time if not needed (see my post on keeping a rolling pantry). Buy enough bottled water for a gallon of water per person per day. Get one of those "indoor/outdoor" thermometers, and if the power goes out put the outdoor sensor in the fridge. Once the temperature in the fridge is higher than the temperature outside it's time to move the refrigerator food into a secured box outside (watch for predators!), and put the thermometer in the freezer (which will soon become your fridge). For information on keeping food safe in an emergency, see the USDA factsheet. Whether or not water is available or safe during a power outage is very dependent on your circumstances. Find out as much as you can beforehand, but if in doubt boil water before using.

Heat
The three most important things are to not set fire to your house, to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, and to stay warm. Most gas fireplaces will still work in a power outage, but make sure that you have a window open a crack to replenish the oxygen, and make sure you have a Carbon Monoxide detector in the room with the fireplace. Decide which rooms you are not going to use and close the doors. Put blankets up against any place that might cause a draft. You can use a camping stove for a short time to warm drinks and cook food, but they are VERY dangerous so make sure you keep them in a secure place and only use them for short times. Keep dressed in warm clothes at all times: the most important bits of your body to keep warm are the head, feet and hands. Dress in multiple layers to keep warm air trapped. Watch for signs of hypothermia. You probably have a tank of warm water - use it wisely to keep warm!

Other preparation steps
Fill up your car with gas - it can help you escape to a nice warm hotel, can keep you warm (but don't run in the garage), and can be a source of power (especially with an inverter). Get some money out of the bank, since ATMs could be down and cash could be valuable. Check out the frequencies of not just your local radio stations, but more distant ones that may stay up longer. Also, if you have a scanner, find your local ARES/RACES, fire and EMS frequencies at Radio Reference. Charge up everything you might want to use, and keep a supply of AA, C and D batteries on hand.

Latest on Winter Ice Storm, Blizzard and Tornados

2011-01-30T18:03:00.000-08:00

A Major winter storm is forecast for the Midwest and East Coast of the US, January 31-Feb 3 2011. This is a page I plan on developing with a variety of resources for keeping track of the storm, especially social media resources. Please email me or leave a comment if you know of other resources and I'll add them as soon as I can.

Weather Information

Weather.gov - official NWS page with links to regional and city pages
Storm Prediction Center with nice map showing national radar, watches and warnings
NWS Experimental snow/ice probabilities
Weather Underground
Accuweather
StormPulse

General Social Media Resources

Twitter search for storm OR blizzard OR icestorm OR tornado OR power outage
Submit storm reports to the NWS via twitter
Google News search for ice storm/blizzard/tornado/power outage
Google Latest search for ice storm/blizzard/tornada/power outage
CrisisWiki - submit reports for this event
Google Map for crowdsourced reports of ice storms, snow, and tornados (see also below)
FEMA Blog

State-specific Resources

IN: Indiana road conditions map, Duke Energy Power Outages
NM: NM Road Conditions Map, Follow #NMstorm and #NMwx, dial 511 for info
OK: Oklahoma Ice Map, Follow #OKice #OKwx

Preparation

Haby's Ice Storm Preparation Advice
MyGreatHome Preparing for a Winter Storm
Ready.gov preparing for a winter storm
Tips for a power outage - preparation and during the event.

GOVLIVE stream of storm-related reports

Google map of reports

View Feb 2011 Storm Power outage and damage reports in a larger map

New Homeland Security Advisory System

2011-01-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

The much-ridiculed homeland security color-coded threat level system, which has been stuck at "orange" for years, will finally be dropped by the end of April. In a press conference today, Janet Napolitano announced that a new system will be introduced that will be based on individual threats and recommended responses to these threats. Details are still scarce, but it will have to "levels" - elevated and imminent threat. She said it "will provide a concise summary of the potential threat, information about actions being taken to ensure public safety, and recommended steps that individuals and communities can take."

I suppose we'll have to wait to see what emerges, but this does sound more useful and promising. Also of interest is how the alerts will be delivered - social media? text messages? Watch this space!

For more on this story, check out this Google News Search.

Preparing for infrastructure failure - Tip #1, a rolling food store

2011-01-19T09:42:00.000-08:00

If you follow this blog, you'll know that I think one of the most under-considered risks to families and communities is an extended power outage (see preparing for the big power outage). For most of us, more than a few days without power would be catastrophic. This is the first of a series of blog posts with some tips and practical steps for preparing for such an event, in particular ways of surviving without our modern day basics such as a food supply, water supply, heating and cooling, medicine, and so on. This first one is about food, not necessarily because it is the most critical (at least in the short term - that would be water) but because it is something you can fairly easily do something about.

Most preparedness guides focus on getting by for a few days (72 hour survival kit, etc) or at most a week or two. But for an infrastructure failure that lasted months, this isn't going to do you much good. How can you ensure a food supply for your family that lasts months, or even better is sustainable indefinitely? I suggest two strategies: first, a substantial rolling food store, and second a long-term self-sufficiency plan for food.

A rolling food store means that you have a section of your house or apartment set aside for emergency food supplies, apart from your regular pantry. However, in order to avoid simply storing food which goes bad and which you then throw out, this food store acts as a feed to your regular pantry, and is then replenished. It is thus kind of like a buffer between the store and your pantry.

Determining what needs to be in your food store depends on a number of factors, including the nutrition needs of your family, how many weeks' supply you want (I suggest at least six weeks), what you like to eat regularly, the storage life of the food, and the amount of storage space you have available. I recommend placing the rolling food store in a garage or other area which is accessible but out of your regular living area. Canned foods and sealed goods with a shelf life of a year or more are perfect for your store. You can also keep goods with a shorter shelf life but must remember to use and check them regularly. Good initial recommendations are cans of beans, peanut butter, canned fruit, long-life pasta - things that keep well, give a balanced diet, and which you use everyday. A wonderfully useful tool I have found to help you build your store is the Food Storage Analyzer. This website allows you to create an account, and keep track of what you have in your store. The best bit is you can type the ages of the members of your family, and nutritional details from the labels of items in your store, and it will not only tell you how long the food supply will last, but also how well it meets nutritional requirements (and thus you can tweak what things you store in your supply for better balance). I recommend going straight to the "add your own items" tab and specifically type in the details for your own items, rather than the ones you have in store.

Keeping a rolling food store has some fringe benefits too - you get to go shopping in your own garage and it also encourages you to stock up when items are on sale, and thus save some money.

Now of course this will only keep you going as long as your rolling food supply lasts (plus probably a week or two depending on what you have in your regular pantry, fridge, freezer and so on, when the failure hits). The key to long term preparedness is a strategy for growing and making your own food - but that will have to wait for a future post!

Cyber War

2011-01-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

Dick Clarke's latest book is a must-read for anyone involved in emergency management. Clarke has come in for some criticism for his views and claims that the picture he paints is exaggerated. The book certainly has its weak areas and a few holes in its logic, but overall it paints a believable and frightening picture of the potential results of an attack our our internet and computing infrastructure. Even if it is only half true the issues it raises need our urgent attention. It's not just about the internet going down, but potentially whole infrastructures (particularly the power grid). Many of the issues can only really be dealt with at a federal level, but we should all consider two questions: what would the impact be on emergency communications in our communities if the internet became unusable, and what would be the impact if the power went out for an extended period? In another post, I will look at the interesting issue of preparing for an internet and infrastructure outage at the same time as we are pushing for more use of the internet in Emergency Management.

FEMA's new Blog - more social media thanks to Craig Fugate

2010-12-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

As I posted previously, I think social media is hugely important for helping emergency management connect with the general public in more than a trivial way. With Craig Fugate at the helm, FEMA is starting to get serious about using social media both to keep people informed and also as a way for themselves to find out what is going on. The latest is FEMA's new blog at http://blog.fema.gov/. Now if most government entities created a blog, I'd just think they did it because it was the trendy thing to do, but I think this one will actually be quite interesting (and encouragingly there are there posts there already).

Comcast internet outage: Twitter does it again

2010-12-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Another major Comcast outage tonight, this time in the midwest, with Comcast's DNS servers in Chicago apparently going down. After last week's east cost outage, this is most interesting and one might speculate as to what is going on behind the scenes. But the most interesting thing for me at the moment is that the reason I know this is happening is thanks to twitter: my internet goes down, I search Twitter for "Comcast" and not only find out it is more widespread than my home, but also how to fix it (switch your router DNS server address to Google's 8.8.8.8 - see Google's DNS pages for more information on how to set it up).

Note that if you have a wireless router, it's very easy to set up - just log onto your router (usually by going to 192.168.1.1 in your browser - if you don't know your password try admin for the username and password for the password), then go to the basic settings, and somewhere it will say something like "DNS Address: get dynamically from ISP". Unclick this and manually put in the address 8.8.8.8 (Google's server). Restart your router and it should work

Even more interestingly, as of 9.25pm Eastern time, there appear to be no news outlets carrying the story - a search on Google News for "comcast" brings back nothing (although a "realtime" search pulls up the tweets and also shows the increase in traffic referring to Comcast). So Twitter wins again...

Boulder Canyon Wildfire

2010-10-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources for getting the latest information on the October 29 2010 Boulder Canyon Fire. As of Oct 29 at 9.30, there were two fires located approximately 1/4 mile west of Boulder Canyon. The fires are about 10 acres in size and moving north. Currently the fire is burning near Elephant Buttress above Dome Rock on city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. The most common Twitter hashtag appears to be #boulderfire although #domefire and #bouldercanyonfire are also being used.

Real-time information

Emergency information from Boulder EOC on the Boulder Canyon fires including evacuations
Maps of fire perimeter and evacuation areas (new 5pm Friday, PDF)
Tweets for #domefire OR #boulderfire OR #bouldercanyonfire
Tweet Map for Boulder Canyon Wildfire created by EPIC Colorado

Collaborative Google Map with fire locations and information (see also embedded below)
Alternative Google Map including fire area estimation and evacuation area (also embedded below)
Visionlink map including multiple streams (twitter, etc)
Boulderfire live twitter streams
Firestats page with aggregation of information sources
Xcel Energy Outages Map
Live Video from channel 1
9News Live Webcast
9News slideshow
Daily Camera fire page including maps and videos

INCIWEB - this fire is not there yet, but when it is it will have updates and links to other resources

Boulder County Live Scanner Feeds and Incident Updates - listen live to police and fire radio traffic

Local news sites: 9News, CBS4, KDVR, Denver Post, Huffington Post Denver, DailyCamera

Google News updates for the Boulder fire

NIFC National Fire News - only updated periodically but has detailed, official information

Colorado Wildfires Facebook Page

WILDCAD - Choose a Colorado site to get dispatch updates

Help for those affected

A call center has been established. Residents can call 303-413-7730 for information.
Sparkplace Forum - dedicated to helping those affected by the fire

FourMileFireHelp - forum for those affected with losing home, animals, food, etc.

Miscellaneous

Boulder weather forecast products and warnings

Collaborative Google Map of fire

View Boulder Canyon Fire 10/29/10 in a larger map

Alternate Google Map

View Boulderfire Domefire BoulderCanyonFire in a larger map

Uniden Home Patrol - a new kind of scanner

2010-10-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

Radio scanners are playing an interesting role in the use of social media in disasters - for instance people listening to local scanner traffic and tweeting the latest updates. A big boon to this has been the live audio feeds available on Radio Reference. However, we're not always by a computer or able to connect to the internet during an incident, so a radio scanner is an excellent piece of any disaster kit or for anyone interested in keeping up with events. The widespread move by public safety to digital, trunked systems though has meant that programming a radio scanner to work correctly for the area you are in requires pretty high technical skills and a lot of time, and even just choosing the right scanner is complicated (see my post on this). So I'm very happy to see the Uniden HomePatrol-1 come to market. This really is a revolutionary kind of scanner that just about anyone can use. It comes linked with the RadioReference database, so programming the scanner is as simple as typing in your ZIP code and selecting the kinds of broadcast (police, fire, etc) you wish to receive. It does just about any system - analog, digital, vhf, uhf, 800Mhz and so on. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but for someone who wants to just get listening with the minimum of hassle, it seems perfect.

Twitter for 911 calls - is it really useful?

2010-09-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Twitter has recently proved its usefulness in a variety of disasters and emergency situations (see my blog post on this). But what about as a backup to the 911 system? In most cases, a person in distress who has access to Twitter on their mobile device would also be able to make a 911 call (or whatever the local emergency number is). However, there are common circumstances where this might not be so: a person is in a poor reception area and can only send text messages; they are under threat and need to ask for help covertly; they are in odd locations (e.g. international waters) and it is not clear how to get assistance; or they are in a disaster area and 911 infrastructure is down or is overloaded. Some of these may be addressed by the enhanced 911 system ability to receive text messages, but it is not clear yet how this will pan out. Twitter is already there and it works.

In these kinds of circumstance, anecdotal media reports (see for example this USA Today article) indicate success in that if a person has enough followers (how many is enough?) one of them will likely see a distress message in time, and call 911 (assuming there is enough information to locate the individual). Of course having geotagged tweets can help with this (although if a person is in poor cellphone coverage area assisted GPS will likely not work). But it seems like it would be useful for there to be some way to "elevate" your tweets in an emergency, to stand out against the background chatter. Some way to say "I really need help now" that stands out, like a CB channel 9 or Marine Channel 16.

The obvious way to do this is with a hashtag. Let's say we had a dedicated "I need emergency help" hashtag that could be monitored by agencies (even constrained to a geographic area). Well there are problems: first almost every available easy-to-remember hashtag is already widely used for non-emergency messages - just try a search for #911, #helpme, #call911, #needhelpnow, etc. Even if you devised a more unusual (and harder to remember) hashtag like #ineed911help, you'd get overloaded with retweets, commentary on the "does the #ineed911help system work?" etc very quickly. Second, you would likely get too many responses - imagine a 911 center suddenly getting 10000 calls.

Another way would be natural language processing - identifying patterns, particular phrases, etc, that likely constitute a genuine emergency call. Maybe a predictive model based on these terms. But is this really likely to work? And what about the lawsuits when it doesn't work?

So I think that for right now, the best system is no system. But I think this is something we should be talking about. If you have thoughts on this, please leave comments!

Resources for X24 - test of social media in disasters

2010-09-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

X24 is a SIMULATED emergency in California based on a scenario of an earthquake centered on Bombay Beach California, followed by a possible Tsunami. . In a real disaster, this page would aggregate resources to help people get the latest information. Here I will do the same for this exercise. For a real event, see, for example, the Boulder Wildfire page.

Twitter search for #x24 OR #californiaearthquake - latest twitter updates
X24 facebook page - latest updates
NEW Google map for reports (also below, zoom out to see bigger picture or click on link)
NEW Another Google Map of reports
Map showing details of epicenter
Map of incoming Tsunami wave
NEW Request Relief - form to fill in to ask for aid

USGS Recent Earthquakes - detailed information about recent worldwide earthquakes including reports submitted by the public

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center - issues tsunami warnings for the pacific and bulletins following major earthquakes

News sites: SignonSanDiego - 10News - CBS8 - NBCSanDiego - KUSI

View X24 Mock California Earthquake Tsunami Map in a larger map

Effectively engaging citizens in disaster and emergency management - 3 steps we need to take

2010-09-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

One of my motivations behind creating this blog was to make a better connection between the world of emergency management, and the everyday world most of us inhabit. Emergency management has well thought out tools and resources for preparation, response, mitigation and recovery from emergencies and disasters, from the federal to the local government level, but somehow most of these remain walled off from the general public, and the approach of EM to the public has tended to lack engagement (despite worthwhile efforts like CERT and citizen corps). For example, how many Emergency Management departments even make their hazard analysis easily available to the public? Yet such information can help individuals make much better decisions about how to prepare themselves (see my blog entry on this). Everyone agrees that the key to disaster planning is engagement of the public, yet participation is very low (see In Case of Emergency blog post). So what is wrong? Well I think part of the problem is that we still think of this as a top-down process - how can we engage them, the citizenry in our processes? This results in a paternalistic approach to citizen involvement (as characterized by the duct tape debacle on the federal level). So what can we do better? Well, here are three things I think we could practically do now to improve citizen involvement in preparing for disasters.

1. Take the social media bull by the horns. At all levels, from local to federal, use social media (Twitter, blogs) to ask questions, not just disseminate information. Employ a programming-whiz intern kid to develop social media apps like Google maps for your local community. Ask people to submit their resources. Give prizes for social media resources voted the most useful. Be honest and ask for input on matters for which we are ill prepared. Just get on board and do it properly, rather than in a "I don't quite understand this but I know I'm supposed to have a twitter account" kind of way. If you don't believe this is important, see "10 reasons social media is important in a real crisis"

2. Start true innovation in the use of technology in Emergency Management. Identify where the rest of the world is technologically way ahead of the EM community, and embrace these rather than trying to replicate them in an expensive fashion. Buy everyone involved in EM an iPad. Employ people to write apps for EM. Give these away free to everyone, not just emergency managers. This could be done cheaply and effectively, while engaging citizenry in the process. Federally, start an equivalent of Innocentive for finding solutions to hard problems. Get out of the grants-expensive vendor model.

3. Find ways to give people real, concrete qualifications and powers rather than nominal ones. Work with universities and training institutes to let people train as EMT's or firefighters for free, then use them in a real official capacity when resources are stretched. Give them free BLS kits. Employ volunteer directors (and give them real power) who actively recruit key members of a community who can help in disasters. Talk to survivalists about how to scale up their worst-case-scenario planning to a local community (see my blog post on this).

Peewink Boulder Colorado Fire Resources

2010-09-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources for getting the latest information the Boulder Peewink Wildfire. As of 7pm Friday, latest reports indicated the fire had dropped to 2-3 acres, may be contained by 9pm, and all evacuations and closures had been lifted.

Real-time information

Boulder Office of Emergency Management - evacuation, road closure information

Twitter feeds: @bouldercounty @boulderoem @boulderrescue @epiccolorado @allhazardsblog

Twitter search for #peewinkfire OR #peewink

Boulder County Live Scanner Feeds and Incident Updates - listen live to police and fire radio traffic

InciWeb - too early yet but check back for official updates, maps

Approximate fire location on a Google map

Map of tweeted reports by Colorado project EPIC (for fourmile fire but may be updated for this fire soon)

Local news sites: 9News, CBS4, KDVR, Huffington Post Denver

Google News updates for Boulder Fire

NIFC National Fire News - only updated periodically but has detailed, official information

Colorado Wildfires Facebook Page

WILDCAD - Choose a Colorado site to get dispatch updates

Help for those affected

Nederland Community Center (click for map) - 750 hwy 72 - meeting place for evacuees

Miscellaneous

Boulder weather forecast products and warnings

Hurricane Karl Resources

2010-09-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

According to the 12pm Friday NHC advisory, Karl has made landfall on the coast of Mexico, about 10 miles N of Veracruz, with sustained winds of 115mph. Hurricane watches and warnings are in effect for Mexico: a warning is in effect from Veracruz to Cobo Rojo. Here are some resources for tracking the storm. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops. Please also check out the dashboard and resources tabs on this site for more resources. The image on the left shows the current positions of Karl, Igor and Julia

National Hurricane Center - official, watches, warnings, probability cones, etc

Stormpulse Hurricane Igor Tracker - high quality maps and tracking tools for Karl
Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking resources
Tampa Bay Online Hurricane Guide - with local resources for Florida
Tweet map for tweets about Karl in Mexico gulf region (also below)

Google Latest on Karl - latest Google hits for Karl (i.e. most recently posted)

Google News on Karl - hits for Karl on Google News

Twitter updates for #karl
Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - blog with updates and discussion

Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio during active events (likely to start soon for Karl)

Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters

Tweet map for references to Karl

Twitter in disasters - survival of the fittest information?

2010-09-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

One of the commonest concerns I hear from the emergency management community about the use of social media such as Twitter in disasters (and citizen involvement in general) is one of trust: specifically, the risk of misinformation and rumors spreading virally and thus causing all kinds of untold complications. Officials usually carefully curate information that is given to the public through well organized channels (e.g. a Public Information Officer at the scene). Conversely anyone can post anything on Twitter. In a recent post I talked about the effectiveness of Twitter and other social media resources in the Boulder wildfire (and list other articles that discuss this too). One of the most striking things for me was the accuracy of most of the information in these sources. Sure there was misinformation (such as suggestions the fire had spread to locations it hadn't for instance, and miscalculations about the size of the fire) but this seemed to be quickly be corrected by other posts. Further, when official information was made available (such as on InciWeb), this spread quite virally around with Twitter. So probably many more people saw the official, curated information thanks to Twitter. So here are my questions: in disasters, does social media tend to be self-curating, with "survival of the fittest" information (i.e. misinformation gets overwhelmed by good information)? Does this reliably happen, and could it go horribly wrong (e.g. a viral false rumor causing panic)? And how might we analyze trends on Twitter to differentiate between these two?

Hurricane Julia Resources

2010-09-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Julia formed from a tropical storm on Tuesday. According to the 5am Friday advisory, it is moving WNW and is a category 1 storm with sustained winds of 85mph. Here are some resources for tracking the storms. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops. Please also check out the dashboard and resources tabs on this site for more resources. The image on the left shows the current positions of both Igor and Julia.

National Hurricane Center - official, watches, warnings, advisories, probability cones, etc

Stormpulse Hurricane Julia Tracker - high quality maps and tracking tools for Julia

Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking resources

Tampa Bay Online Hurricane Guide - with local resources for Florida

Google Latest on Julia - latest Google hits for Julia (i.e. most recently posted)

Google News on Julia - hits for Julia on Google News

Twitter updates for #hurricaneigor OR #hurricanejulia OR #julia OR #igor

Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - blog with updates and discussion

Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio during active events (not yet for Igor)

Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters (should they happen)

Loveland Wildfire Resources

2010-09-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources for getting the latest information the Loveland Colorado wildfire. I will update this page as the situation develops. Also check out the dashboard and resources sections on the tabs above. As of September 15th, the fire was 35 percent contained, but there were concerns about winds Wednesday night.

A meeting place for residents who have evacuated is at the Church of Loveland at 3835 S.W. 14th Street. Residents needing shelter for large animals should call Loveland's police dispatcher at 970-667-2151. Officials said both small and large animals have been rescued from the fire zone. Members of the public wanting to get information on family members can call 211 or toll free on 1-866-485-0211.

Real-time information
InciWeb page for Reservior Road fire - perimeter maps, and updated official information

City of Loveland Website - with information posted about evacuations, etc. Also listen to 1610AM radio.
NEW Loveland Fire Tweet Map - see also below

Coloradoan Loveland fire information and help - list of resources

ABC7 page for the Loveland Fire - lots of information
NIFC National Fire News - only updated periodically but has detailed, official information

7News Google Map - probably the most useful currently (see below)

Matt's Google Map - showing evacuation shelters, etc, has current information
Twitter posts on #lovelandfire OR #reservoirroadfire

Larimer County Live Scanner Feeds and Incident Updates - listen live to police and fire radio traffic
Larimer County emergency management information on the fire
Denver Post Article
Colorado Wildfires Facebook Page
WILDCAD - Choose a Colorado site to get dispatch updates

Google map with fires, evacuations and road closures from scanner traffic and news reports (archival only, appears not to have been updated since Monday)

Colorado fires crowdmap - populated with reports from twitter (archival only, not updated since Sep 13)

Loveland Fire Map - another Google map (doesn't seem to be updated)

Photos and videos

Loveland fire photos from joelcomm
9News Slideshow
Photos on the Examiner website
KDVR Raw Footage video of the fire

News sites

Local news sites: 9News, CBS4, KDVR, Loveland Reporter Herald, Huffington Post Denver

Google News updates for the Loveland fire

Current Loveland Fire Tweet Map - best maximized to full screen, zoom in

Loveland fire map, drag to see more

View Reservoir Road Fire Near Loveland, Colo. in a larger map

Hurricane Igor Resources

2010-09-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

According to the 5am Tuesday NHC update, Igor has sustained 75mph winds, making it a category 1 hurricane. Hurricane watches, tropical storm warnings and Environment Canada wind warnings have been issued for Newfoundland in Canada. It will likely come near Newfoundland later today. Much of the east coast of the US has high surf advisories and risk of rip currents (see wave height predictions below). Here are some resources for tracking the storm. Twitter is a great way to get the very latest updates. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops. Please also check out the dashboard and resources tabs on this site for more resources. The image on the left shows the current positions of both Igor and Julia.

Resources for Canada / Newfoundland
U.S. National Hurricane Center - official, watches, warnings, probability cones, etc
Environment Canada Warnings for Newfoundland/Labrador
Newfoundland CBC weather blog with lots of information on potential impact of Igor
CBC Newfoundland and Labrador - news updates
St John's Telegram - news updates
NEW Telegram article on current impact of Igor on Newfoundland
NEW Twitter search on #igor OR #newfoundland
Stormpulse Hurricane Igor Tracker - high quality maps and tracking tools for Igor
Hurricanetrack website with live updates
Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking resources
Weather Channel Igor Animated Satellite Image
Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking resources
Wave height prediction from NOAA

Official information
U.S. National Hurricane Center - official, watches, warnings, probability cones, etc
Bermuda EMO - latest official information

Information for visitors to Bermuda

Bermuda emergency information for residents

Bermuda weather service homepage

Detailed hurricane track forecast for Bermuda from Bermuda weather service

BELCO - with information on Bermuda power outages

Social Media

Twitter updates for #igor OR #bermuda OR #igorwatch10
Live blogging the aftermath of Igor - from BerNews

Google map for submission of storm reports in Bermuda (see below)

Bernews live blogging of Igor

Bermuda Sun storm blog
The #bermuda daily

Bernews facebook page with submitted updates

Bermuda webcams: BSN and hurricanetrack

Tweets about Igor in Bermuda (also below)

Long tails and bermuda shorts blog - personal blog from the "front line"

News sites

Bermuda Sun: latest information

Bernews: Lots of local updates for Bermuda

Examiner.com page with updated information on Igor and Bermuda

Royal Gazette - lots of useful information

Google Latest on Igor - latest Google hits for Igor (i.e. most recently posted)

Google News on Igor - hits for Igor on Google News

CBS News updates

Watch live Bernews webcast

Photos and Videos

Igor Hashalbum
Weather channel photos of Igor impact on Bermuda
Photos of storm surge in Bermuda (Saturday)

Video of storm impacting Bermuda from Examiner website

Pictures of flooding in Boaz, Bermuda

Photos of waves hitting Bermuda south shore (Friday)

Tracking resources

Stormpulse Hurricane Igor Tracker - high quality maps and tracking tools for Igor

Hurricanetrack website with live updates

BWS Doppler Radar

Wave height prediction from NOAA - potential surf impact on US eastern seaboard

Weather Channel Igor Animated Satellite Image

Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking resources

Tampa Bay Online Hurricane Guide - with local resources for Florida

Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker - blog with updates and discussion on Igor

Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio NOW ACTIVATED FOR IGOR

Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters (should they happen)

Google maps of storm reports - please submit updates

View Bermuda Igor Storm Reports in a larger map

Tweets about Igor in Bermuda

San Bruno Gas Explosion Resources

2010-09-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources I've collected for getting information on the San Bruno gas explosion. I'll keep this updated as the situation develops

Google map showing fire location, shelters, videos, etc (see below for embedded version)
NEW San Bruno Fire CrowdMap - another map with latest info
NEW Volunteer to help
NEW SFGate Maps Shelters Closures Donations
NEW Photos at LA times
NEW ABC7 Resources for San Bruno Residents
NEW Interactive before/after photo on LA Times site
San Mateo County Fire Feed - live audio feed of radio scanner traffic
San Mateo County Law Enforcement Feed - live audio feed of radio scanner traffic
San Bruno Fire on Twitter (#sanbrunofire)
Google News - updates on San Bruno fire
Google Latest - slightly different results to Google News, latest web updates
News outlets: KRON4, CBS5, KGO, KTVU, NBC Bay Area SFGate California Beat SanBrunoPatch
Photos on TimesUnion site
Videos on Youtube of San Bruno Fire
NEW Viral videos and pictures at KTLA
Red Cross Safe and Well - let loved ones know you are OK
San Mateo County Emergency Management (no updates yet)
Pacific Gas & Electric

Evacuation Center/Shelter: San Bruno Parks & Rec / Veterans Center, 251 City Park Way
American Red Cross Hotline: (650) 259-1750 OR (888) 443-5722

View San Bruno Gas Explosion in a larger map

Four mile canyon wildfire and social media

2010-09-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

An interesting development over the last few days has been the part that social media has played in providing information for people affected by the Four Mile Canyon wildfire. There have been a number of news reports about including one in the Denver Post, as well as in blogs such as OSM. Of particular interest is the general lack of satisfaction with the reverse 911 system contrasted with satisfaction with a variety of social media provisions from the simple (searching for the #boulderfire tag on Twitter) to the more involved (Google map showing fire bounds, fires, etc) and forums to help people recover, particularly Sparkplace Forum and FourMileFireHelp. Also, based on the reported usage statistics, several hundred people at any one time were listening to the live audio feeds of emergency services radio traffic. Indeed my blog posting listing some of these resources got a huge number of hits and was posted in various places such as the Gold Hill Government site: perhaps there is as much need for such sites which aggregate resources "on the fly" as there is for the social media resources themselves. I think there are many interesting dimensions to this whole movement. Emergency managers and public safety officials as a whole do need to embrace all of these resources, and maybe can act as a curator of them in some way (e.g. posting the most useful on official sites, and helping filter out misinformation).

Update Sep 14. True to my interest in social media aggregation, here are some of the articles that I have found on Social Media in the Boulder fire. Please leave a comment or email me if you know of more!

CNN: Heading off disaster, one tweet at a time
Denver Post: Evacuees use social media to keep up on Boulder wildfire disaster developmentsRead more: Evacuees use social media to keep up on Boulder wildfire disaster developments
OSM: Boulder Colorado fire and the role of social media
Orange Insights: Analysis of Social Media and #BoulderFire
Huffington Post: Boulder fire stokes community through social media
iDisaster: Are emergency response organizations dropping the social media ball?
CU Independent: Twitter became primary Boulder Fire information source
Wingineering.com: Twitter to the rescue: social media's evolving role in disasters
Ally B Speakin: personal account of the use of twitter

Tropical Storm Igor set to become Atlantic hurricane

2010-09-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Tropical storm Igor is expected to strengthen over the weekend and possibly become a hurricane by Sunday. It is on track to potentially affect the east coast of the U.S. towards the end of next week (although it could also head further north and east, and not be a problem at all). No hype yet, but here are some resources to keep an eye on it. I will keep this page updated as the storm develops

National Hurricane Center updates for Igor - official, watches, warnings, probability cones, etc
Stormpulse - very nice graphics and tools
Hurricane Watch Net - streaming audio during active events (not yet for Igor)
Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking resources
Google Latest - latest Google hits for (i.e. most recently posted)
Google News - hits for Igor on Google News
Twitter updates for #igor
Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - radio frequencies and such like for major disasters (should they happen)

Telephone alerting problems with Boulder Wildfire

2010-09-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Here is an article about problems with the system for calling people's phones in emergencies in the Boulder Colorado Four Mile Canyon wildfire currently ongoing. Interestingly this same issue came up a few years ago with a San Diego fire. It seems there are two basic problems: first, most people nowadays who still have landlines, have cordless phones which die immediately there is a power outage (or presumably services with internet providers which can have the same trouble); second, it seems to be difficult to keep an up-to-date database - I am not sure why this is, but it's mentioned in both articles. Of course there are particular problems with the trend to go "cellphone-only": with cellphones, people and tend to change cellphone numbers regularly and indeed the whole premise of dialling a geographic location is fuzzy. It's hard to know what to say about this: it's probably still the most effective way of paging a group of people, and alternatives like text messaging run into all kinds of problems of their own. I guess it's back to the old mantra: no one system is perfect, and always have multiple, redundant systems. Ideally, citizens would be encouraged to submit their preferred details (phone, email, cellphone/text etc) to a local emergency management office and in an incident all methods would be used for information.

Nasa Colorado Four Mile Canyon Fire Satellite Photo

2010-09-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

NASA has published this interesting satellite photo of the Boulder Colorado Four Mile Canyon Fire from the MODIS on the Terra satellite. It shows Boulder completely occluded by smoke. Interesting too is the extent of the eastward plume. More details are on NASA's page.

Colorado Wild Fire Resources

2010-09-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources for getting the latest information the Boulder Colorado Four Mile Canyon fire.

Real-time information
NEW DTSAglile Situational Awareness Map
NEW Boulderfire.com - tweets, get/offer help and donation resources
Boulder EOC fire boundary and evacuation map (PDF)
Map of tweeted reports by Colorado project EPIC
Map of tweeted reports colored by time by Colorado project EPIC
Twitter feeds: @bouldercounty @boulderrescue @epiccolorado
INCIWEB Four Mile Canyon Fire - regular updates and links to other resources
Boulder Fire Map - A map of closures, known structure fires, and evacuations (see below)

Boulder County Live Scanner Feeds and Incident Updates - listen live to police and fire radio traffic
ESRI Social Media Map including photos

Local news sites: 9News, CBS4, KDVR, Huffington Post Denver, 7News Fire Page
Google News updates for the Boulder fire

NWS Denver Map showing fire borders
Wildfire Today Site with detailed analysis and maps
NIFC National Fire News - only updated periodically but has detailed, official information

Twitter posts on #boulderfire
Colorado Wildfires Facebook Page

WILDCAD - Choose a Colorado site to get dispatch updates

Help for those affected
Sparkplace Forum - dedicated to helping those affected by the four mile canyon fire
FourMileFireHelp - forum for those affected with losing home, animals, food, etc. In particular this site has a list of people offering accommodation for those who have lost homes or been displaced
Boulder County victim assistance center: 3842 N. Broadway Tel (303) 441-3560
Red Cross emergency shelter: YMCA, 2850 Mapleton Ave

Miscellaneous

CIMSS Satellite Blog with a discussion of the infrared satellite images from Sep 6 onwards

MODIS satellite imagery from NASA

Four mile canyon fire videos on Youtube

Boulder weather forecast products and warnings
Flickr Blog - some amazing pictures of the fire

View #boulderfire in a larger map

Survivalism and Emergency Management

2010-09-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

I have never really been into the whole "survivalism" thing. In Y2K I didn't even buy one extra can of baked beans. I don't think there is a particularly high chance the government is about to collapse or impose martial law, and the world probably won't end in 2012. However, recently I have been looking at some of the "survival" forums out there, in particular Prepared Society and SurvivalistBoards, and have realized that in these sites there is a wealth of expertise in preparedness for long-term catastrophes: not just a 3-day ready pack, put people on there are thinking about how to make it for months and years. In emergency management we tend to discount people with an interest in survivalism as paranoid or fringe, which may be true, but this has made them think a lot about these issues. If we do have a major, long-term catastrophe (e.g. the protracted power outage that I discussed previously) it's these people who will make it if anyone does. Conversely, I think emergency management has something to offer the survivalism community: rational hazard analysis and planning (see my previous post on personal hazard planning). Combining these allows one to make rational judgements about what kinds of events really are most likely put us in a "SHTF" situation (to use some survivalism lingo) and which are unlikely enough to be for all intents and purposes zero-probability. From an emergency management perspective, it would be interesting to take some of this expertise (self-sufficiency, etc) and think about how they could apply on a community level rather than just a personal level.

A last hype for Hurricane Earl

2010-09-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

So CNN is leading with the headline "Earl expected to cause 'destructive waves'". So what does this mean? We've been lulled into a false sense of security and it's suddenly strengthening? There is some kind of ersatz tsunami coming to the East coast? We need to evacuate now? Well no, if you read the story it really means that Earl is such a bust that "destructive waves" is all the hype that is left. The quote seemingly came from the state emergency management agency, along the lines of there could be a storm surge as it passes through.

All of this just doesn't help with the problem I previously discussed about having false positives for hurricanes. If we are to avoid another Katrina, we really need to differentiate the truly catastrophic hurricane from the "possibly bad" ones. This is a scientific problem but also a problem of information dissemination by officials.

Preparing for the big power outage

2010-09-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

If you've read some of my earlier posts, you'll know that one of my top concerns is the risk of a widespread, long term (over a week) power outage. Emergency hazard planning is all about looking at the potential impact and probability of a hazard, and then how this is mitigated by steps that have been put in place. It doesn't take much thought to realize that the impact of a widespread prolonged power outage is absolutely huge: no water, food chain breaks down, law and order break down, no heating or air conditioning, communications fail, no health care, no sanitation, for starters. Most people don't realize that most critical services (hospitals, etc) only have enough generator fuel for a few days.

So we comfort ourselves that this could never happen (i.e. the probability is low). However, a in recent NAS report called Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts scientists predict that a solar storm of similar magnitude to one that hit in 1859 could knock out our power grid for 10 years (yes, that's 10 years... how we would even recover from that isn't discussed). Further, many articles recently have exposed the vulnerability of the SCADA systems in the grid to hacker attack - it would be almost trivial for an experienced, government funded hacker to bring down at least a portion of the grid through a virus or trojan horse. We don't know what the probability is of these things happening, but it's certainly high enough to warrant concern. Yet hardly anyone talks about it in Emergency Management circles. I was therefore delighted to find that Mitigation Journal recently brought this issue up in their article and video podcast (I'm looking forward to their follow ups on this).

What can we do to mitigate this risk? On a personal level, there are options, albeit expensive and time-consuming ones (solar panels, long-term food supplies, planting our own gardens, etc). Keeping a full tank of gas and some cash on hand will help in the short term. For a community there are more options - encouraging allotments and community gardens; putting solar power capabilities in critical functions; keeping large supplies of fuel on hand; having backup communications (it is interesting that in a prolonged power outage the only viable long-range communications will probably be on shortwave). But we need some creative thought from many people on this!

The Hurricane Watch Net: Live Streaming Audio during Hurricanes

2010-09-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

An excellent and little known resource for finding out pertinent, current information during Hurricanes is the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN). This is a quasi-official organization of amateur radio operators that mobilize during hurricanes to provide up-to-the-minute information on the "on the ground" effects of hurricanes to the National Hurricane Center during hurricane events. Information is passed over shortwave radio on 14.325 MHz. so if you have a shortwave radio and are in the vicinity you can tune in. Even more useful for the rest of us, the audio from this frequency is streamed over the internet on Voipwx.net during net activations. with the MP3 stream URL of http://live.wx5fwd.net/voipwx.mp3 (you can find other format streams at http://live.wx5fwd.net/). There can be long periods of quiet, so it's good to just leave running in the background. For more hurricane tracking tools, see the resources page.

Choosing the right radio scanner

2010-09-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

A radio scanner is useful in all kinds of circumstances, but can be a critical information resource in a time of disaster as you are getting the information "from the source". However, there are many different radio systems and you have to choose the right scanner for your area and the kind of information you want to receive.

The first thing is to determine the legality of using a scanner in your area. Some countries outright ban listening to public safety radios with a scanner. Some U.S. states prohibit, for example, using a scanner in a car. Some allow it if you are an amateur radio operator. Checkout the online guide to state scanner laws as a start.

Next, make sure you really need a scanner. An increasing number of people are making scanner feeds available online, meaning you can listen in with just an internet-connected computer. There are even iPhone and mobile applications that let you listen to these feeds on your mobile device (such as EmergencyRadio). Check out one of the most popular feed sites for the U.S. on the RadioReference Audio Feeds page. If you do decide to go for a scanner, decide if you need a mobile scanner (fits in your car) or a handheld one. For most purposes, a handheld will be the most flexible

Next, check out the radio frequencies for your local county and area on RadioReference. If the agencies you want to monitor use VHF or UHF frequencies (listed as 15x.xxx or 45x.xxx for instance), you can use a cheaper scanner such as the Uniden BC72XLT Handheld Scanner (Black) available for about $80. Many states are building statewide digital trunked systems (rather like cellphone networks but for two-way radios). If your agencies use a digital trunked system, you are going to need a more expensive scanner such as the Uniden BCD396XT, the Uniden BCD996T, or the GRE PSR500 all of which cost around $500. These will generally be able to listen to all kinds of system (VHF, UHF, trunked, analog, digital) with the exception of encrypted radio traffic. Also check out a new kind of scanner: the Uniden HomePatrol-1.

Finally, program the frequencies into your scanner. With most scanners you can either program them by hand (using the keypad on the radio) or using a computer (sometimes you have to pay extra for the cable). Either way, it can be a bit tricky, so always search the web for hints on programming your particular scanner. Sometimes there are free or cheap software programs available on the web which are easier to use than the software provided by the scanner manufacturer.

A weather radio that really does what you want it to

2010-09-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

We are all exhorted to buy an all hazards weather radio to keep us safe, but the truth is most of the time these usually get left switched off, mainly because they once woke us at 3am for a river flood warning or some such. The key to making weather radios work for you is buying the right weather radio. Specifically, you need one that can BOTH do SAME (so you can set it to only give alerts for your county) and lets you customize which alerts you want to get an alarm for. In my experience by far the best radio and the only one which has really worked for me is the Midland WR300 (left). I have one in our bedroom set to ONLY go off for tornado warnings and ONLY in our county. It works beautifully - we only get woken up if something really serious is happening (depending on your comfort level you may wish to be woken for severe thunderstorms, etc). Even the alerts you don't have alarms for will still appear on the display. I then use an email weather service (from Weather Underground) for alerts of lesser importance.

New Zealand Christchurch Earthquake Resources

2010-09-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some resources for the New Zealand earthquake. Technical details of the quake can be found at the
USGS page for this earthquake which also has a page for Damage and Strength reports. A good way to keep track of the latest news articles is with the Google News Latest on this earthquake and Updates from CNN. Whilst it currently looks like there will not be a tsunami, bulletins pertaining to this can be found at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Current indications are there are some areas of widespread damage

7.2 magnitude earthquake hits new zealand USGS link

2010-09-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

According to USGS a 7.2 magnitude earthquake just hit New Zealand near ChristChurch.

Google Latest and Hurricane Earl

2010-09-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Well, Hurricane Earl may not be the storm of the century, but it will certainly do some damage somewhere. A long standing interest of mine is aggregating real-time information in disasters to get an overall picture of what is happening. Two recent features of Google - incorporating twitter feeds and being able to specify a timeframe - almost make it a really good too for this. Try typing Hurricane Earl into Google, click on "More search tools" then "Latest' - you get real time updates of the latest posted information from news sites, twitter, web pages and so on. How useful is it? Well let's see. Even better would be to be able to plot twitter locations on a map, maybe clustered and colored by content of the tweet?

Bye Bye Hurricane Earl

2010-09-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

So another hurricane false alarm (or so it looks like). Hurricane Earl drops out of the headlines before it got its chance to make a splash. Probably one of the hardest jobs of forecasters and emergency managers is deciding when the risks of a hurricane are sufficient to justify major, hugely disruptive, actions such as mass evacuation, balanced against the consequences of "crying wolf" on future hurricanes. The problem as always is that most alarms are false alarms, so when "the big one is hitting" we don't realize it's something different. This surely was the problem of Katrina: everyone thought it would be just another dud. In fact not everyone did: to their credit, the bulletins the National Hurricane Center and local offices put out before the storm started to border on the hysterical (at least for official information sources), using words like "potentially catastrophic" (I seem to remember some stronger wording than this but can't find it). This really seems like something for a research project in emergency management, getting the right balance. Any thoughts?

Hurricane Earl Resources

2010-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

The 2010 hurricane season is promising to be a particularly severe one, with 14-20 named storms, 8-12 hurricanes and 4-6 major hurricanes. With the arrival of Hurricane Earl I thought it would be useful to post some hurricane resources, including some lesser known audio feed links.

National Hurricane Center - official bulletins
Hurricane Earl Wikipedia Page - remarkably detailed
Weather Underground Tropical Page - nice tracking tools
Hurricane Watch Net - Amateur Radio hurricane net
Hurricane Net Live audio stream
Radio Reference Wiki Major Events - gives radio frequencies for major disasters

New USB virus targets SCADA systems

2010-07-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

The first known virus to specifically target SCADA systems has been discovered (see CNET article). The virus spreads via USB drives, and hunts for Siemens control systems installed on the infected computer. The virus appears to transmit information from these systems back to a remote server, and gains access to the local control system database. The ultimate purpose of the virus is unknown. It is well known that malicious interception of SCADA systems could cause widespread infrastructure failures, including power outages.

2010-07-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here is another potentially useful book written by Paul Purcell. It offers a method for disaster planning including an "preparedness encyclopedia". The author also wrote the Top 12 myths of Disaster Preparedness and The secrets of teaching disaster preparedness.

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

2010-07-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

This one has been around for a few years, but really is essential reading for anyone wanting to prepare for disaster situations. It looks at the psychology of how we respond in all kind of emergencies from fire alarms to widespread disasters (hint: a bigger problem than panic is freezing and not taking any action). With numerous and moving examples from 9/11 the author really makes you rethink what you assume about what you and others will do in a disaster

New book on preparedness

2010-07-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

This seems like a really good new book on realistic preparedness (vs the "disaster kit" mentality -- see previous posts). From the description: This important book by one of our leading experts on disaster preparedness offers a compelling narrative about our nation’s inability to properly plan for large-scale disasters and proposes changes that can still be made to assure the safety of its citizens.

Five years after 9/11 and one year after Hurricane Katrina, it is painfully clear that the government’s emergency response capacity is plagued by incompetence and a paralyzing bureaucracy. Irwin Redlener, who founded and directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, brings his years of experience with disasters and health care crises, national and international, to an incisive analysis of why our health care system, our infrastructure, and our overall approach to disaster readiness have left the nation vulnerable, virtually unable to respond effectively to catastrophic events. He has had frank, and sometimes shocking, conversations about the failure of systems during and after disasters with a broad spectrum of people—from hospital workers and FEMA officials to Washington policy makers and military leaders. And he also analyzes the role of nongovernmental organizations, such as the American Red Cross in the aftermath of Katrina.

Redlener points out how a government with a track record of over-the-top cronyism and a stunning disregard for accountability has spent billions on “random acts of preparedness,” with very little to show for it—other than an ever-growing bureaucracy. As a doctor, Redlener is especially concerned about America’s increasingly dysfunctional and expensive health care system, incapable of handling a large-scale public health emergency, such as pandemic flu or widespread bioterrorism. And he also looks at the serious problem of a disengaged, uninformed citizenry—one of the most important obstacles to assuring optimal readiness for any major crisis.

Redlener describes five natural and man-made disaster scenarios as a way to imagine what we might face, what our current systems would and would not prepare us for, and what would constitute optimal planning—for government and the public—in each situation. To see what could be learned from others, he points up some of the more effective ways countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have dealt with various disasters. And he concludes with a real prescription: a nine-point proposal for how America can be better prepared as well as an addendum of what citizens themselves can do.

An essential book for our time, Americans at Risk is a devastating and realistic account of where we stand today.

What do you really need in your disaster kit?

2010-07-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

In the last decade, we have all received periodic exhortations to be prepared for the next major man-made or natural catastrophe by putting together a “disaster kit”. These all are some variant on the same theme, generally some mix of flashlights, first-aid kits, radios, batteries, food and water for three days, and various other bits and bobs (apparently now not including duct tape). A good example of this is the government-blessed kit described at ready.gov. Further, nonprofits and companies have seized the opportunity to make some money out of this with a variety of bizarre objects specifically designed for your kit (if you don’t believe me, check out some of the available gadgets at the Red Cross store). Having this kit, together with a family evacuation plan, is supposed to prepare us for the next major catastrophe.

There are three problems with this. First, a kit is only as useful as your knowledge of what to do with its contents, and it’s workability (food not expired, batteries not leaking, etc). You do not become an expert in emergency medicine by buying a first-aid kit; rather you become an expert in emergency medicine through training and experience, and then assemble the equipment you need based on your training and experience. Second, the kind of kits described are almost laughably inadequate for many real emergency situations, in the same way as cowering under a table is not likely to protect you from a nuclear detonation. Third, by definition a “disaster kit” is something you will probably never use, versus something you get used to using day in and day out. Thus I think it’s better to think in terms of everyday items that will help in a disaster, rather than a designated “disaster kit” (for example, I think it’s best to keep a “rolling buffer” of 2-3 weeks’ worth of food - that is, you just keep extra stock of the stuff you use normally - than having a separate “emergency food supply”).

So my suggested strategy is to start by figuring out what kinds of disasters you need to prepare for. This is not a trivial task, and some disasters will always take you by surprise (think the Blackout of 2003 for instance). However there are well established ways of prioritizing potential hazards based on probability, impact, and mitigation. Emergency managers are trained to perform hazard risk analysis with the “all hazards” model, and most communities maintain a list of the top hazards in your community. Try asking your local emergency manager for a copy of this as a starting point, or try to create one of your own for your household from scratch (you can even take an online FEMA course to help you do this). A simple way to start is by making a list of all the things you think could go wrong, and for each designate a percentage probability it will happen in the next 10 years and write a sentence or two for each on the potential impact if it did happen, and what you have already to mitigate this impact (for instance, having a generator and fuel can mitigate the impact of a short power outage). You can then manually rank them based on these factors.

Once you have gone through this exercise, start preparing for the ones near the top of your list. Think about what you would need to do in each circumstance, and whether there are plans you can make or things you can do, to mitigate the impact. For instance, keeping your gas tank in your car half full mitigates a variety of disasters as it enables you to evacuate up to 200 miles or so (depending on your fuel tank size and mpg) to escape a regional (but not widespread) disaster. These mitigation steps naturally lead you to equipment that you might want to have on hand for a disaster. As an example, take a look at my list of ranked hazards and mitigation steps.

You can also do some training that will help you in an emergency. Practice living without power for a couple of days, in both summer and winter. Train as an EMT or First Responder to give you skills you need if you can’t get medical help in a disaster. Buy a tent and go camping -- this gives you the flexibility of living pretty much anywhere. Think about strategies for keeping warm in winter, and cool in summer. Make sure you know how to turn off your water and gas. In this way, you learn new skills, have fun in the process, and you’ll be much better prepared for the next disaster when it strikes.

A personal family all hazard analysis

2010-07-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of a personal family hazard analysis being used to prepare for potential disasters that I prepared for my household. Hazards are ranked with #1 as the highest priority, based on probability, impact, and potential mitigation. Note that personal emergencies like disability are not included, although you may wish to include them in yours. You will want to come up with your own list, based on your own circumstances. Extended infrastructure failure is at the top for us because, despite a fairly low probability, the impact would be critical and I currently have limited capabilities to mitigate the impact. Mitigation steps are described below (you will want to decide on what mitigation steps work for you - for instance, if you have a generator and fuel)

1. EXTENDED INFRASTRUCTURE FAILURE (> 5 days): 15% probability; CRITICAL impact. No heat, cooling, water, communications, food supply, shopping, banking, police, fire or healthcare; civil breakdown; chemical & biological release risks. Risks: dehydration; starvation; hypothermia; heat exhaustion; illness; civil breakdown threats. Mitigation: CAMPING, GAS TANK, ALT-ACCOM, EMT

2. PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY: 15% probability; CRITICAL impact. Biological or chemical release from University or epidemic; civil breakdown, death or disability of family members, limited public services. Risks: disability or death through illness, breakdown in food supply, shopping, banking, public service provision. Mitigation: EMT, CASH, FOOD, ALT-ACCOM, GAS, CAMPING

3. EXTREME WEATHER: 80% probability; LOW impact. Extreme hot or cold; major snow or ice storms; drought. Risks: power outages due to heat. Mitigation: ALT-ACCOM, GAS, CAMPING, POWER, FOOD, CASH

4. EARTHQUAKE: 15% probability; HIGH impact. Widespread property damage; local infrastructure failure; public services overwhelmed. Risks: Physical injury with no healthcare; fire & gas explosion. Mitigation: EMT, ALT-ACCOM, GAS, CAMPING, POWER, FOOD, CASH

5. STRUCTURE FIRE: 15% probability; HIGH impact. House fire damages most of our possessions. Mitigation: SECURE-DOCS

6. SEVERE TORNADO/WIND DAMAGE: 30% probability; MODERATE impact. House damage; no power, heat or light; other damage in local area; public services overwhelmed. Mitigation: EMT, CASH, FOOD, CAMPING, GAS TANK, POWER

7. SHORT INFRASTRUCTURE FAILURE (1-5 days): 40% probability; LOW impact. No heat, cooling, phone, internet; shopping and banking activities limited; limited public services. Risks: hypothermia; heat exhaustion; lack of food, water, entertainment. Mitigation: FOOD, CASH, POWER, EMT, ALT-ACCOM, GAS, CAMPING

Mitigation Steps

EMT - trained as EMT-Basic with Basic Life Support kit
CASH - Keep $300 on hand
FOOD - Rolling food & drink buffer with about 3 weeks supply, plus 12 gallons of water
CAMPING - Camping equipment including tent, sleeping bags, and propane stove/heaters on hand for emergency accommodation away from hazard area and cooking/heating in house. Use carbon monoxide detector in each room with window open a crak. Have 10 extra propane tanks
GAS TANK - >50% tank of gas to travel minimum 200 miles (10 gallons) to escape hazard, plus keep lawnmower gas tank full for extra fuel.
POWER - battery backups and battery/inverter combinations for short term power to electrical devices
ALT-ACCOM - alternative accommodation with relatives, etc., both in local area and >100 miles away
SECURE-DOCS - documents in fire safe or bank