|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
Robert Green Ingersoll
One of the best-looking sites in this category, with nice clean graphics, an easy-on-the-eyes layout, and helpful navigation. Besides that, it offers lots of good information on safety tips, organized by type of disaster; a link to making online donations to disaster victims; background on Red Cross services, organized in an outline format; recent news stories; a monthly calendar of events nationwide; and a multimedia library. One cool feature is the American Red Cross Virtual Museum; choose a time period (I picked 1900–1919) and find photos, documents, and historical highlights, or go on the automated tour.
Dedicated to the victims of radiation in Chelyabinsk, Russia, this site has information about the calamities that have befallen the area. Learn why the area was closed to foreigners for over 45 years. This site also has a description of the documentary by Slawomir Grunberg.
If you think disasters are fascinating—as I do—then visit this site created by someone who shares your interest. Site sections include Featured Disasters (from the Titanic to Chelyabinsk), Personal Accounts (such as the author’s account of a fire at his junior high school—honestly!), and Disasters in the News (links to news services and online newspapers). Offers a bibliography with reviews and tons of links to other sites. There’s also a link to the Odd & Unusual (which the author admits is “usually disgusting”).
http://www.unr.net/~lbevan/adpac/
No, it’s not a meeting place for Typhoid Marys, Klutz Supremes, and other accidents-waiting-to-happen. This site uses the Excite search engine to index 585—yes, you heard me, 585—disaster-related sites. You can use keywords or choose category buttons to get a list of sites and a helpful preview of what’s offered at each one, so you can decide whether you want to visit.
Home page for the International Conference in Edmonton, Alberta on June 26–July 1, 1998. The conference will focus on coming up with solutions to handling disasters for those employed or interested in emergency preparedness and response. As of now, there’s a preliminary conference schedule that features a disaster response simulation; the site will be updated periodically. Also offers links to other sites on related seminars and meetings.
This site has warnings, alerts, listings of conferences and workshops, and links to news services and is the host site for “Emergency Management Gold.” It’s also a good resource for training emergency and disaster preparedness professionals.
http://www.disasters-hazardmit.org/
Great, information-packed site that’s also well-organized and easy to navigate. It reports on worldwide disasters and relief efforts and includes referrals for providing or getting aid for specific disasters. World at a Glance covers the top disaster stories of the day, and Today in Disaster History takes a look back at disasters that happened on the current date. There’s an extensive library with sections on Preparedness, U.S. Disasters, World Disasters, and more; the coolest feature in the library is a test to find out your Disaster I.Q. With the help of my 8-year-old son, I got 17 out of 20 answers correct, so I was invited to join the Red Cross Disaster Action Team! Plenty of links to other related sites, too.
Sponsored by EQE International, a consulting firm on earthquake and structural engineering, this page links to reports on earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Each report has a table of contents and references for more information. I found the Earth Science section of the table of contents particularly interesting; for example, the report on the earthquake in Kobe, Japan had a map of the tectonic plates in the area, along with a ground-motion map and photos. Not an exhaustive list of disasters, but each report is thorough.
Although the site has informative disaster preparedness tips that are updated monthly, the focus seems to be selling emergency survival packs for earthquakes and other natural disasters. Good place to get ideas for what you might need to survive an emergency, like solar-powered radios, dust masks, and waterproof matches. My favorite was the Double Delight; for only $59.50, you get enough supplies to see a couple comfortably through three days—and hey, you get playing cards and a whistle thrown in, too!
Practical information on how to come up with a family disaster plan; you even get a checklist you can print out. Although the site does offer products you can buy for your emergency preparedness kit, it also gives you tips on assembling your own from resources you can find close to home. Check the Emergency Preparedness Tip o’ da Week to find out just how disorganized and unprepared you are (in my case, very!). EPICENTER is even thoughtful enough to have tips for including your pets in your disaster planning. And I swear I’m not making this up—there are even recipes to make dried food and emergency rations taste delectable.
EDEN is a cooperative effort among Extension Services across the country to pool resources and information for improving disaster planning. By coordinating state research and education programs, it hopes to increase awareness of disaster preparedness and recovery measures. The site has a database you can search for articles and reports on preparing for disasters, and lists of upcoming seminars, conferences, and workshops.
Whew! More than 4,000 pages of information—everything you wanted to know about disaster preparedness, but quaked to ask. Plenty of informative sections, such as Project Impact: Building a Disaster Resistant Community and Help After a Disaster, but the coolest, in my opinion, is the FEMA for Kids section. Click the cartoon tornado character to find pages with online games, stories, tips on becoming a Disaster Action Kid, and lots of clear information on what causes disasters and how to prepare for them. There’s even a resource section for teachers. FEMA also has a comprehensive, well-organized virtual library.
Home page for Globalwatch, whose aim is to improve awareness of global environmental problems and natural disasters. The organization offers the Global 100, which awards best practices in disaster preparedness. One recent award, which you can link to from this site, went to the United Nations Global Programme for the Integration of Public Administration and the Science of Disasters. You can find links to articles, reports, and recent conferences.
Text-heavy site packed with information on all kinds of disasters; the site is divided into “human-caused” disasters, such as civil strife and industrial accidents, and natural disasters, like hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. The brief entries emphasize statistics; for example, a typical entry lists the type of disaster, its current stage, number of people affected, current recovery/relief activity, and a short description of the event. Not a bad starting place, if you need, say, a listing of earthquakes in the past year.
Lists in chronological order all kinds of disasters, including shipwrecks and fires; indexed by Canadian province. Interesting historical perspective.
ICES, the Illinois Cooperative Extension Services, offers this list of resources for information on preparing for and recovering from natural disasters. Published by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, it has lots of links to other related sites, including the Extension Disaster Education Network (covered earlier in this section).
Chronological database of more than 600 major commercial airline disasters from 1920–1997. Offers details, in table format, of dates, locations, plane type, airline, and likely reasons for the crash. Includes an index to search by year or plane type, and a link to Skynet Server for further research and an information-exchange forum.
A list of Web pages and online resources for disaster safety tips and information. Includes links to NOAA Weather Radio to get up-to-date weather information, watches, and warnings and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). This site also has an index of recent news stories on weather and safety tips.
You won’t find a lot of fancy graphics, but this site of full of excellent information. The Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder acts as an international clearinghouse of information on natural disasters and how people respond and adjust to them. They offer an annual workshop and the HazLit database, which you can search by subject. There’s an electronic newsletter; a publications catalog, including disaster-related books and periodicals; lists of upcoming conferences, universities that offer emergency management courses, and institutions that study hazards; and a great list of Web sites that’s organized into categories.
In March 1989, the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. This site has a wealth of data about this major ecological disaster, including maps, photos, and information about the effects of the spill on wildlife. You can even download an audio file of Captain Hazelwood reporting the ship’s grounding.