Keep your pets safe in an emergency

Here are ways to #PetPrep prepare for your pet in a disaster#HurricaneSeason:

🐶 Have a plan - This includes finding shelters or pet-friendly hotels nearby.

🐱 Make a kit.

• Sufficient pet food for a week.
• "Pet selfies "to help with reunification.
• Leash or cage, including for pets you ordinarily wouldn'tuse them with. For example, you don't want a cat to run off.
• Stress-relieving items, such as a toy.
• Copies of vet (e.g., vaccination) records. Very important. For example, rabies is almost 100% fatal! Rescue workers and others need to know your pet has had its shots.

🐹 Consider microchipping your pet, and make sure its information is up-to-date.

🐦Get rescue alert stickers or decals to put near your front door and windows. This will let firefighters and rescue workers know there are animals inside. Available free from the ASPCA.

Homeowner’s and Renter’s Guide to Mold Cleanup After Disasters

From the CDC:

Was your home flooded? If so, and you were not able to dry your home (including furniture and other items) within 24-48 hours, you should assume you have mold growth.

You and your family should wait to re-enter your home until professionals tell you it is safe, with no structural, electrical or other hazards. Before you start cleanup activities, contact your insurance company and take pictures of the home and your belongings. Remember – drying your home and removing water-damaged items is your most important step for preventing mold damage.

 See the CDC site for more.

Attention Adults: You Need Vaccines Too!

Reposted from the CDC:

Vaccinations aren’t just for kids, so follow CDC’s immunization schedule for adults. Doing so can help keep you from getting sick and missing work or school.

As an adult, you are busy with life and have many responsibilities — but don’t forget to take care of yourself! Every year in the United States, thousands of adults become seriously ill and are hospitalized because of diseases that vaccines can help prevent. These diseases can be deadly for many adults. Make sure you are vaccinated for the best protection!

Flash Flooding

A tragic event: at least nine people were killed by a flash flood in Arizona. It was sunny with no sign of rain, but a storm upriver generated it.

Video

Here is advice from the National Weather Service:

FLASH FLOOD SAFETY
http://www.floodsafety.noaa.gov/

On average, more people are killed by flooding than by any other single severe weather hazard, including tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes. Most of these deaths occur at night, when it is more difficult to recognize flood dangers, and when people are trapped in vehicles.

Remember…

ClusterFlake 2014

DisasterMan was in the South to witness "ClusterFlake" firsthand. In fairness to them:

1. It wasn't the 2-3" of snow that was the problem. It was the ice that screwed up traffic.
2. Significant snow is so rare there that it's not worth spending money on plows, sand trucks, and other things to prep for it.
3. In Alabama, the forecasters really did get it wrong, saying it would fall farther south.

In Georgia, however, despite what the Governor claimed, the forecasters gave plenty of warning of where it would fall and how much. State and local officials just didn't listen. When the National Weather Service was saying to only travel in an emergency, why did they open the schools??

Anyway, it's easy to scoff at anyone farther south than you, but Japan has us all beat. You think you've got it rough? How about 50 feet of snow? Amazing pics here.

Raise Your Glass

Wine is not usually listed as a disaster kit item. It's notable, however, that before clean drinking water became widely available, it was safer to drink beer or wine, because the alchohol kills pathogens.

Also, a number of scientific studies have found that, in moderation, alchohol consumption can actually benefit health, wine in particular. And, of course, in a stressful situation like a disaster, its psychological benefit should not be underestimated. :-)

So, let's say you're in an emergency situation, and you don't have a supply on hand (or have already used it up). Who you gonna call?

Breaking News

Todays' Washington Post Express

Sandy Twits

Today in the Twitter-verse:

     @lindsaylohan: WHY is everyone in SUCH a panic about hurricane (i'm calling it Sally)..? Stop projecting negativity! Think positive and pray for peace.

Oh wait, she and others have renamed it now:

    "It was nicknamed Hurricane Sassy during a Tyler Oakley twitcam on October 28, 2012 by Tyler Oakley, Alexander Gold, Lindsay Lohan, and Nikki Wood..."

More tweets: