Hi Justin,
Just a couple of suggestions. First I think your site is an excellent idea
and well executed. I would though make a couple of suggestions. My
background is emergency response and management. I have been in the business
for over 30 years. I recently served as the emergency manager for the 11
largest school district in the United States. So I am somewhat familiar with
what is being taught.
First in your hurricane section and frankly in all of them, I would suggest
you emphize the vital need for as much water as they can manage to carry.
The rule of thumb is a gallon a day per person. I know this is not really
feasible if the child has to move around but I think that they need to be
aware that having enough water in these situations is extremely vital. Lack
of portable water after one of these events will be the single biggest worry
and threat to their health. So you might suggest trying to have as much
water as possible on hand. Possibly purchasing one of those "camel"
backpacks that carries water. This holds true for all of the disasters they
may be experience.
The second thing you may emphize is having a stash of energy bars, power
bars, granola bars or the like. These types of bars contain the combination
of protein and carbs that will help them through the crisis.
Our Federal Emergency Management agency produces quite a bit of information
that you might find useful. Given it is produced by the government it is
free to use. Here is a link
http://www.fema.gov/kids/
The American Red Cross produces a lot of general information that you might
also find helpful.
http://www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/preparedness/A4600.pdf
Finally here is a site with a number of different links to this children and
disasters you might find helpful. It is produced by the US Department of
Health and Human Services.
http://nccic.org/poptopics/disasters.html
On 5/2/07 2:17 AM, "Veronica Botero" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Justin,
>
> The page is great. Just one comment: There is no information on what to do
> after the event if the kid is all alone (e.g. dead or disappeared parents).
> Remember all the children that were lost after the tsunami in Indonesia.
> Maybe a general comment on contacting their embassy and knowing the numbers
> of other family members abroad. That's all. The page looks very good. You
> could also add a link to http://www.stopdisastersgame.org./, since it's a
> page for kids, they can also learn a bit more by playing.
> Regards,
>
> Verónica Botero
> PhD Student
> Utrecht University - ITC
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Natural hazards and disasters
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Justin Sharpe
> Sent: Lunes, 30 de Abril de 2007 12:58 p.m.
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Kids guide to surviving hazards while abraod
>
> Dear All,
>
> I am a PhD student working with Maureen Fordham at Northumbria University,
> on disaster education for children. I have been building a new website
> which addresses what children should do in an emergency such as earthquake,
> tsunami, hurricane etc while in a foreign country. This came about because
> many of my students (I teach in a UK High school) travel to Turkey, India
> Pakistan, Indonesia, USA etc where there is a higher risk of the
> aforementioned hazards occurring. The address is :
> http://www.geo-world.org/edu4hazards/
>
> The idea is for children to explore the site and to discover how to protect
> themselves, whilst also learning about the nature of the hazard at the same
> time. I have purposely made the site less obvious in terms of navigation,
> but there are instructions on the front page. I would welcome your views!
>
> Please also note that the site is in beta testing and is not yet launched or
> 'live'.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Justin Sharpe
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