Emergency Preparedness 
Here is a collection of FREE documents discussing disaster preparedness. These documents, which were slowly and selectively collected over a period of three decades, can help you to keep relatively safe and comfortable for several days, while cut-off from normal community infrastructure. Although these documents were valid at the time of their writing; technological advancement and social change means that these documents should not be considered the final word, but rather just the start, of your individualized, neighborly, preparedness planning.
We encourage our neighbors to take anything here that may be of use.
- "Disaster Mitigation" describes actions that can be taken to prepare yourself for every kind of disaster; Climate, Air, Flame, Earth, Water, Civil, and NBC.
- "Protecting Dependents" describes specific preparations necessary to ensure the safety of Animals, Seniors/Disabled, and Children.
- "Hazard Maps" show areas where specific risks are higher.
- "Emergency Supplies" and "Emergency Shelters" covers emergency alternatives should your home become compromised; and "Evacuation Issues" covers when you are forced to leave.
- "Neighborly Response" reveals both what you as a private individual can do to assist your neighbors in their emergency, AND what community resources you can draw upon in an emergency.
Documents written for youths ...
- Disaster Preparedness Coloring Book .pdf
- Fire Safety Program Color and Learn .pdf
- Be Ready Book .pdf
- Ready...Set...Prepare .pdf
- Civil Protection Cartoon .pdf
- Bert the Turtle Cartoon .pdf
- Ready Freddie Cartoon .pdf
- Disaster Buddies Cartoon .pdf
- Eye Over Houston - Survivor Tales .pdf
- In Deep Water - Survivor Tales .pdf
- Aftershocks - Survivor Tales .pdf
- Guide to Fighting Germs .pdf
- MAKA The Safety Superhero .pdf
- Atomic Alert .mp4
- What youth can do .pdf
Assistance Corps staffed by youths
- Youth Volunteerism and Disaster Risk Reduction .pdf
- School Safety Patrol Manual .pdf
- The United States Junior Citizens Service Corps .pdf
- A Handbook for Messengers .pdf
- Scouting for Girls .pdf
- Red Cross Club .pdf
- The Junior Rescuer Club .pdf
- Guardian Angels .pdf
General information on preparedness ...
Disaster Planning...a subject often ignored. However, as recent Tsunamis, Hurricanes, and Ice Storms have proven, disasters can happen anytime. And the events don't have to be "big". Even something as minor as a falling tree can start a disaster, should it cut off your electrical power for several days or cause an unchecked gas leak.
When it rains, you open an umbrella and close the windows in your house. When it gets cold, you put on a jacket and turn on the heater in your house. You and your home are prepared for these everyday contingencies. And when disaster strikes, you and your home should be just as prepared, so that the disaster can be weathered just as calmly.
Disaster Preparedness is very different from "Survivalism". Survival is what you do when you wash up naked on a desert island. Disaster Preparation is carrying a lifeboat and filling it with supplies so that you don't have to wash up naked on a desert island. The Basic Physiological Needs that must be supplied are (in order of importance): Oxygen, Fluids, Nutrition, Body Temperature, Elimination, Shelter, Rest, Physical Safety, and Psychological Safety.
- Handbook for Emergency Preparedness .pdf
- Family Preparedness Guide .pdf
- Emergency Preparedness Starts With You .pdf
- Practical Guidelines for all Emergencies .pdf
- Your Chance to Live .pdf
- Preparing for the Unexpected .pdf
- Los Angeles Fire Department Emergency Preparedness .pdf
- OSHA- Small Business Handbook .pdf
- Emergency Preparedness Information Booklet .pdf
- The National Plan for Emergency Preparedness .pdf
Adult education resources
- A Short History of National Preparedness Efforts .pdf
- Talking About Disaster .pdf
- Fire and EMS Terminology .pdf
- Notes for Speakers and Writers .pdf
- Extension Methods Ideas for Rural Civil Defense .pdf
- Civil Defense Adult Education Teachers Manual .pdf
- Example Script from a CONELRAD Drill .pdf
- TACDA- Civil Defense Basics .pdf
- USDA- Programed Instruction on Survival Preparedness for Rural Areas .pdf
- FEMA- Disaster Preparednes & Mitigation Library .zip
- DCPA- Attack Environment Manual .pdf
- OCD- Planning guides, Memoranda, Pamphlets, Training guides .pdf
NOTES: The Federal government no longer encourages State or local governments to formulate their own disaster prevention or mitigation activities, and instead promulgates a policy of unspecified national government led intervention after a disaster has already occured. |@| The federal government has decided to no longer persue a packaged hospital program or a protective civilian sheltering program (although many previously placarded shelters are still capable of providing terrorist bomb fallout protection); and they have also discontinued most civilian distress and emergency alert communication systems (but in response, several frustrated local communites have installed tornado or flash flood sirens on their own initiative). |@| "Civil Defense" is the outdated moniker for the volunteer force now called "CERT". |@| The "Federal Civil Defense Administration" was renamed the "Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization", then again renamed the "Office of Civil Defense", and then finally renamed the "Defense Civil Preparedness Agency". The DCPA was merged with the "Federal Emergency Management Agency", which was itself absorbed into the "Department of Homeland Security". |@| "Duck and Cover" was the old fashioned buzzword for the life-saving proceedure now called "Drop, Cover and Hold On". |@| Be aware that most of the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation techniques discussed in these documents have been superceded.