Talking About Disaster - Introduction

At a glance..

This guide has been developed to assist anyone providing disaster safety information to the public. Users of this guide may include emergency managers, meteorologists, teachers, disaster and fire educators, and/or any other person in the severe weather, earthquake, disaster, or communications communities.

The details..

"Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages" is a comprehensive guide developed by the National Disaster Education Coalition that provides standardized and approved disaster safety messages. The book is intended for use by emergency managers, meteorologists, teachers, media personnel and any other person in severe-weather or earthquake-prone areas who needs to disseminate accurate information about disasters. This guide includes various types of natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires.

The book has been reviewed and approved by national organizations like American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) among others. It emphasizes on delivering consistent disaster safety messages across all agencies which can be used in educational presentations or displays/bulletin boards etc., without copyright restrictions.

Each message describes a recommended action or behavior worded positively so that people know how to act during an emergency situation instead of panicking. For instance instead of saying 'Do not panic', it suggests remaining calm while leaving the building safely and quickly as possible during fire emergencies followed up with sub-messages on what 'safely' means i.e crawling through smoke etc..

Before using this guide one should consider their audience's age group,socioeconomic status,ethnicity background along with specific hazards/disaster history prevalent in their area.The East Coast will not prepare for volcanic eruptions whereas West coast will not prepare for hurricanes hence it becomes important to tailor your message accordingly."Talking About Disasters" aims at raising awareness levels amongst communities regarding potential threats from natural calamities.