What would you do in a disaster?

Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed. 

Ready San Diego - http://www.readysandiego.org/

During a disaster, federal, state and local emergency services may be overwhelmed by the volume and extent of incidents and therefore delayed in assisting citizens in need. As FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) notes, “People need to be the help before the help arrives." 

FEMA reminds citizens to:

 • have a personal emergency plan

 • store at least a 3 day supply of food and water

 • be ready to help your neighbors

 • be prepared to be immediate responders 

In support of this goal, Ready San Diego offers extensive information for citizens on disaster readiness including preparing for:

 • wildfires

 • earthquakes

 • pandemic influenza

 • tsunamis

 • flooding

 • terrorism

Ready San Diego also includes information on:

 • creating a personal emergency plan 

 • assembling an emergency kit (including for your pets!)

 • locating resources (including the regional notification system AlertSanDiego) for becoming/staying informed in a disaster

Ready San Diego also provides an informative list of San Diego maps including:

 • Emergency Map - an interactive web map with data including local hazards, fire perimeters, AlertSanDiego emergency notification areas, evacuation centers, evacuation routes, traffic control

 • Know Your Hazards - enter a street address to display a map of wildfire, earthquake, flood and tsunami hazards

 • Wildfire Hazard Map Tool - find the level of wildfire hazard in your area and learn how to reduce your fire risk

 • Adverse Weather Map - displays the 100-year floodplain, recent fire burn areas, and weather alerts

Ready San Diego also offers links to organizations for additional training. I highly recommend the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Academy, where you will learn (1) disaster preparedness for area hazards and (2) basic disaster response skills including:​

 • managing utilities (electricity, gas, water) and extinguishing small fires

 • medical aid including how to open airways, control bleeding, and treat for shock

 • how to search for and rescue victims safely

 • collecting disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts

More info on CERT can be found here:

http://www.readysandiego.org/get_involved/

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian ​

 

Website of the Week

The Economist - Topics Index 

http://www.economist.com/topics 

The Topics Index of The Economist magazine provides links to selected current and past full-text articles, as well as analysis and commentary on an array of subjects.

Registration (free) is required and provides access to up to six articles each week. Great for students doing research on any subject, and interesting for anyone looking for feature stories/analysis/commentary that don't make the daily news.

Below are some selected articles:

Syrian Civil War -
"Who are the Syrian opposition?"
Jul 19, 2013

 Excerpt/Summary: [Provides detailed info on specific groups]

• Rebel groups now number in the hundreds and possibly thousands, and occupy a spectrum from moderates fighting to topple the regime to extremists motivated by sectarian aims. 
• Sometimes rebel groups work together; at other times they clash. 
• The sectarian nature of the conflict is deepening as ever more foreign fighters flock to Syria to support the regime (whose core is Alawite, the esoteric Shia sect to which the Assad family belongs) or the opposition (which, like Syria's population, is majority Sunni). 

Eyesight and Eye Health

The Q&A: Dr Geoff Tabin and Dr Sanduk Ruit: Visionary
Aug 19th 2013

Excerpt/Summary: [Two doctors discuss their project to rid the world of preventable blindness]

• The world has around 40m blind people
• 90% of blind people live in the developing world.
• 85% of the blindness in the world could be corrected or could have been prevented.
• Half of all blindness is from treatable cataracts.

Review by Rachael Smithey, SWC Librarian