We have a major relief effort happening in Alabama [Red Cross disaster news]

There’s a lot of space weather because the sun burps [NASA]

Old letters are fun to see [Roberthuffstutter on Flickr]

A Red Cross pin board [Liz Le Dorze Pinterest]

Things I would do during a zombie apocalypse [Graph Jam, hat tip to Michael Windle]

Volunteer Emily is headed to South Africa [Carolina Piedmont Red Cross blog]

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This Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up is courtesy of Scott Waggoner, from Cross Blog: Award-winning Red Cross news and views from Oregon and beyond

Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It’s a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work…

SYRIA: Violence in Syria continues with one of the latest casualties being the secretary-general of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr. Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro. Dr. Jbeiro was shot in a vehicle clearly marked with the red crescent emblem after attending meetings at Syrian Arab Red Crescent headquarters in Damascus. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, IFRC, and ICRC are renewing calls for an end to violence, while volunteers continue to administer life-saving first aid to the injured.

IVORY COAST: Following the second round of presidential elections in late 2010 where both candidates claimed victory, tension and violence grew into a full-fledged armed conflict in Ivory Coast. In the chaos, hundreds of children lost contact with their families. The ICRC and the Liberian Red Cross have registered around 600 children separated from their parents and are working to bring the children back their families.

PHILIPPINES: As tens of thousands of survivors in Mindanao, Philippines enter their second month of uncertainty, the Red Cross is announcing plans to drastically increase its support to communities affected by December’s Typhoon Washi. The revised operation will see the Red Cross provide 2,000 families with cash or other livelihoods support as well as reaching 15,000 families – an estimated 75,000 people – with food, water storage containers and hygiene kits. In all, the Red Cross now intends to reach 100,000 people through these various interventions.

SUDAN: For Darfur’s pastoral communities, livestock is essential for their sustenance and constitutes the backbone of the local economy. The lack of rain, desertification and prevailing insecurity has stressed herding communities into animal overcrowding at the few options remaining, leading to increased risk of disease. The ICRC has been extending its support by training animal health workers and through large-scale vaccination campaigns in remote areas of Darfur, and in response herders are reporting a dramatic decrease in the number of animals they are losing to disease.

GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

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According to the calendar, winter’s been around for more than a month.  Mother Nature doesn’t always follow the same calendar as we do, however, and this year it seemed she allowed fall to linger a little longer than usual.  Until last week, that is, when the first serious storms of the year blanketed much of the country with feet of snow and officially closed the book on fall and opened the door to winter.

Reading about the deep snowfalls and bitterly cold temperatures in my hometown (it didn’t, nor will it, snow where I live now) reminded me that my winter emergency preparedness kits – especially the preparedness kit I keep in my car – are in desperate need of updating.  You know how it goes…one child needs a granola bar to survive soccer practice, another needs an extra water bottle after soccer practice, and a third needs a Band-Aid and an ice pack after an on-field collision.  It only took a few soccer practices to completely wipe out my car preparedness kit.

Is your car stocked and ready for winter?  If not, read on and then commit an hour of your time to making sure you and your family will remain safe in your car in the event of a weather-related emergency.

The contents of your vehicle winter preparedness kit will likely differ from the contents in your home winter preparedness kit and depend on where in the United States you live (if you live in central Texas, like me and where it never snows, you won’t need the same supplies as someone who lives in the Midwest or the Northeast, where Mother Nature can dump feet of snow in a matter of hours).  When pulling together your car kit, start with the basics and then consider the weather conditions in your region of the country, the storage space available in your car, and your travel habits/plans to determine which additional items will serve you best in an emergency.

Basics

• Bottled water
• High-calorie, nonperishable food
• First aid kit
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• Cell phone charger
• Blanket or sleeping bag
• Tow company telephone number

Tools

• Jumper cables
• Road flares
• Multi-purpose tool
• Collapsible shovel
• Jack and lug wrench
• Tire gauge
• Fix-a-flat spray

Other

• Poncho or rain gear
• Windshield scraper
• Battery-powered or hand-crank radio
• Bag of kitty litter
• Tire chains or tow chain
• Waterproof matches
• Duct tape
• Antifreeze
• Oil

If you’re not able to pull together all of these items on your own, consider getting the ball rolling with an American Red Cross Emergency Preparedness Kit and then adding to it as needed.  Click here to visit the American Red Cross store, and here and here for my favorite kits.

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Dorothy thought tornado season was over!

It seems so easy to break our lives into seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.  As it gets colder, we start to put away our summer clothes, pull out the extra blankets, and hunker down for winter.   Sadly, we have also fallen into a similar routine for preparedness.  Once a “season” is over, many believe they’re in the clear.

Here are the main “Seasons” I’m referring to:

Hurricane Season: June 1 – November 30

Tornado Season: March – May (or June depending on where you live)

Fire Season: June – November

However, there has been a lot of “not in season” weather over the years.  Yesterday’s tornado in Alabama being just one example.  In 2011, Texas was experiencing some of its largest wildfires in April, and did you know that a significant (Cat 3)  hurricane formed as early as May 15 (back in 1951)?

Preparedness is truly a year-round effort, because you never know what that next storm front will bring.

To see if your preparedness kit is up to snuff, pull it out and compare it against our recommended preparedness kit contents.

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Follow @AlabamaRedCross and @ArkRedCross for Red Cross updates on last night’s severe weather.

Follow #ARwx and #ALwx for general tweets about the storms.

Open Shelters

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The last 24 hours have us responding to snow storms, wildfires, home fires, and floods. Here are a few of the Twitter hashtags we’re watching to keep up with what’s happening on the ground. If you have more hashtag suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

#Washoe

#ORFlood

#ORwx

#Reno

#wildfire

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A Cozy Home Winter “Survival” Kit [Apartment Therapy]

Silhouette Smoke Alarm [Apartment Therapy]

Oregon floods, winter storms [Oregon Trail Red Cross Blog]

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The words “water safety” most often bring to mind emergency preparedness and responsible behavior in and around swimming pools. There is no doubt that maintaining a clean and safe swimming pool and surrounding area, understanding the risks associated with owning a swimming pool, taking actions to prevent drowning, teaching children to swim, and becoming trained to respond in emergency situations are incredibly important when it comes to home swimming pool safety. But since most of us aren’t using our swimming pools right now, today I’d like to highlight a less-publicized but just-as-important kind of water safety: keeping infants and young children safe in the bathroom.

What are you doing to keep me safe in here?

January is National Bath Safety Month. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages one to four years, and approximately 100 children under the age of five drown in bathtubs, buckets, or toilets each year. Drowning can occur in just seconds and in only TWO INCHES of water.

My mom often tells the story of finding me, as a toddler, stuck upside down inside my toy box. I had flipped forward onto my head while attempting to pull a stuffed animal from the bottom of the box, and there I remained – feet straight up in air – until my mom heard my cries for help and pulled me out. This scenario could just as easily have played out with a bathtub, bucket full of water, or toilet in place of the toy box, and with a much more devastating outcome.

Bathroom drowning, just like home swimming pool drowning, is preventable. The American Red Cross has compiled a great deal of valuable information on keeping infants and children safe in and around water in your home (links below), but here are a few of the most important and potentially life-saving recommendations:

- Empty bathtubs and buckets immediately after use, and use safety locks on toilets.
- Never leave infants or young children unattended in or near water.
- Never trust an older child to supervise a younger child, or trust a bath seat to keep an infant safe.
- Never allow children to roughhouse in the bathtub.

For more information on Water Safety in Your Home, click here, and for more information on Watching Children Around Water, click here.

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This Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up is courtesy of Scott Waggoner, from Cross Blog: Award-winning Red Cross news and views from Oregon and beyond

Welcome to the Worldwide Wednesday Wrap-Up, in which we consolidate the international Red Cross and Red Crescent news into one list of bite-sized links for you. It’s a non-comprehensive sampling of the larger and/or more intriguing aspects of our global work…

ITALY: 250 Italian Red Cross staff and volunteers are taking part in the rescue and relief operation at the site of capsized liner Costa Concordia. The cruise ship hit rocks off Italy’s west coast on Friday night, killing at least 12 people and injuring 70. Volunteers have supplied more than 800 people with clothes, shoes, hygiene kits, transport to nearby hospitals, medicine and other materials.

NIGERIA: The ICRC is providing support for the Nigerian Red Cross to treat those injured in a recent wave of protests. A nationwide strike was called for January 9th by labor organizations to protest the withdrawal of fuel subsidies. Since the strike began, Nigerian Red Cross volunteers have provided first aid all over the country to more than 600 injured persons.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: Heavy fighting has been raging in Shabunda territory of South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since January 5th, 27 injured people, including eight children, have been evacuated to various hospitals in Bukavu with support from the ICRC. The ICRC is continuing to supply medical supplies and is pressing the authorities and weapon bearers to respect and protect civilians.

SOMALIA: The ICRC has decided to temporarily suspend distribution of food and seed relief intended for 1.1 million people in urgent need after having been blocked by local authorities in parts of central and southern Somalia. Since a drought started in late 2010 the ICRC has distributed food rations to more than a million people and has provided agricultural support for over 100,000 farmers.

CHILE: On the first day of the new year hundreds in Chile were evacuated from dozens of forest fires that burned at least 57,000 acres. The Chilean Red Cross is currently assisting more that 50 families in shelters located in the communes of Quillon and Chillan.

GLOSSARY:

ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
IFRC = International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

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Disclaimer: the author of this post is from Southern California and has not been very familiar with cold winters for a few years.  Any misrepresentations of winter can be attributed to her lack of experience.

With Old Man Winter finally hitting parts of the United States, ski resorts are doing their best snow dances, while everyone else is starting to buckle down for a long haul inside.  The American Red Cross has been at the leading edge of preparedness for decades, and every year has brought you our Winter Storm Safety Checklist which is chock full of information to keep you and you loved ones safe before, during and after a storm; but how does one prepare for the dozens of hours that will be spent inside while the storm rages outside?  Today, we would like to provide you with a few “other” Winter preparedness items to include.

Indoor Fort Supplies

This will include blankets, sheets, chairs, and some other sturdy furniture.  However, your indoor fort building skills may have diminished over the years.  Don’t fret, Apartment Therapy has some very easy to follow instruction, design ideas and decor inspirations for the young and mature.

Movies

Having a family movie night is an idea that’s an oldie but still a goodie.  Either go rent a variety of movies, or turn on your favorite movie streaming service.  Be sure to buy popcorn and candy for a full movie night experience.  You can even combine fort building with movie night!

Games

Board games are a great way to avoid getting bored!  Other games can include Charades, tick-tack-toe, Texas Hold ‘em, or you can get creative and come up with a karaoke/dance competition (be sure to have your First Aid Kit on hand in case this game goes awry).  Maybe buy a few small prizes or allow the winner to get out of doing the dishes that day.

Sleds

Depending on how adventurous you’re feeling, you can go sledding during or after a snowstorm.  Sometimes going down a hill isn’t enough, so you might want to build a Sled Mountain - in which case, go ahead and grab that First Aid Kit again.

So enjoy Old Man Winter as much as you can, and don’t forget to check out our more “traditional” winter preparedness tips so you and your family will be able to tackle the season with confidence!

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