General 

www.fema.gov
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Web site now contains thousands of pages of hazards/ disaster information - text, graphics, and photos, tables, maps - about the agency itself and it ongoing programs; current disaster situations; and disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation generally. Among its numerous documents and services, the site provides "fact sheets" - including preparedness tips - concerning all kinds of hazards via www.fema.gov/pte/prep.htm. Indeed, there are hundreds of useful documents available from the FEMA library at www.fema.gov/library including an entire series on "Surviving the Storm" - www.fema.gov/library/srvstrm.htm - that outlines measures individuals and business owners can take to protect their families, property, and communities from various hazards such as floods, hurricanes, winters storms, wildfire, and EI Nino. 
 

The Site's continually updated mitigation section (www.fema.gov/mit/) offers hundreds of pages on what individuals, families, and businesses can do to lessen disaster impacts. It includes current mitigation news, the latest reports from FEMA's Project Impact, links to mitigation documents available from FEMA, the complete text of the National Mitigation Strategy, and information about the HAZUS disaster loss estimation software. It also offers extensive sections on mitigation for homeowners, building professionals, communities, businesses, and school and childcare facilities (www.fema.gov/mit/reduce.htm), as well as FEMA's Mitigation How to Series - specific instructions for protecting property from wildfires, flooding, and earthquakes. 

The site provides access to the FEMA Emergency Management Institute Learning Resource Center (LRC) on-line card catalog (www.lrc.fema.gov/) - an index of the more than 50,000 items concerning fire service and emergency management housed in the LRC library. 

In addition, FEMA hosts such services as a Tropical Storm Watch Page (www.fema.gov/fema/trop.htm) with archived information about recent storms, and, during the hurricane season, current weather photographs, forecasts, advisories, and situation reports. 

The agency also now offers emergency management training materials and courses on-line (see www.fema.gov/emi/training.htm), as well as an emergency news distribution service via the Net Information about both services is available from the FEMA Website. Also included are dozens of hypertext links to other Internet resources via FEMA's Global Emergency Management Service (GEMS) Page (www.fema.gov/gems/) 

www.redcross.org
The American Red Cross provides extensive information on disaster mitigation management, and recovery. In particular, a large collection of individual and community disaster preparedness and recovery information is available from the Red Cross via 

www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/index.html. In May 1999, the Red Cross, in conjunction with several other public and private agencies that deal with disasters, published on-line the Talking About Disaster Guide for Standard Messages - a set of standard disaster safety messages on 13 hazards, as well as general disaster safety information. Through this project, major national agencies have agreed on standard messages about disaster safety, and they encourage others to consult this guide when preparing information to ensure consistency in the messages presented to the general public. 
 

www.usgs.gov
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains several Web sites with much useful information on geologic hazards, including a Hazards Page (www.usgs.gov/hazard/index.html) with links to various USGS research and information centers, as well as a Hazards Theme Page (www.usgs.gov/themes/hazard.html) with pages on earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, floods, and coastal storms. The interested Web surfer should also take a look at the separate earthquake information page from the USGS Menlo Park office (quake.wr.usgs.gov/) (just one of several earthquake pages available from the Survey). 
 

The USGS extensively monitors and evaluates threats from many natural hazards. Its resources include a global seismic network, a national stream flow monitoring program, regional volcano observatories, and long-standing interagency partnerships in disaster mitigation and response. To help synthesize the vast amount of information available on hazards, the USGS has created the Center for Integration of Natural Disaster information (CINDI). The CINDI Web site 

cindi.usgsS.gov- provides background information about the center, and serves as "a gateway to information about natural hazards and disasters." The center itself selects individual disasters as case studies. The current focus is Hurricane Mitch, and this site includes much information about that Central American disaster. 

The Survey now provides World Wide Web access to its Publications Database via usgs-georef.cos.com. The database includes comprehensive bibliographic information on USGS reports and maps published from 1880 to the present, as well as references to non-USGS publications by USGS authors published from 1983 to date. The text of the Survey documents is not included; however, access to on -line publications of the USGS is provided. The database is completely searchable. 
Those of you who are sometimes bewildered by the labyrinthine network of USGS Web resources can consult www.usgs.gov/network/science/earth/usgs.html - an index of the more than 150 USGS Web servers. 

www.cdc.gov/nceh/programs/emergenc/prevent/prev_em.htm
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) has issued several on-line Prevention Guides to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety Before, During, and after Emergencies and Disasters in both English and Spanish. The guides in English cover earthquakes, extreme cold, extreme heat, floods, and hurricanes. Only the flood and hurricane guides are currently available in Spanish. The earthquake guide, to take one example, covers general information about earthquakes, how to prepare for a quake, inspection of a home for possible hazards, what to do during and after an earthquake, and issues concerning people with special needs. It includes several checklists, including suggested first aid and survival kits for the home, automobile, and workplace. 
 

www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/hazards.html
The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) Natural Hazards Data Web site contains databases slide sets, and publications available from NGDC on geophysical hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, and includes the Natural Hazards Data Resources Directory (www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/resource/hazdir.html) published jointly with the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center 

www.weather.com/safeside
Project Safeside is a joint effort of the weather Channel and the American Red Cross intended to educate individuals and families about meteorological hazards and to increase their recognition of the importance of preparing for natural disasters. The Safeside Web site includes information about extreme heat, flooding, hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, plus a guide to the creation of a family disaster plan. Besides the Web site, the project offers other information and tools to help educators incorporate weather safety and family preparedness into existing weather curricula. Contact information is available from the site. 

www.disasterrelief.org
The Disaster Relief Home Page - a joint effort of the American Red Cross, the IBM corporation, and CNN - offers much background information about disasters, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness, as well as news about ongoing and recent events. Moreover, it provides a means for locating worldwide disaster relief organizations and either soliciting or providing aid for specific disasters. During emergencies, it can provide referrals to means for reaching friends and family at risk, as well as referrals to sources of recovery assistance and support. As the organizers state, "Our mission is to help disaster victims and the disaster relief community worldwide by facilitating the exchange of information on the internet" - and this includes services during actual events. The site also includes an on-line "Forum" for discussing relief issues and a library of disaster facts, figures, and other information. 

www.esri.com/hazards
Under the Project Impact initiative, FEMA and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) have formed a national partnership aimed in part at providing multihazard maps and information to U.S. residents, business owners, schools, community groups, and local governments via the internet. The information provided via the ESRI Web site is intended to assist in building disaster-resistant communities across the country by sharing geographic knowledge about local hazards. This Web site allows users to create on-line hazard maps for which they can specify both location (by ZIP code, city, or congressional district) and the hazards to be shown. It also directs users to Other sources of information -both on the Web and in the real world. 
 

www.explorezone.com
This Web site is a comprehensive source of recent meteorological, geological, hydrological, and space science news - much of it focusing on hazards. With sections on volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, EI Nino, global warming, hurricanes, and other natural phenomena, Explorezone provides the latest news and updates on the latest scientific findings. The site includes links to information sources, numerous graphics and videos, book reviews, background information, an easily searchable index of science terms accessible from every page, and a special section entitled "the edge" that presents new ideas in science and technology. 

www.disasternews.net
The Disaster News Network reports on U.S. disaster response (as well as response to major international events that call for U.S. involvement), focusing on the response and recovery work of nongovernmental organizations - particularly "faith-based" (church) groups. It also provides information about how individuals and groups can help in disasters, and includes information about volunteer opportunities in various regions of the country. 

www.sustainable.doe.gov
The Department of Energy's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development redesigned Web site includes an extensive section on disaster planning that contains segments on key principles, case studies, codes/ordinances, articles/ publications (lots of good ones), educational materials, and other resources. These pages offer information on how long-term community sustainability can be incorporated into disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery. 
 

www.ibhs.org
The Institute for Business and Home Safety has remodeled its Web site. A consortium of insurance and reinsurance institutions, IBHS is dedicated to making natural disaster safety a core value among homes and businesses. Visitors to the new site will find: 

www.emforum.org
The Virtual Forum for Emergency Management Professionals (EM Forum) was established in August 1997 by the Emergency Information Infrastructure Partnership (EIIP) - a cooperative effort of public and private organizations with an interest in emergency management, including the Congressional Fire Service Institute (CFSI), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Emergency management Association (NEMA), the international Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), and the State and Local Emergency Management Data Users Group (SALEMDUG). The EMForum Web site provides a means for both locating extensive information about emergency management and networking with emergency professionals around the globe. It includes regularly planned on-line conferences, live chat areas, newsgroups, live chat areas, newsgroups, mailing lists, and an e-mail capability, as well as a large base of on-line information that emergency professionals can consult to aid disaster preparedness, response, and recovery-including a Virtual Library, Virtual Classroom, and a Technology Arena. 

hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/~anderson/
The Emergency Preparedness Information Exchange (EPIX) was one of the original Internet disaster sites, and remains one of the most comprehensive. Established by the Centre for Public Policy Research on Science and Technology, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada, EPIX contains extensive information about both current situations and disaster management generally. 

www.PrepareNow.org
The Community Preparedness Website Project was undertaken to insure that the needs and concerns of vulnerable populations are addressed in the area of emergency preparedness and response. To achieve this, the PrepareNow Web site attempts to integrate community-based organizations into emergency planning and management. Vulnerable populations include (but are not limited to) persons who are physically or mentally disabled, limited or non-English-speaking, geographically of culturally isolated, medically or chemically dependent, homeless, frail/elderly or children, owners of pets or service animals. The PrepareNow Web site provides a collection of disaster preparedness information in various languages; information on vulnerable populations; links to traditional emergency service providers and other disaster resources; an index of California Community Collaborative Groups; an events calendar; direct e-mail links to Bay Area programs addressing preparedness concerns of special needs populations; sample disaster plans, guides, and checklists; and other disaster preparedness information