The American Red Cross

Hi All,

In light of what is happening in Houston and in Texas, I thought a blog entry talking about the American Red Cross would be useful, helpful, interesting and appropriate.

Visitors to the ARC site can donate by giving money in various amounts. The minimum donation is $10.  Users are able to specify where the money gets spent. For example, you can choose disaster relief, where the money is needed to go the most, your local red cross, home fires and Hurricane Harvey.

Visitors to the ARC can also donate blood. Click the link to find blood drives by zip code.

Users of the ARC site can also volunteer their time. Click this link for more information. 

Finally the site has a helpful Get Help section where you can learn about disaster relief/recovery, how to reconnect after a disaster, learn about post-emergency recovery and more.   

Also, at the bottom of the page users can sign up for ARC (American Red Cross) news.  By submitting your email address users will be informed of disaster alerts, preparedness tips and ways to get involved with the ARC.


Click on this page for FAQ's (frequently asked questions) about a variety of Red Cross related topics like Donating Blood, Financial Donations, Getting Assistance and Reconnecting Families.

Regards,
Stu

Disaster Checklists

Hi All,

We get an AAA publication at the library called C&T (Car and Travel). Its a free publications that we put out for patrons to leaf through and/or read at their leisure. Its a fun, travel oriented magazine that has lots of interesting articles.

One of those interesting articles appeared in the September/October 2015 issue.  It was - sorry for the depressing topic - called 'Disaster Checklist'.  The article subtitle was 'Create an emergency preparedness kit for your home'.  Good stuff.  Interesting and useful - quite the double play.

Some of the highlights of this brief article included having the following on hand:

• one gallon of water per person, per day
• a two week supply of non-perishable food
• a battery powered radio and extra batteries
• a first aide kit with bandages, gauze and tape
• wrenches, pliers and other tools
• solar cell phone charger or power inverter
• garbage bags
• copies of insurance policies and bank records
• sleeping bags, blankets and changes of clothing
• personal hygiene items such as toothbrushes, soap, wash cloths'
• disposable plates , cups and eating utensils
• 7 day supply of prescription medications
• extra cash in case ATM's are unavailable

Click on this link for more information from AAA.com. 

And, click on this next link for even more information on how to create a 'Go Kit' in order to prepare for emergency evacuations from hurricanes, floods, etc...and you can also click on this link from the American Red Cross on How to Create Emergency Go-Kits.

Regards,
Hope you never need to use this list or the sites.

Stu