| Update
History
The
following is a chronological history, in reverse order, of
updates made to "Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard
Messages.
09/15/04
Updated
page 9 of Appendix to describe water treatment with chlorine:
instructions to treat water initially with 16 drops (1/8 teaspoon)
of unscented liquid household chlorine bleach remain the same.
Instructions were added to the Appendix to repeat dosage of
chlorine if the water does not have a slight scent of chlorine
after initial dose, stir, wait another 30 minutes, and to
discard if no slight scent of chlorine. This confirms
scientific directions to the National Disaster Education Coalition
from FDA & USDA.
Note:
in some past, outdated advice, there used to be differential
treatment instructions on treating water that is cloudy or
clear. The instructions in the Appendix on water treatment
address that issue by the initial dose/second dose instructions
given. We do not advise to double the dose of chlorine
for initial water treatment if there is a perception of water
being "cloudy". That perception is variable
and there are various reasons why water may be cloudy.
Some reasons are not related to germs contaminating water,
but rather with suspended particulates (such as calcium or
other minerals) that do not cause disease if ingested.
(This is why instructions recommend filtering out particulates
first, if possible. A coffee filter will serve that
purpose well.)
The
remainder of the instructions on water treatment remain the
same.
08/19/04
Update
History Page added: when updates to the "Talking About
Disaster" Guide have been made, they are listed on the
"Update History" page so you can follow progress.
Notification
page modified: the "notification"
page on the NDEC web site was updated. Users of AOL email
need to unblock spam control or NDEC notifications will get
bounced as undeliverable.
08/16/04
Disaster
Supplies Kit chapter updated: added a recommendation to have
prescription and non-prescription medications in a kit and
to remove references to modeling clay. Not listing meds was
an oversight during review. This recommendation was added
to this chapter on page 3, third bullet. We also deleted a
recommendation to have modeling clay as part of "shelter-in-place"
supplies. (It was once thought that modeling clay would be
useful to push into cracks in the room in which one sheltered,
but that recommendation was deleted by the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security.)
Nuclear
Power Plant Incidents chapter was updated to make a factual
correction. X-ray machines, televisions, and microwave ovens
radiate non-ionizing radio-frequency energy, not ionizing
nuclear radiation. A sentence that implied that radiation
was emitted by these devices was removed.
Posted
"One PDF File" of the "Talking About Disaster:
Guide for Standard Messages." This file contains all
files of the Guide in one large PDF. This file is 3.05MB in
size. This complements the previously-posted ZIP file that
contains individual PDFs of all chapters of the Guide.
08/11/04
Cover
of the "Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages"
has been changed and updated. The cover now lists the name
of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with its subagencies
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fire
Administration, along with the other organizations which agreed
to be listed on the front cover of the Guide. FEMA and the
USFA have long been involved with the National Disaster Education
Coalition -- in fact, FEMA and USFA representatives have served
on the Coalition since its founding more than ten years ago.
It just took a while for approval to use the agency names
to wend its way through the new departmental structure of
DHS.
Index
posted. The index is on all topics found in the "Talking
About Disaster" Guide. You will find the index especially
helpful when you're looking for something that is covered
in more than one chapter.
Table
of Contents updated: The Table of Contents now lists the chapter
dates as well as the page "numbers" (by chapter
code and number of pages.)
08/10/04
New
chapter on "Terrorism" posted since it was cleared
by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Appendix
updated to conform with the posting of the Terrorism Chapter.
08/02/04
Family
Disaster Plan chapter: One important change to this chapter
was made, following an inquiry from the California Seismic
Safety Commission. The change appears on Page 5, under the
subhead "Make a Complete Checklist", second bullet.
The changed information now reads, "Become familiar with
the location and operation of shut-off valves. Do not actually
turn any valve unless it is a real emergency. Place a tag
on shut-off valves to make them easier to identify."
Previously,
there was a suggestion to mark shut-off valves with fluorescent
paint to make them easy to spot. We were notified that some
utility companies objected to that recommendation, out of
a concern that doing so may make the valve unable to be operated
in an emergency. Upon concurrence from NDEC's principal participants
knowledgeable or concerned about the issue, and with additional
concurrence from the American Gas Association, we removed
the "paint the valves" recommendation and replaced
it with the revised wording above.
07/27/04
Volcanoes
chapter change: The change was to reformat the PDF file so
that the pages are numbered sequentially (VO-1, VO-2, VO-3,
etc.).
Appendix,
chapters on Terrorism, Family Disaster Plan, Disaster Supplies
kit: Recent research conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratories
on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security's FEMA has
revealed that instructions on "shelter-in-place"
for protection when there is gaseous chemical vapors in the
air will be advising that people should only stay inside a
sealed room for two to three hours, as eventually the air
indoors may become worse than the air outdoors due to the
effect of air exchange and equilibrium. Sealing a room with
plastic sheeting and duct tape does not make it completely
air-tight.
07/16/04
Page
numbering of all chapters changed to reflect a two-letter
code for the chapter, with sequential numbering within the
chapter. Formatting changes made to many chapters. Replaced
the words "citizens" and/or "Americans"
in several chapters and replaced with "people" or
"residents" so generic terminology is used. The
Guide may be used internationally and nationality is not an
applicable issue for disaster preparedness.
Also
made the following technical changes:
Chemical
Emergencies at Home: slight change to "What is a Home
Chemical Emergency" section, Page 2, to add "spilled,
accidentally released" in front of "used improperly"
to help define the situation.
Disaster
Supplies Kit: added comfort foods to list; changed "tube
tent" to "small tent"; listed separately supplies
that are required to shelter-in-place at home and described
their uses.
Evacuation
and Sheltering, Post-disaster Safety: revised negative "do
not" messages to positive "what to do" messages
in the section related to evacuation of animals.
Floods
and Flash Floods: removed wrong reference to "thick smoke"
in a message regarding evacuation of large animals which was
duplicated in this chapter from the Wildfire chapter.
Hazardous
Materials Incidents: replaced "seek" with "get"
where "seek" was used.
Hurricanes
and Tropical Storms: revised negative "do not" messages
to positive "what to do" messages in the section
related to evacuation of animals.
Tornadoes:
deleted duplicated message on page 4; replaced negative "do
not" message with positive "what to do" messages.
07/09/04
Guide
released and posted.
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