Website specializes in hurricane preparedness

| 08.16.2007 | 05:37:557636 |

August 16 '07: A new one-stop hurricane preparedness site, advised and developed by hurricane and response officials is working to raise coastal communities' preparedness, Disaster News Network reported. The OneStorm.org site offers tips, information, planning scenarios, and other content designed to give the most information about hurricane response and preparedness to families and communities.

The site's founder, Chris Bennett told DNN that when he first moved to Florida he tried to find hurricane preparedness information on the Internet but found that information disparate and not cohesive. "There really just wasn't a site devoted to and centered around the issue of family hurricane preparedness."

Bennett said he developed the site, along with the help of his business partners and from recommendations he received from the Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, local and state response officials and hurricane experts at the National Hurricane Center. Advisors to the site include former-Director of the National Hurricane Center Max Mayfield, hurricane analyst for CBS News Bryan Norcross, and Chief Meteorologist for Univision in Puerto Rico, Ada R. Monzon.

On the site, users can fill out personal and location-sensitive information such as number of family members and pets, address, ages, and other information which will then be used to show what supplies are needed to help prepare for a hurricane. After a list is generated, the user then has to check whether they have the item in the household, or have to buy it at a local store.

"Instead of just showing a checklist, we make the user acknowledge they either have the item, of don't have them. ... Every item they marked as 'I don't have this' gets put into a dynamic shopping list that they can print out at the end of the plan and rather than having a list of 100 items - everything that somebody needs - it might just show the 30 items that the person hasn't purchased already," DNN quoted Bennett saying.

In addition to preparedness lists, there is information regarding shelters, and the nearest locations relative to the location of the user. Also, users who sign up with the site will receive geographically-sensitive information about if a storm is developing or headed their way, DNN reported.