The US is currently in the grip of hurricane season, but there are potential disasters all year round. Snowstorms, heat waves, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods… no matter where you live, there are risks, and it’s smart to be prepared. Here are five apps to help you deal with emergencies, and help you weather the storm.
First Aid By Red Cross
Sometimes, in a disaster, help is miles away, and urgently needed. But not all of us can stay current on our First Aid certifications, if we even have them in the first place. So the Red Cross has designed an app that walks you, step by step, through common first aid issues, from cardiac events to broken bones. The steps are clear, simple, and designed to be done with a minimum of tools, although having a first aid kit handy will definitely help. That way, you’ll be prepared, if you’re the only “help on the way.”
FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a fairly useful app for emergency situations. It’s designed to be preventative, giving you emergency warnings beforehand where possible, and includes checklists and guides for how to flee potential dangers, or how to survive when you stay in place. The app will also help you contact FEMA personnel and find open shelters. And it even includes a way to help: You can take disaster photos and upload them to FEMA directly to help the agency find dangerous situations and guide first responders.
ICE Standard
Everyone needs an ICE (In Case of Emergency) card. It lists your location data, like phone number and address, your medications, your health issues, your contact numbers, and a lot more. But not all of us have one, and if we do, we don’t always have our wallets on us. So, ICE Standard puts one on your phone, as a backup, so that paramedics can quickly learn potential issues and more effectively treat you. Especially during disasters, when triage is most important, that’ll ensure people can be made stable and then moved to where they can get more treatment.
Life 360
Sort of a personal social network, Life 360 is an app that ties together family members via their phones, letting them message and sharing the exact locations of each phone. It’s mostly for families to better network and communicate, of course, but in an emergency, it also lets you establish exactly where everyone is and get in touch with them as soon as possible. In emergencies, that can be invaluable and it can help reunite families or direct emergency personnel.
Pet First Aid
Our animal friends are at just as much risk as we are, in an emergency, so the Red Cross also has a guide to pet first aid. It won’t replace finding an actual vet, but it will help you solve health problems for the animals we evacuate with.
Got an app you use in emergency situations? Let us know in the comments!