Emergency preparedness volunteering opportunity in Hamilton County

I'm quite sure that during those days at the pick of the Hurricane season, you had a glimpse to the New Orleans mastodontic evacuation in response to hurricane Gustav. Now is the turn of the East coast to prepare for hurricane Hanna.

The changes in the response from Katrina were admirable. They were more prepared and organized and most of all people listened to the mandatory evacuation and they put their emergency plans in action.

I know we are in Cincinnati away fro the hurricane land, but it is still a smart choice to be prepared for an emergency (a tornado, a flood, a disease, a terrorist attack), if something happen you will never regret it.

A few days ago I signed up to volunteer for the emergency plan of Hamilton County and you can do it too http://www.serveohio.org/OhioCitizenCorps_OR.aspx.
In this way you can help your community when in need, you receive a free training about emergency and your family will be the first in line to receive help.
Even being an interpreter for someone who is sick or displaced can be important.

One of the things that I want to be prepared for the most is the Pandemic Avian Flu.
My veterinarian background tells me how bad this pandemic flu can be.
If you want to learn more you can go at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic/en/ World Health Organization) or at http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ (USA).
You may not know that in case of Pandemic Flu all the people that are in the country where is the outbreak may not be able to come back to USA. For more information about Pandemic Flu and traveling abroad click here: http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/health/health_3096.html, http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/health/health_2747.html#evacuate,
http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/health/health_1181.html, http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentAvianFluQA.aspx#travelinfection, http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentAvianFluAsia.aspx.
I hope you will check the list of other useful links I provided on this blog on the right white column.
And here you can read an interesting article published by CNN on the first 5 things to do in case of medical emergency http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/04/ep.first.aid/index.html.
Be safe, be ready, not sorry!