Living With Fire

Excellent, detailed document on living in wildfire-prone areas.

Cal Fire's 100 feet of Defensible Space Advice

Fliers, checklists, videos, loads of info on preparing your home for the possibility of wildland fire.

October 17, 2009 - 20th Anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Santa Cruz County CERTs will be marking the 20th anniversary with a drill in Aptos. Many other events are scheduled throughout the area.

CDC advice to Colleges and Students as Flu season approaches

Parents and college students should read and be aware of issues and possible strategies for coping.

Flu Guidelines for the Workplace this Flu Season

Keeping sick kids home from school will also be a critical social distancing strategy that helps control the spread of this Flu.

How long to stay home with the flu?

H1N1 Swine Flu update from the CDC: This is important information for all citizens about how long to stay at home with a fever, diagnosed as swine flu or not, as we go into our flu season. Staying at home when sick will help prevent the spread of this pandemic flu (it is a novel/new virus, humans have no immunity to it, and it spreads easily).

The exclusion period: From the onset of flu-like illness, stay at home (and avoid close contact with others) for 24 hours AFTER your fever returns to normal, after you have stopped taking fever reducing medications.

"Sick individuals should stay at home until the end of the exclusion period, to the extent possible, except when necessary to seek required medical care. Sick individuals should avoid contact with others. Keeping people with a fever at home may reduce the number of people who get infected, since elevated temperature is associated with increased shedding of influenza virus. CDC recommends this exclusion period regardless of whether or not antiviral medications are used. People on antiviral treatment may shed influenza viruses that are resistant to antiviral medications."

Flu updates from the Center for Disease Control

The CDC will update this site daily. Look to the right for more links to Flu Preparedness and Home Care. Below that, you will find Updates and News from local County health departments and other agencies.

Update Your Family Disaster Plan

Click on the title to find some good resources for updating your family disaster plan.

Wildfire Preparedness Tips

Detailed tips from the Red Cross. Print this out. Discuss and plan with your family.

It's Fire Season - in .pdf file

Click on the title to get advice from CALFIRE on making our homes fire-safe.

3 day Preparedness Calendar - in .pdf file

This calendar lets you take 6 months to build a 3 day supply kit.

American Red Cross Get Prepared Page

Most of us know the 3 basic tenets of disaster preparedness. It is important to educate yourself about these. Be sure to click on the Red Cross link (title) to get important details.

1. Get prepared - Build a kit
The standard notion about disaster kits is that you need a 3 day supply of food and water for each member of your family in order to be self-sustaining. Mountain residents know that in the event of a major disaster, it might take even longer for help to arrive. Furthermore, current Pandemic Flu preparedness calls for a 2 week supply of food, water, and medicines. This can sound overwhelming. Consider 3 days your minimum level of preparedness, but work toward 14 days.

Look for links to Preparedness Calendars. These let you build your kit, little by little, over the course of 6 months.

2. Make a plan, talk about it with your family, practice it and more...

3. Be informed - know what hazards we might face, get training and more...