The purpose of the Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages is to assist those who provide disaster safety information to the general public. The information presented is based on historical data for the United States and is appropriate for use in the United States and its territories. Some of the information may not apply to other countries.

Intended Use: The messages and the technical information that supports the messages are intended to be used in educational presentations, displays and bulletin boards, print and electronic media, radio and television, and any other medium in which disaster safety is communicated to the public.

This guide contains awareness and action messages intended to help people reduce their risk of injury or loss in the event of natural and human-caused disasters. Awareness messages provide general information about the threats presented by each type of disaster. These are found at the beginning of each chapter in a question-and-answer format. Action messages describe what people should do to prepare for and get safely through a disaster. These are found above detailed explanations of how to do it. Also included are statistics and other supporting information that reinforce the credibility and importance of each message.

Users of this guide may include emergency managers, meteorologists, teachers, disaster (natural and human-caused) educators, public affairs/public relations personnel, cooperative extension agents, mitigation specialists, media personnel, and communicators. If you would like more in-depth or scientific information, please contact your local emergency management office, local National Weather Service office, local American Red Cross chapter, state and local cooperative extension offices, state geological survey office, state foresters office, or local fire department. A complete list of all agencies and organizations that have helped to bring this information together can be found in the organizations section.

Coalition of Organizations for Disaster Education: The Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages is a product created by the collaborative efforts of hundreds of professionals, practitioners, scientists and researchers from a variety of federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and other not-for-profit entities [link from “federal agencies” through here to organizations section]. These people spend numerous hours to continually refine and resolve content issues and questions to ensure accuracy, consistency and appropriateness of the messages. Find out about the Coalition of Organizations for Disaster Education.

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Disseminating this Information: This information is encouraged to be reproduced and disseminated widely sourced back to this document and the organizations that made this material possible. Suggested citation: From: Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages. Washington, DC. 2006.  When linking to this information, please direct your link to www.redcross.org/disasterguide. We recommend against directly linking to a specific page as the URLs may change over time.

Checking for Updates: The chapters of this guide are posted separately as they may be updated individually. Therefore, check the date of the chapter to ensure you have the most recent version. When linking to this information, please direct your link to www.redcross.org/disasterguide. We recommend against directly linking to a specific page as the URLs may change over time.