Tip Sheets
Covering Harvey: Resources on hurricanes and natural disasters
By Pia Christensen
People in Texas will be dealing with the aftermath of Harvey for a long time. Even if you’re not reporting on an affected location, this may be a good time to ask some questions and write about disaster preparedness in your region. Here are some resources for anyone covering preparedness issues, followed by some links specific to Texas.
AHCJ articles and tip sheets
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Health system disaster preparedness and data backup: Are hospitals in your community ready?
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Covering hurricanes: Resources and related stories to help your coverage
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Seniors have special concerns in natural disasters like Sandy
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Some advice when interviewing victims of mental or other trauma
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Reporters’ preparation would decrease chaos in covering disasters
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AHCJ urges reporters in disaster areas to avoid focusing on selves
Government agencies
- Public Health Emergency: Hurricane Harvey, from HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
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Galveston County Office of Emergency Management (@galvcountyoem)
Academic research, sources
- Hurricane Harvey Experts From Johns Hopkins University
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Epidemiology of Tropical Cyclones: The Dynamics of Disaster, Disease, and Development (2005)
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National Hazards Center: A national and international clearinghouse of knowledge concerning the social science and policy aspects of disasters.
- Google's Crisis Map: A collection of national and regional-scale layers related to weather, hazards, and emergency preparedness and response, mostly for the United States.
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NLM’s Disaster Information Management Research Center: Has links to relevant agencies, standards of care in disaster situations, hazardous materials, environmental clean up and more.
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Ready or Not? 2016
Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism
The report found that the nation is often caught off guard when a new threat arises, which then requires diverting attention and resources away from other priorities. The report contains state-by-state health preparedness scores based on 10 key indicators.
Houston hospitals
Galveston hospitals
Corpus Christi hospitals