The New York Times published a quick video on helpful apps for those who may find themselves in an emergency situation – such as those of us in Southern California who live in earthquake country but still may feel ill prepared to handle an emergency situation. Seeing the photos of devastation in Nepal can only make one think: am I prepared? Should I get some Red Cross training?
These three helpful mobile apps suggested by the Times are not life savers, but could be helpful “pocket knife guides” to get you through some emergency situations, be it from an earthquake, or an accident.
We also highly recommend people take a CERT class – Community Emergency Response Team – course offered by Los Angeles County. They are free and extremely effective at giving residents an “all risk” training to deal with a variety of emergency situations. Ideally, each city block should designate a couple of CERT trained individuals to help organize and treat should there be an emergency.
And finally, just to bring this tragic disaster a bit closer to home, I’m sharing a link to an account written by my nephew, TJ Grist, of what happened to him while trekking in Nepal when the earthquake happened. He has just left Nepal but was in the Himalayas, with boulders rolling past him, during the earthquake.
New York Times: Technology – App Smart
 Nowhere Mag: Trekking through the Earthquake
That is an incredible narrative! So glad he is OK.