Stop Disasters!!!!

I've been working with the disaster and emergency management community for a little over 10 years now, and I will tell you there isn't much to laugh at or have fun with when it comes to disasters.

OK, that doesn't mean we DON'T laugh about it sometimes, but gallows humor is supposed to be kept under wraps, so I won't tell you about the guy who blew himself up after he lit a match to look at the gauge of the leaky propane tank one dark night. Ahem.

Anyway, I recently came across a game that was developed by the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) to help teach kids about preparing for disasters. It is called Stop Disasters, which pretty much says it all if you ask me. And, you know, it's a pretty neat game, and I've had fun playing it, so I decided Hey, why not pass this on?

This isn't a game very high on the technological scale. No Wii here, but you can choose your disaster! Yes! You can pick Flood, Wildfire, Hurricane, Earthquake, or Tsunami. You can also pick which language you want to use (ATTENTION TIM!).

The goals are to reduce loss of life and property. You earn points as you make changes to your community by either building shelters, reinforcing existing buildings, creating barriers or drainage, or doing training of the townspeople. It all really depends on the disaster you've chosen, and you have a set amount of money to spend on things and a set amount of time to spend it, because apparently the disaster is on a schedule here, people.

After a while, you start to hear alarms saying a flood/fire/tsunami is coming. You get to watch it unfold. Even though this is a game, it can be really surprising to see. I didn't expect the floodwaters to rise that far when I played it the first time. You can watch the $$ tally up, and you also watch the death toll rise. After the disaster, you are given the totals and you find out if you passed or failed the disaster.

It isn't as easy as it might sound. I had to play one disaster scenario several times before I got a passing score.

Anyway, enjoy the game. It's fun, and you might learn something, too.

I'm planning on doing a few more disaster-related posts here in the hopes of bringing some personal preparedness information to my few, few readers, but I hope it will be interesting and helpful. Stay tuned!