Distances : * 175 km (108 miles) W (271°) from Adak, AK
* 342 km (212 miles) W (266°) from Atka, AK
* 2054 km (1276 miles) WSW (253°) from Anchorage, AK

• With the first sound of thunder one should be cautious and try to stay inside except unavoidable circumstances.

• Stay away from fireplaces, radiators, stoves, metal pipes, sinks, and phones.

• Stop using electrical appliances, telephone, metal objects.

• Don’t get out of car if on road but make a quick retreat from water, tractors, and lawn mowers.

• If no building is available nearby recline in the lowest possible area; avoid trees.

• On the top of mountain, one should retreat as far as possible and sit on ones pack, coiled ropes, camping mattress or other such insulated items.

1. Critical Flood and Emergency Warnings: to alert people in advance of possible further threat(s) in order to help them take preventive measures and/or direct them to safer areas.

2. Missing Person alerts: Hundreds of families have been separated in the flood emergency, with an unknown number of people missing, especially children. Emergency radio stations can play an important role in identifying and reuniting these families.

3. Information on Relief Measures: including information on locations and time of relief material distribution, medical camps etc.

4. Health alerts: for evacuees / flood victims including epidemic warnings, medical safeguards and first aid, sanitation and hygiene information, location of medical camps etc.

5. Providing Accurate Information: Countering unconfirmed information and rumours that can trigger panic among an already disturbed population. It becomes vitally important to maintain the flow of authentic and reliable information.

Lighting safety awareness has been under taken by some of the Eastern and North Eastern States to educate the people on lighting safety. In individual cases people have adopted the lighting protections to the houses and adopted safety measures to reduce the risk by staying inside the house and disconnecting the electronic equipments and avoiding the contact of any iron materials during lighting time. In community level some places are isolated because of more frequent lighting during rainy season.

Because prolonged flooding is a rarity in the area, it has been difficult for authorities to convince most people to evacuate. The Prime Minister visited the affected areas in Bihar and declared Bihar floods as national calamity. He also announced an immediate release of Rs 1,000 crores (US$244 million).

As of 28 August the damage details in the state (Central government figures) are:

· Population affected: 2,668,000

· No. of human lives lost: 47

· No. of districts affected: 16

· No. of villages affected: 1,598

The state government is engaged in rescue and relief operations and claims to have adequate food. However, the lack of adequate drinking water and the unhygienic conditions in the camps are posing a high health risk. The National Disaster Management Authority has therefore, expressed the urgent need of Water purification/treatment plants in large numbers to take care of the flood affected people both in India and Nepal.

Basic objective behind using folk media among the community is because of its clear-cut advantages over other forms of media (print and electronic). The languages and dialects are their very own, because of which, intelligibility is very high. Apart from familiarity of language, gestures, music and rhythm is what makes this media acceptable among the rural folks (who mostly have low education, limited outlook and face difficulty in understanding different concepts). This media creates a forum, where there is direct personal contact between the sender of the message and the receiver. Thus the personal contact and the various factors of familiarity, makes the messages more credible and acceptable than if it were transmitted through the electronic media.

Community has been exposed to these art forms for centuries and it has become a part of their ethos. So, the effective method of communicating with the backward population in rural areas is to talk to them in terms of myths and legends which are a part of their religion. The farmers and the fishing folk residing in Tamil Nadu’s countryside (coastal districts) must be having their own god and goddesses and myths (mythology and folklore), and if such myths are combined with DRR concepts, and communicated in their own local dialects, then it would go a long way rather than a performance by an urban group. In most of the folk art forms, audience participation is an integral part, and it is this all important aspect of everybody being able to participate that encourages greater attentiveness and therefore greater and better understanding of a message.