Okay, this is a rant...

[rant]
I was really identifying with the people of Galveston and NOLA, and thinking to myself, "What if I had to evacuate from my home? Where would I get information on what to do, where to go, what to pack?" So I decided I'd meme a webpage with a list of Evacuation Instructions.

And that's where I started a descent into hell.

First of all, there are very few "webpages" out there with such info. Mostly they just link to PDFs, which are useless to anyone without the plugins. And even then, the stuff out there is often appalling. For example, this Louisiana Government page: http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/evacinfo/stateevacrtes.htm

Now, it's already annoying because of the PDFs. But it adds insult to injury, since the PDF files are enormous 7 Megabyte clunkers *per page*. And to add the cherry on top, the diagrams require non-standard paper, 11x17!

I made an attempt to download the PDF, and was further horrified by how unwieldy it was. It was huge, it was slow, it was displayed sideways, and was so large and zoomed out that my system kept trying to redraw it every time I tried to read it. I finally just gave up in disgust. And keep in mind, this is a situation where I'm sitting here safely in St. Louis, in a nice comfy office with a high-end computer and plenty of bandwidth. For someone who's in an emergency situation, with a low-end computer and a slow dial-up, those files would be completely inaccessible and useless.

I kept looking, and there is *some* useful information out there, but it's difficult to find, and often in a very rough format. For example, this PDF (again, with the PDFs!) from the Houston Red Cross. It has a packing checklist, along with some solid advice about dealing with an emergency situation such as a hurricane or tornado. But it still has typos, gives conflicting information (like about how much water to store), and doesn't have any specific advice like *where* to go or how to find transportation. Even at the FEMA site, it just says, "Contact the local red cross for evacuation information," but without saying *how* to contact them. And www.houstonredcross.org has got nothing on their main page about Rita.

My ranting aside, what is my "constructive criticism" advice?
 - Some of our government resources *must* be devoted to providing basic and easily-accessible emergency information on the web.
  - This information needs to be searchable by common-sense terms such as "evacuation information" or "How to evacuate".
  - The information needs to be available in *non-PDF* format, like a straightforward quick-to-load HTML page with a checklist of what to pack, locations of local shelters and bus pick-up points, and phone numbers on who to call if there are any questions.
  - To get fancier, it could even have a form where someone could enter in their info, like their address or zip code, and receive info back like, "It is recommended that you evacuate to one of the following locations. Enter in your cellphone and contact information and intended destination here, as well as a list of who you intend to be traveling with, and it will be entered into a database so that the necessary agencies can get in touch with you later. If you do not have transportation, free buses are available. Your closest pick-up points are at the following addresses (etc.)"

Is this really so much to ask? I mean, there are definitely some government agencies that do seem to have their act together where the web is concerned. I've been impressed with the amount of data available at places like the USDA website, the CIA factbook, and census information. But when it comes to information which would be *really* useful in an emergency, in a case of life or death, information is either difficult to find, or provided in a format which is unusable.

We are spending a lot of money and resources to increase readiness for emergencies and terrorist attacks. More of those resources *must* be devoted to making the plans easily accessible to the public in the case of an emergency. In terms of the above information, I could put together a set of basic webpages in a couple days (and I'm actually thinking about doing it!). It is embarrassing that my government has had years to do this, but has not yet gotten their act together enough to do so.
[/rant]

Elonka