Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

The RSOE EDIS Disaster Alert Map

It’s hard to convey the ubiquity of different disasters around the world—until you look at this map, compiled in real time by RSOE EDIS, a nonprofit emergency services organization based in Budapest.

The group uses hundreds of sources--from the World Health Organization to the U.S. Geological Survey--to report confirmed emergencies from around the world. Notice how many volcanos are part of daily life in Central America and how many earthquakes routinely rock Eastern Europe. Of course, the map is far from complete: poorer countries do not have the reporting capacity of developed nations, so their disasters are underreported. But the blinking hazardscape is a reminder of how many emergencies happen that you never hear about--from a malaria outbreak in Botswana to a nuclear plant accident in Spain to a heat wave in India. Special thanks to RSOE for letting me share the map with you here.

Earthquake	Animal Infection	Chemical Accident
Volcano	Fire	Biological Hazard

Survivor Resources

• National Center for Victims of Crime
  
• The Resiliency Center
  
• The World Trade Center Survivors’ Network
  
• The National Center for PTSD
  

Preparedness Resources

• ReallyReady.org
  
• In Case of Emergency Blog
  
• Protecting America
  
• San Francisco’s Preparedness Site
  
• Federation of American Scientists
  
• FEMA
  
• Ready.gov