Join America’s PrepareAthon

It may be the final week of National Preparedness Month but since disasters can strike at any time, preparedness should occur throughout the year. Join America’s PrepareAthon by registering today for the Great ShakeOut Day of Action earthquake drill.

On October 17 at 10:17 AM join millions of people worldwide as they drop, cover and hold on for earthquake preparedness. The Great ShakeOut was organized to help your community prepare for and recover from an earthquake, to encourage you to update emergency plans and supplies, and to secure your space in order to prevent damage and injuries during disaster. Last year over 21 million practiced “Drop, Cover, Hold On.” Don’t be left out, take action to prepare!

Follow @PrepareAthon for all things disaster preparedness!

For additional resources on how to protect your family during an earthquake, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and don’t forget to download the American Red Cross earthquake app to receive alerts. You can also make disaster preparation fun for the whole family with Beat the Quake, an interactive game to test your preparedness know-how!

Don’t forget to download the latest FEMA mobile app with its new feature Disaster Reporter for you to share photos of disaster damage in your area and show how your community is recovering. 

Mobile Devices in Times of Disasters

When disasters strike, survivors often turn to the tools at their fingertips, like a smartphone or tablet, to look for disaster assistance. Statistics show that in Fiscal Year 2012, more disaster survivors turned to mobile devices to apply for disaster assistance on DisasterAssistance.gov than ever before—21,290 to be exact. With this in mind, the Disaster Assistance Improvement Program (DAIP) teamed up with its development partner, the Department of Labor's Benefits.gov team, to further improve DisasterAssistance.gov access for people on the go.

The team primarily focused on enhancing the mobile user experience through responsive Web design to the point of registration. The site now detects the user's browser resolution and renders the Web page for either desktop or mobile viewing, eliminating the need for a separate mobile website.

On a mobile device, survivors can find disaster assistance on DisasterAssistance.gov that meets their personal needs using new sliding sub menus. With one touch, survivors can access the most important information on the site's new quick links bar and docked footer. DAIP also optimized the site's content, layout and navigation to ensure a consistent experience for survivors visiting DisasterAssistance.gov on their desktop or mobile device.

DAIP also made it easier for survivors to find and sort through frequently asked questions (FAQs) and to peruse the 70-plus forms of assistance (FOAs) through a new expand/collapse functionality. Survivors can now use the site's new Share button to refer others to useful Web pages, with the option of emailing or sharing links on Facebook, Twitter or other social media channels from anywhere on the site. DAIP also rebranded the core site functions—Find Assistance, Apply Online and Check Your Status—on the homepage, providing survivors quick access to the functions they utilize most on DisasterAssistance.gov.

DAIP's successful enhancement with regard to responsive Web design has carved a path for future updates that improve the disaster survivor's experience throughout the entire website. But for now, DAIP asks everyone to be proactive and save DisasterAssistance.gov to your smartphones, tablet devices and desktops to access all the recovery resources the government has to offer before a disaster strikes. Remember, September is preparedness month and this is one simple way to make sure you and your family are ready!