International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Public awareness and public education for disaster risk reduction: key messages
Breastfeed
• Breastfeed babies rather than bottle feeding them, to provide them with noncontaminated nutrition.
Use latrines
• Use proper and clean toilets for to prevent illness and disease.
Bathe regularly
• Bathe often, using clean water and soap or clean sand.
Share your knowledge with others
• Teach others how to take care of themselves and maintain healthy practices. This will help to avoid the spread of diseases and epidemics.
Seek medical attention for anyone who cannot be treated at home
• If someone needs medical care, go to the nearest health clinic or hospital to get help.
Stockpile essential foods
• Consider which of the following three levels of food security or insecurity you may face: – Self-sufficient maintaining a sustainable income and other means of living, and sustainable access to sufficient food – Food insecure sustainable income and other means of living, but without access to enough food due to disruptions in the market – Food and livelihoods insecure without a sustainable income and at the same time unable to access and/or afford enough food. This is the most vulnerable level.
Key messages for tropical cyclones Please note that the foundation messages are contained in Key Messages for All-Hazards Household and Family Disaster Planning. Separate messages are also available for earthquakes, floods, pandemics, tropical cyclones, and wildfires. Tropical cyclones are relatively slow-moving but severe forward-tracking storms with fast rotational winds of at least 65 knots (120–320 km per hour or 74–200mph). They have an ‘eye’: a central calm area. Maximum power is close to the ‘wall’, or outer edge, of the eye. These storms are referred to as: • cyclones when occurring in Southeast Asian waters and the Indian Ocean • typhoons when they occur in East Asian and Pacific waters • hurricanes when they occur in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean Sea. Each type is associated with a particular season that can last as long as seven months each year.
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