Best Road Safety Ad? Opportunities for simple DRR messages too, I think!

This video from Sussex road safety which has won many awards and was designed to be understood without words. The films creator adds, “Key to the film's creation was to focus on a message that didn't take a conventional route to shock and scare the audience; rather it was my intention to bring the audience in on the conversation of road safety, specifically seat belts, and the best way to do this was to make a film that could engage the viewer purely visually and could be seen and understood by all, whoever they are and wherever they lived."


The question for ALL of us, is what can we achieve on a similar level for DRR. Do we need to simplify the message and allow for slow and steady adoption of personal DRR, rather than attempting large catch-all programs? Behavioural psychologists will tell you that this is a more likely approach? So what do you think? Please watch and add comments.

Hunza River Disaster

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Hunza River Disaster

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Global Facebook Users Generous Texters for Haiti, but Unprepared Themselves - how do we change this?

Despite the 500,000 or so members on facebook disaster relief site a recent survey of users found that many are not prepared themselves for a disaster - something that educators and researchers are seeking to understand and change. The link to the survey is:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/survey-global-facebook-users-generous-texters-for-haiti-but-unprepared-themselves/

What is interesting is the generosity of many and the critical mass of people that donated and want to support others in times of crises, while their own 'concept of unique invulnerability' means that they don't do something for themselves in terms of preparedness. Of course this is only a simplified supposition and I am aware that there may be a range of complex reasons for lack of preparation, but understanding that simple cost effective actions can be taken by everyone is not complicated. If there is a will there is a way, as they say (see this video http://edu4drr.ning.com/video/whats-up-your-crutch?xg_source=activity ) - but creating the will is our biggest challenge!

Please reply and let us change this situation together!

n never rains in sunny California, but when an earthquake happens adults still do the wrong thing

Last week I posted a video on this site from Governor Schwarznegger that talked about the earthquake that occurred in the town of Eureka, California in which he talked about adults doing the wrong thing by running outside, while children did the right thing by ducking under heavy furniture and hiding on until the shaking stopped. In this day of instant news and eye-witness report, the following eye-witness piece on CNN iReport website appeared:

I was on my lunch break when it hit. I was talking to a few friends who worked in mall (Bayshore Mall), felt a tiny tremor and then all of a sudden the lights were flickering and the building started shaking. All I remember hearing was a long loud rumbling noise and everything falling off the shelves and yelling (not screaming in terror yet kind of yelling.)

The floor was like water (knowing that it was solid concrete beneath me.) and the walls and the windows were moving like jello and everything around us was shaking and literally moving up and down with the feeling of empty space from where my hand originally was on the counter.

All I could think about after the moment that seemed like 30 seconds.. was I needed to get back to my store and help my coworkers and of course my roomie at home with my laptop,

I had to walk outside even though I wanted to run, noticed alot of shards of glass and store merchandise on the ground from other stores in the mall.

The moment I got outside though, hightailed it back to the enterance of my store.

I noticed and glanced around while running, that nearly all of the people either were crying or scared or both (natural human instincts of course) and some others were in shock and yet helping others out.

I got to my store, helped ushering the customers out, we had a lost little boy and I stayed with him until his mom showed up.

Next thing I knew, the staff and I did a quick search of everything in the store to make sure that no customers was in there and we got ourselves out. Did a head count and just waited until the mall traffic was gone.

Of course while we were all waiting, did a round of hugs and making sure we were all OKAY, called up our General Mgr and the everyone else who was suppose to come in, called our loved ones and dear friends to make sure everything is okay.

The traffic going out from the mall was backed up and horrible.

I know an earthquake isnt like a block party but you know I ended up taking pictures anyway of it.. and its my first ever huge earthquake and I survived it.

Can you spot what she did wrong? How many things did she do wrong? I would like to know what you think and why. More importantly, how can we change this behaviour? There have now been two Shake-out drills in Southern California, but is the message still not getting through to everyone across the state? How can we achieve this through education (both formal and informal) is an important question and one in which I invite you to help answer!

Poster Presentation to UCL conference on DRR - Drills as part of experiential learning cycle for DRR education – A bureaucratic exercise or learning

The Great Southern California ShakeOut of November 2008 featured the largest earthquake drill in U.S. history. Involving 5.3 million participants the drill took place in homes, businesses, schools, places of worship and communities across California with an estimated 3.3 million school children involved. As part of an international observation team put together by RiskRed three schools were observed taking part. This paper Poster Presentation focuses on a high school in Burbank, Los Angles, California, comparing it with a drill observed in an elementary school in Taiwan in May 2009 in an effort to highlight good practice while examining how the drill could be integrated into wider disaster prevention education, before during and after the event. It is argued that the current practice of isolated and abstract exercises without reflection and action by students does not help them to become better prepared now or in the future as adults.
The presentation can be viewed in pdf form by clicking the link here:

ucl_poster_sharpe_1.pdf