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How to Track Global Disasters

Global disasters have become simpler to keep track of with the evolution of both the Internet and 24-hour news networks. While people used to be forced to wait for the newspaper, TV or radio to provide updates on a set schedule, Internet news and 24-hour networks are available at all times and devote much of their resources to ongoing crises such as wars or natural disasters. As a result, tracking global disasters is a much more convenient process than it used to be.

Instructions

- 1
  Hang a map of the areas you are most closely monitoring on your wall. This gives you a place where you can keep track of activity and mark down developments in the areas in which they are occurring.
- 2
  Turn your television to a news network covering the disaster. While information won't be updated as frequently once the public starts to lose interest as a whole, the first few days are likely to be covered extensively from a variety of different angles.
- 3
  Access news broadcasts online that you can't get on your TV. British news networks may be covering different elements of the disaster when compared to the American news, for example. The more news sources you can reference, the more thorough the information you will be getting.
- 4
  Buy any newspapers that have coverage of the disaster. Newspaper reports should be more properly vetted and researched than live blogs and the information contained in them should ideally be more reliable.
- 5
  Place different colored push pins into your map to track the ongoing progress of a disaster. For example, if a series of tornadoes are destroying part of the Midwestern United States, place a red push pin into each area where a tornado has been located and a green one wherever a current watch or warning exists. This helps you track the disaster's movement when applicable, and you can use other pins to represent response units and other elements relative to the disaster.
- 6
  Keep your own journal of the disaster as it unfolds. This will help you go back later to review what happened since you'll have a linear report of events as they unfolded with news and information that you'd already confirmed as correct and accurate at the time it occurred.

Nature