Red Cross Apps for Emergencies
Update: the American Red Cross has a new app for flood hazards.
See a description.
The Red Cross also has a series of apps for phones (iPhone and Android) that cover a variety of hazards and responses, including first aid, CPR tempo, earthquakes, wildfires, emergency shelters, tornadoes, pet first aid, and swimming safety. All except the pet first aid app are free.
The reviews for the apps, when there are any, are generally good, except the wild fire app (16 reviews, 3 stars), which gets generally panned because its alert system at first wasn’t reliable, then was removed altogether. The pet first aid app gets the best reviews (16, 4.5 stars), the human first aid does well (21 reviews, 4.5 stars). The tornado app (268 reviews, 4 stars) gets great reviews, but the negative ones seem to be largely because it doesn’t differentiate between tornadoes and big thunderstorms. Some users have had trouble with crashing it during emergencies, which seems like it could be a big problem.
If you have a favorite preparedness or emergency response app that you like, please let us know!