Hazard Awareness Guidebook: Planning for What Comes Naturally

The Guidebook grows out of a national Hazard Awareness Workshop held in Corpus Christi, Texas, March 22 and 23, 1979. The goal of the sponsors of the Workshop, Texas Coastal and Marine Council and Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Boulder, Colorado, was to provide a setting for exchange of information among those involved in communicating natural hazard information to the public. From this interchange of information, it was hoped to provide some guidelines for future awareness efforts concerned with earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or other natural hazards with which people must learn to cope. It was obvious during the workshop that we do not have all the answers necessary to initiate, conduct, and evaluate awareness programs, but we can draw on a number of common experiences to produce an outline of elements which need to be considered when putting together a hazard information program. These elements are summarized in the following list of "dos". More complete lists of dos and don'ts are contained within the text.