Be sure to discuss information gathered from these resources with your health care providers to see if it is relevant to your individual situation. Health and medical information accessed through these websites is not intended to substitute for or to replace the advice or instruction of a health care professional.
PlaneTree Health Library's mission is to guide the public to trustworthy, accurate, and free health and medical information. In operation since 1989, it is a free, public, patient and consumer health library and 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. It does not accept advertisements; it has no commercial relationship with the sources of information on these webpages. Visit our online information guides linked from our main website at: www.planetree-sv.org
If a disaster should happen that effects our area (besides the COVID-19 pandemic), you'll find up-to-date details on this webpage.
Santa Clara County -- sign up with AlertSCC to get local emergency alerts on your phone.
For other counties in our area, find your local warnings by searching with your county name and the word: Alert.
What's the Emergency?
Click on any of these links to see more.
Plan for emergencies Extreme weather Power outages
Wildfire Flooding or slides Earthquake
COVID-19 is still with us. Even though many of the resources in this collection don't mention it directly, during this pandemic we need to protect against infection while preparing for other disasters.
When the Temperatures are High or the Air Quality is Poor -
The Santa Clara County Public Health Office advises people who are most at-risk (older adults, pregnant women, children, and people with chronic respiratory and/or heart conditions) to:
Smoke and particles in the air can cause serious health problems to both people and pets, and unfortunately just smelling smoke isn't enough to tell whether breathing outside air is dangerous. Here are links to air quality tracking and advisory websites:
Different methods used to calculate air quality give us different numbers, and it can be confusing. This article helps to explain why - and suggests how to find the best resource for your location:
Beware Donation Scams
When disasters hit, for many people the first thought after "I'm safe (mostly)" is "How can I help?". Unfortunately, though, for some that second thought is "how can I make a profit from this?". Scammers feed on our desires to help each other.
If asked for money:
Please be cautious of crowdfunding requests, individuals asking for gift card donations, and other requests for cash or checks. Verify that the organization or company making the ask is legitimate; and dig further into GoFundMe requests before giving. If the funds are supposedly going to a particular charity, call or email that organization directly to ask for confirmation that a third party is fundraising for them.
If asked for material donations (food, blankets or towels, clothing, toys, equipment, etc.):
Double-check with the organization that will be distributing those donations to find out 1) if they are still accepting donations, and 2) if there are limits on what kinds of materials they can accept. Donated items should be clean and undamaged; packaged food items should be within their sell-by date and ideally easy-to-open and ready-to serve.
If you suspect a scam, please report it!
To find out where and how to report a suspected scam, check these links:
All the agencies that provided information resources, and especially to the following organizations that reviewed and gave us feedback on this guide:
The text on this page is copyright PlaneTree Health Library, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Linked contents are the responsibility of their creators or copyright holders.