The news today told a story of twin sisters who received some sad news today.

It was their birthday. When they awoke, they logged into Facebook expecting to see many birthday wishes on their wall. Instead they saw postings that had RIP to their brother and a friend of his. After calling their brother and getting no response, they called their mother. She knew nothing of this either. At that point, the police were called and the story was confirmed. The brother and his friend had died in a car accident the night before.

Our EverybodySafe.com emergency notification service is to let people know when an emergency happens and to alert many people at the same time. While most of us would quickly say that we would rather receive a personal phone call in the event of a death, we at EverybodySafe.com feel that receiving an automated phone call that there is an emergency is better than, as in this case, finding out on Facebook. Worse yet would be not knowing anything at all for a few days.

We’ve heard the sad stories from hospitals, police and coroners that it can take on average three days to locate relatives for someone who can not speak for themselves. This is why we created EverybodySafe.com. Check out our site and let us know your thoughts on emergency notification.

What is that, you ask?

The “It Won’t Happen to Me” syndrome is, basically, denial. I won’t get into a really bad car accident and be rushed to the hospital. I won’t have a heart attack, even though there is family history. Yes, tornadoes, mudslides, hurricanes, forest fires… are around here but it won’t hit my house. There are terrorist attacks in large cities and at large events but it won’t happen when I’m there. My house won’t catch fire…

The list could go on and on. None of us wants to think about anything bad happening. However, if we don’t think about it, how can we prepare for it?

The answer is to think about these things long enough to be prepared. Once we have a plan for emergencies and disasters, we can go back to living our happy lives. But we have to plan !!

According to Ready.gov -

1. Get a Kit / To-Go Bag
2. Make a Plan
3. Stay Informed

There is another blog post that explains the details of what is needed – Make a Plan, Get a Kit, Stay Informed.

EverybodySafe.com can be used for the third item on the list. Part of staying informed is informing others on your status. Let them know if you are hurt by sending an alert, or if you are OK by sending an “I’m OK” message.

Don’t put this off any longer. Let’s go out and enjoy life, knowing that we will be prepared in the event of an emergency or disaster.

Families Could Have Been Notified Much Sooner

When the Continental Airline jet flying from Rio de Janeiro to Houston experienced severe turbulence, something as simple as wearing a seatbelt would have prevented dozens of people from being injured. When passengers were taken to a Miami hospital after an unplanned, emergency landing, EverybodySafe.com could have prevented worry and confusion among these passengers’ families.

If you are as severely injured as some of these passengers were, you are not in a state to communicate how to contact your family.  How are your loved ones supposed to know that you’re injured and in a hospital hundreds of miles away from where you’re supposed to be?

Many people are under the assumption that there is a special database of contact information for hospitals to pull from so that they can contact family in case of an emergency. In reality, hospital staff will not look through your cell phone or spend time searching the internet for whom to call.

EverybodySafe.com uses e-mail, text messaging and phone calls to make sure that everyone who needs to know will be informed in case of emergency. When you sign up, you’ll receive ID cards, stickers and dog tags with your EverybodySafe.com ID number. Hospital staff and emergency workers simply call the 800-number or log on to the Web site, and EverybodySafe.com will contact everyone on your list to let them know where you are and what’s wrong.

For the rest of the passengers on the flight who were not injured, EverybodySafe.com also offers an ‘I’m OK’ feature, where with the push of a button you can let your loved ones know that you are safe.

Our I’m OK service is designed to let your family and friends know that you are OK. There are a few times where this can be used. One is when a natural disaster strikes. Was there a tornado, hurricane, fire, flood…. in your area? Everything is crazy because of so many people hurt or homes damaged? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to let people know that you are OK? That’s now easy to do!! Sign up for our free I’m OK service and add up to 7 contacts and their email addresses. When an event like the ones described above happen, simply go to our site and send an I’m OK message, using your EverybodySafe ID number. The alert goes out immediately by email to all of your pre-defined contacts! One quick note on our system, and everyone is notified. Nice and simple. Sign up for the free service here.

There are many other times where the I’m OK service can be used. What are some ideas of where you could use the I’m OK service? Let us know your ideas and don’t forget to sign up!!

Take This Quiz and Find Out!

One of the first rules in Parenting 101 is that parents should be involved in their child’s life. Whether it’s checking homework or getting to know your child’s friends, there are many ways to become involved. Unfortunately, some parents take it too far and become a “Helicopter Parent,” always hovering over their children.

We’re constantly bombarded with stories of child abductions and teenagers experimenting with drugs, and it’s very easy to become over protective. There are tools and steps you can take to ensure your child is safe and to give you piece of mind.

Q. How often do you communicate with your child’s teacher(s)?

A)    At parent-teacher conferences
B)     Once a month
C)    At least once a week

If you picked C, you might be a Helicopter Parent. Now that teachers are available via e-mail, parents have more ways to stay in touch about their child’s progress.

Rather than e-mailing or calling your child’s teacher on a regular basis, have a check in every few months. If you find that your child is not doing well, ask the teacher how you should proceed.

Q.  Your 12-year-old child is visiting relatives in another state for a week. How often should he or she check in?

A)    When he arrives and at least several times throughout the week.
B)     At least every night.
C)    I would never let my child travel to another state without me.

Traveling alone can be exciting for a child, but where there are potential dangers there are easy steps you can take to ensure your child’s safety. Make sure that the airlines or train staff knows that there is a minor traveling alone so they can accompany the child. Also, have a system in place so that your child can let you know when he or she arrives safely while still maintaining their independence.

EverbodySafe.com, a one-of-a-kind service that keeps the lines of communication open especially in the case of an emergency, offers an ‘I’m OK’ feature, where with the push of a button on the Web site can let you know that your child is safe at the destination. The service also offers ID cards, stickers and dog tags, all of which include a personal EverbodySafe.com ID number. Using this exclusive ID number, the hospital staff and emergency workers can simply call the 800-number or log onto the Web site, and EverybodySafe.com will contact everyone on your list to let them know where you are and what is wrong.

Q. How well do you know your child’s friends?

A)    I know their names and phone numbers.
B)     I’m acquaintances/friends with their parents.
C)    I know their hobbies, middle names and schedules.

There’s a fine line between knowing who your child associates with and embarrassing your child in front of friends. Depending on the friends’ ages, focus some of that energy on getting to know the parents. That way, when your child is sleeping over at someone’s house you can give the parents a call to make sure everything is going well rather than making your child feel policed.

While talking to someone recently, they mentioned that we had a micro-notification system. That was food for thought. We don’t have a mass notification system, that will alert a community regarding a disaster. That is a mass notification system. That system is very important and everyone should find out about the type of system in your area. Sign up for the mass notification system. We won’t always have a radio or television on to hear about what has happened, so getting alerts sent to your phone or email is very important.

Instead, our system notifies the people close to you in the event of an emergency. We alert your friends, family, neighbors and anyone else on your list in the event of an emergency that has happened to you. That is the micro-notification system. This type of system is more personal. It can be used in times of a major disaster, or if you have been involved in a car accident. The accident can be very major to you, but may not be on the news.

Another time when the micro-notification system helps is to let people know that you are OK when a major disaster does strike. Maybe there is an earthquake. Do you have a Mom that worries all the time? Send out an “I’m OK” message with our system to let her and others know that the earthquake did not effect you. Mom will be so releived!

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could prevent bad things from happening? Make the world a better place? That would be wonderful, but it just is not what is happening today. Disasters happen – tornadoes, hurricanes, shootings, accidents, the list goes on. If we can’t prevent something from happening wouldn’t it be better to at least know if someone you care about is either hurt or OK? We have a service for both.

If you are in an accident that has made the news, you can call our 800# and let the people on your list know your status.

Emergencies happen, Natural disasters happen, Accidents happen. Many of these are preventable. For example, many accidents can be prevented by being more careful and using safety precautions. Thinking about how to do something more carefully and taking the extra few minutes to do that can make a huge difference. We are all guilty of carelessness. I’ve pulled a chair over to step on to reach something high rather than getting the stepladder just because the chair is closer. How much more time would it have taken to get the stepladder? In reality, that would have been 2 or 3 minutes total, to get it out, set it up, and put it away. Compare that to days or months or more to recuperate from an injury caused by falling from the chair. That is one small example in a world of ways that we can be more carful. It is very important to be careful and prepared. Since tornadoes can tear a town apart in minutes, it’s better to be prepared than to be apathetic. Have a plan, get an emergency kit, sign up with us so the people important to you will be notified when something does happen.

Many of us don’t really think about emergency plans. We have the attitude of “it won’t happen to me.”

I was also guilty of in years past. But, the truth is, bad things do happen. Emergencies occur, natural disasters happen, shootings, car accidents, serious illness…. the list goes on. I don’t want to think about these things on a daily basis! Worrying about this is not something we should do either! That causes it’s own stress. I don’t like to listen to the news since there is so much negativism. But, I do want to be prepared.

Letting people know that something has happened if an emergency occurs is part of being prepared. With my EverybodySafe.com account, I have everyone listed that I want to know immediately if something happens to me. Then, with each person, I have the choice of having them notified in different ways.

Make EverybodySafe.com part of your emergency plan.

Accidents happen every day, in the car, at home or outdoors, They happen when we are doing the activities we do every day, either in work or play. Other types of emergencies happen daily also, illness and natural disasters as examples. What do we need to do to be ready for something like this to happen? Do we even want to think about it? The answer to that is no, most people don’t want to think about something bad happening. The best thing would be to get prepared, take precautions to stay safe, then don’t worry.

So what do we need to be prepared?

1. Have an emergency plan. Think about what you need in general and any needs specific to you.
2. Have a disaster/emergency kit. Get everything together and keep it in a safe place.
3. Have a way to notify people in the event of an emergency or disaster.

How will people you care about know that something has happened to you? How will you know that an emergency has happened to someone you care about? Sign up for EverybodySafe.com to be sure everyone is notified in an emergency.