App prepares, informs and guides households at risk of wildfire

Prepared.ly is a web and mobile application that helps households organize efforts to make their home less susceptible to wildfires as well as set up custom alerts.

Keeping citizens informed about extreme weather conditions or other emergencies that may affect them can be the difference between lost and saved lives. We’ve already covered CiviGuard, which delivers location-based alerts in the case of a natural disaster, and our latest spotting is going one step further to help residents be ready for an emergency. Prepared.ly is a web and mobile application that helps households organize efforts to make their home less susceptible to wildfires as well as set up custom alerts. Developed by Code For America in collaboration with the City of Austin, the site enables users to sign up to access important information about wildfire risk in their area, receive tips on how they can protect their home, organize tasks and set up notifications on their mobile devices that can be tweaked according to the user’s needs. Homeowners can also add their own tips to share with other neighbourhood users via text message, email or Twitter. The following video explains more about the platform: Registration for the service is free and could create a community that is better prepared to deal with the risk of wildfire. Could this idea benefit other neighbourhoods across the US, if not the globe? Spotted by: Murray Orange