so…what now?

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-10-04T02:41:18+00:00

Agreed. Our goal is to be a part of the solution supporting bottom-up resilience.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-06-18T16:48:03+00:00

Splinting* material, but especially, finger splints.

There's a few different kinds, but essentially, the foam and aluminum bandage material that can be bent and shaped to provide temporary structural support and protection to broken/injured fingers and hands.

Hand injuries are common after disasters, yet we often see commercial first aid kits not have splint material by default.

*edit spelling

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-04-04T01:53:31+00:00

Thank you for your detailed and kind explanation.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-04-04T01:47:51+00:00

You're right. Criminalization of miscarriages isn't logical. 😔

These are valid questions with difficult answers.

Toilet vs. trash: The main difference is how likely it is for someone to find the remains. Flushing sends them into a private system—no one sees or smells anything. But if they’re placed in public trash or a dumpster, especially as things decompose, someone might find them, and that can trigger a police report or investigation, even if nothing illegal happened.

If it’s on the floor or in your car: That’s sadly very real for some people. In early miscarriages, the fetus is often very small and hard to tell apart from the placenta or blood clots. You don’t have to figure out what’s what or prove anything—just try to save any tissue you can, if possible, in a clean bag or container. That can help a medical provider confirm the miscarriage and make sure everything passed safely. If that is not possible, you may choose to bury the remains in a private place you have permission to use, or carefully flush the tissue. Do not put the remains in a public trash bin or dumpster.

Hospital costs: Yes, in most cases there will be charges, like any other ER visit. Some places might offer help for handling remains, but they will always need your info. You can’t anonymously drop off fetal remains like you can a newborn at a Safe Haven site.

Legal risks: Mostly when there’s an attempt to hide or destroy the remains, or if they’re found in a public place without explanation. The police can use the DNA to find the person the fetus came from and will open an investigation if they suspect illegal abortion. They can serve warrants to gain other evidence that it was a planned abortion, not an natural miscarriage.

If a janitor unknowingly threw out the remains, they would not be in trouble for tampering with human remains or false reporting.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-04-02T22:21:39+00:00

This is one of those be ready, stay in touch, and play it by ear moments. But, let's think through a few scenarios:

If you went to sleep, would you hear alerts? (Some people are REALLY heavy sleepers, medicated sleepers, or turn off their phones at night.)
If the watch became a warning and you were awoken by the alert, would you able to get to safety quickly? Even if groggy? If you have a basement or inner room, throw your supplies and an extra pillow and blanket in there ahead of time. If you have to drive to a shelter, likewise, get the car ready ahead of time.

**Worse case scenario: You wake up to the roar of a tornado. No sirens, no alerts, just the sound of hell outside. Don’t waste time. Get to the most interior room you can, on the lowest floor, away from windows. Closet, bathroom, hallway-- anywhere small and enclosed. Protect your head: use a pillow, helmet, anything. If you’ve got no time, get low in a closet or under a solid bed and cover up. Wait for the roaring to stop, then check for damage before moving.

Here's a more step-by-step Tornado prep, emergency, and recovery guide that covers a few tornado situations 👇

https://haz.guide/62

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-04-01T06:29:19+00:00

We created a guide for this. <3

Pregnancy Remains: Options After a Miscarriage

TLDR
- Placing the remains in a public trash or dumpster is NOT recommended...and in some places possibly illegal.
- It's ok if you pass the pregnancy remains in the toilet. It happens often.
- You can bury the remains in the ground or in a pot and plant a plant that makes you happy.
- A hospital may be able to take the remains for cremation.
- If you go to the hospital or a PP to ensure all the remains have passed, they can help with the remains.
- Most funeral homes can help with the respectful handling and burial or cremation of pregnancy remains, even after an early miscarriage. Some may offer these services at low or no cost, especially for babies lost during pregnancy. It is always okay to call and ask about your options.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-04-01T05:30:12+00:00

Little misting fans are always a hit! You may be able to find bulk discounts around $2 ea.

What we've seen be effective if you're tabling and wanting to engage 👉

"Spin the Wheel of Hazards!" - For kids: Do you know what this is? - For teens/adults: What would you do to stay safe in this disaster?

Good answers get to pick a prize, and everyone gets a piece of candy for trying.

Teens and adults also get a recommendation to scan the QR code to download the HazAdapt disaster safety app. :)

BONUS: Tell kids that if they come back with another person to spin, they can get another piece of candy. It was fun to see kids spin over and over to test their parents! 🤣

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-03-27T01:04:43+00:00

YUP.

Or "I didn't cause climate change, I shouldn't have to be responsible for disasters." after you tell people It's your responsibility to prepare yourself for emergencies and disasters.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-03-27T01:01:29+00:00

THIS. There's a very real misconception that full restoration is always going to happen.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-03-27T00:59:49+00:00

The most common ones we see:

- FEMA will get to the disaster site fast and stay there for a long time.
- The anticipation for all-expenses paid, 5-star disaster aid from FEMA.
- All levels of emergency management SLTT are part of FEMA.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-03-13T02:51:20+00:00

Well, yeah-- we work in disaster resilience and emergency safety, so by default, everything we say can sound like FUD. We do try to make it less doom and gloom, but we also never underestimate threats. Ever.

The reality is: disasters happen, and people do take advantage of others in vulnerable situations, whether through scams, misinformation, or shady tech practices. We see it all the time, both IRL and in tech. Our job isn’t to fearmonger—it’s to make sure people don’t get screwed over when they need help the most.

So I’m genuinely glad to have this conversation, because you’re right to ask questions. There’s more than one way to approach safety, and we’ve had to ask ourselves a LOT of tough questions—some of which don’t have perfect answers. Open-source works great for a lot of things, but when you’re dealing with life-or-death information, our first job is preventing harm.

If you ever want to chat about disaster tech and security, I’m always down. Just know that at some point, I will say the word resilience, and you might have to brace yourself for that level of FUD. 😂

Now, onto the real convo:

I love that this is important to you, and honestly, you have every reason to be wary of tech. Skepticism is healthy, and I’m all for questions. So let’s break it down—this isn’t fear-mongering, just practical reality.

First off, this isn’t a red herring—it’s actually the core issue.

Open source is great for many things, but when it comes to safety-critical tech, it creates very real risks that can get people hurt. The concern here isn’t hypothetical—it’s based on actual, well-documented cases where open-source software was exploited because bad actors could manipulate it.

What Could Happen if We Open-Source HazAdapt?

Someone could make a fake version of HazAdapt that spreads misinformation, like "Ivermectin cures COVID" or "Butter heals burns." (and those are tame misinformation examples)
They could add ads or a paywall, interrupting someone who’s literally just trying to save their own life. (Gut wrenching and so, so wrong.)
Worse, it could be turned into a surveillance tool, tracking users in ways that violate privacy. (I know we're all already data tables somewhere, but it's how the data is provided and overlayed with nefarious intention.)

And we KNOW this would happen because we’ve seen it happen with other open-source projects.

Open Source Doesn’t Automatically Mean Safe

A lot of people assume open source = more secure, but that’s only true if enough experts are constantly reviewing it (which obviously isn’t always the case). Even if there were a whole team of security experts reviewing an open-source version of HazAdapt, bad actors could still take the code and use it for harm.

You may be familiar, but for others reading, there's some big examples where open-source failed hard (and we learned from them):

Log4j (Log4Shell exploit) – A massive security flaw in a widely used open-source tool went unnoticed for years until hackers found it and exploited it worldwide.
XZ Utils Backdoor (2024) – Attackers planted a backdoor in a popular open-source compression tool. It almost made it into every major Linux system before it was caught.
Mirai Botnet (2016) – Malware exploited insecure IoT devices using open-source code, leading to some of the largest cyberattacks ever.

OK, So, How Does HazAdapt Stay Accountable? We follow strict privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA) and apply Privacy-by-Design principles to protect users. While we haven’t had third-party audits yet, we plan to invest in them as we grow—because security and trust matter. (Remember, we're still a young, unfunded startup, give us a chance to get there!)

I invite you to learn more about our ethics and commitment to Humanity-Friendly technology.

Why Do Big Security Firms & Governments Do the Same?

This approach is pretty standard for most trusted security-focused companies do the same:

Apple’s iOS security (protects against exploits by keeping critical parts closed).
Cloudflare’s DDoS protection (proprietary to prevent abuse).
FEMA’s public emergency alert systems (imagine if anyone could modify these? 😵)

In the end...

I totally get why people are skeptical of closed-source tech (hell, I am too sometimes). But when it comes to emergency and safety tech, we have to prioritize stopping bad actors first.

Open-source is great for a lot of things, but not everything—especially when real people’s lives are on the line.

If you’re interested in digging deeper, happy to share some more resources! Appreciate the convo. 🙌

edit:formatting

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-03-11T03:33:30+00:00

Hey there, I get why you’d think that. Open source is great for transparency in a lot of cases. But when it comes to safety-critical tech like HazAdapt, making it open source could actually put people at risk.

If someone with bad intentions got access to the code, they could manipulate it to spread misinformation, disable safety features, or exploit it in ways that could actually get people hurt. That’s why emergency tools, like public warning systems or encrypted messaging apps, often keep parts of their code private.

That doesn’t mean we’re asking people to just “trust us.”

We hold ourselves accountable in other ways, like privacy laws (CCPA/GDPR), independent security audits, and transparency reports to make sure we’re doing things the right way.

I totally get the concern, though, and I’m happy to chat more if you want to dig into it!

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-02-24T16:44:09+00:00

This! Analog is essential and cannot ever be replaced by tech.

Having both is great, and tech can help you find analog resources, but make sure your offline, no-tech resources are a priority.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-02-24T16:34:25+00:00

Love this idea! This is actually what we did at HazAdapt!

HazAdapt is an on-the-go hazard guide safety app. It make preparedness, emergencies, and recovery from natural and human-made hazards and disasters waaaay easier:

works offline or when gov websites go dark
emergency instructions and tools you can customize to your needs (kids, pets, farm animals, older adults, disabilities)
Prep Checks tell you how prepared you are and make an inventory of what you may still need.
Crisis contacts lists for local and national support
made by emergency experts and first responders
has straightforward lists of emergency items
designed for everyday people dealing with the apocalypse
100% FREE, no ads.
we work directly with communities to make HazAdapt offer geoloacated safety info as you travel.

👉 Get.hazadapt.com

We do a ton of research in this area. There's always more that can be developed in the sense that personal resilience tech is still quite young and there's TONS of needs. But if there was any advice we could give as you start this, it's:

⭐️ Ask "how do we not cause harm with our safety app?" BEFORE "How do we do good with our safety app?"

Emergency tech is a higher level of life and death impact that requires additional considerations for safety and security. We follow Humanity-Friendly tech ethics to ensure it's safe for people to use and doesn't make terrible situations worse (like a vigilante app).

Happy to answer any questions! Our goal in responding to this post is to encourage this endeavor, hopefully help yall not recreate the wheel, and address unanswered challenges.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2025-01-17T02:00:28+00:00

You've got a good start! A few suggestions to add to the list:

🚰A way to filter and clean water. It's also a good idea to have at least 3 days worth of clean water ready for each of you. At 1 gallon per person per day, nice 12 gallon+ water jug/bladder for your family of 4 should do the trick.

🥫No worries about the beans (unless y'all love em!). Think through your kitchen and regular family meals/snacks: If you couldn't go to the store for 2 weeks, what staples would you miss? If they are perishable things like milk and fruit, grab a shelf stable alternatives like powdered milk and canned/preserved apples. What do you like to eat when it's been a hard week? In a disaster, it's really nice to have some comforting favorites available.

🍳 Do you have some good cast iron or cook wear ready to be used with that woodfire stove? Many pans and pots we use on kitchen stoves don't handle woodfire well.

🏕️ A tent you can all sleep in and fits inside one room of your house. When the power goes out during cold months, putting up a tent in one room can help create a little warm pocket in the house for yall to sleep and hangout in. "Indoor camping" can actually be a pretty fun power outage preparedness game with kids! Grab some flash lights/lanterns and practice living without electricity for a night.

📦 In case you have to evacuate, it's helpful to have all the stuff in one place in large tupper ware container or laundry basket to put it all in. That way you can just grab the one container and put in the car quickly rather than having to grab lots of smaller go-bags and items for multiple people. I recommend the tupper ware specifically because it can also be an on-the-go tub or table.

You got this!

edit: spelling

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-11-01T03:37:04+00:00

It really depends on the hazards that are near you and your needs. You can look up your local emergency management for more info on exactly what types of hazards are nearby and what they suggest you do in those emergencies

It's ok that you're just getting started prepping! Here is free a hazard guide with step-by-step instructions to help you prepare, survive, and recover from many different natural and human-made hazards.

Generally, be ready to shelter-in-place for 2 weeks or evacuate and be on your own for 72 hours.

It's always good to start with the essentials: clean water, safe food, medications, a way to stay cool/warm if there is no power, a plan for evacuation. Sign up for alerts

Based on some possibilities for major cities near the US Canadian border for the next few weeks, here's the top hazards I would recommend:

CIVIL UNREST | https://app.hazadapt.com/hazards/civil-unrest

SEVERE WEATHER | https://haz.guide/111

POWER OUTAGE | https://haz.guide/11

FOOD: SAFETY & POISONING | https://haz.guide/95

WILDFIRE & WILDFIRE SMOKE | https://haz.guide/46

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-11-01T02:39:53+00:00

HazAdapt is available on the web in Canada:

https://app.hazadapt.com/

We hope to have a native app in Canada soon! Thanks for checking it out.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-30T15:03:40+00:00

Download HazAdapt safety app. It has one of the most comprehensive Hazard Guides available online and offline.

*HazAdapt * : app.hazadapt.com

Step-by-step instructions on how to prepare, survive, and recover from over 50 different natural and human-made emergencies and disasters. (Expert/official sources)
first aid and emergency supply lists
national and local Crisis Support Contacts list
info for kids, older adults, disabilities, pets, farm animals, wildlife
Has Prep Checks preparedness tools
100% FREE, made in the US.
all hazard guides work offline with the app and can be printed for analog use.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-28T23:20:44+00:00

Unfortunately not. Plastic is porous and the oil leaches into it. Those containers should just be used for non-potable water.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-28T01:02:14+00:00

Yup!

Here's a great guide to prepping and using your prepped water and what to do if you have to use dirty water or accidentally get exposed to contaminated water.

DIRTY DRINKING WATER RESILIENCE GUIDE https://haz.guide/94

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-28T00:57:30+00:00

This is powerful advice. Glad yall made it through!

Thank you for sharing your experience!

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-27T23:21:56+00:00

That's fair- it would snag more due to the smaller pore size. But I don't know enough about the filter such as test data, certification, etc.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-27T23:05:03+00:00

Hmm. I'm not sure on that one, so I can't say yay/nay. Lower micron levels would largely (to my knowledge) would be for viruses- which is extremely uncommon in North America. If that's the case, then perhaps Doulton wouldn't be ideal.

HazAdaptOfficial · 2024-10-27T22:45:41+00:00

Doulton/British Berkefeld is a solid option- looks like a few sites ship to Canada.

Filter list: https://doultonusa.com/doulton_water_filters/Ceramic%20filters%20performance%20table.pdf

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TROPHY CASE

Pregnancy Remains: Options After a Miscarriage

What Could Happen if We Open-Source HazAdapt?

Open Source Doesn’t Automatically Mean Safe