In times of disaster, older people suffer more death, injury, financial loss, and stress than younger people. This pattern of neglect can be reduced by improving communications between community elders and agencies providing emergency and disaster relief services. Our long term objective is to provide an inexpensive, automated voice mail a map-display system called CARE to assist in providing a) notifications and instructions to residents in times of imminent danger, b) identification and evacuation of older residents prior to disasters, c) rapid damage and injury assessment after disasters, and d) effective communication and outreach for relief agencies during disaster recovery. During non-emergency periods, the CARE voice mail system will provide community wide services such as daily check-up calls for elders and a telephone bulletin board of community events and services. To achieve these goals, we will develop software to integrate microcomputer based voice mail hardware and government databases for creating computer displayed, dynamic maps of communities. Vertical markets for the CARE voice mail and mapping system include a) police and fire departments, b) local, county, state, and federal offices of emergency services, c) state and federal disaster relief agencies, and d) business using or producing toxic materials.
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