What can you do to help people affected by the Florida fires, the Midwest tornadoes, the Cyclone Nargis, or the Sichuan earthquake? Besides giving money to the Red Cross?

If you live in the areas affected you can do something. In Florida, a group of men wearing gas masks were trying to extinguish fires with hoses and garbage cans full of water. In Sichuan, people are moving rubble by hand to reach victims. But unless you live there or will travel there, there's not much you can do for them.

But you can do something:

Prepare for disasters in your area. Assess your risks and prepare for those contingencies. Store extra food, water, clothing. Join a CERT team. Get Red Cross first aid training. Talk about disaster preparedness with your neighborhood watch, your coworkers, your family. Always carry essentials: flashlight, first aid kit, water, etc.

If you had to evacuate and every gas station had a line around the block, how far could you get on the gas in your tank? Without power for two weeks, could you feed your family?

For everything that you are prepared for, that frees up emergency personnel to help someone else. For everything that you are trained for, you can contribute to the emergency response in your area. For every pint of blood you donate, you help save someone's life.

Contribute cash if you want to do something for the people of Oklahoma, Florida, Sichuan, but you should heed these disasters as wake-up calls to assess the state of your preparedness should a disaster strike you or your loved ones.