Tips for Flood- or Fire-Damaged Drives

By The Associated Press – 11 hours ago

Even when a computer's hard drive is waterlogged in a flood or otherwise severely damaged, data recovery experts say they may be able to recover the data stored on it. Here's what to do before you talk to an expert:

_ Do not shake, disassemble or clean any hard drive or server that has been damaged. Improper handling can make recovery more difficult.

_ Never dry water-damaged devices by opening them or exposing them to heat, such as from a hair dryer.

_ Do not operate visibly damaged devices.

_ Do not use common software utility programs on broken or water-damaged devices.

Source: Kroll Ontrack

Satellites feed weather information to create flash-flood warning system

By Robert Krier

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 8, 2007
DEL MAR – Hurricane Felix's march through Central America this week could help a local nonprofit corporation perfect a flash-flood warning system that may eventually span the globe.

The system, created by Konstantine Georgakakos, a hydrologist and Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor, is seen by meteorologists internationally as a potentially valuable tool in preventing some of the more than 5,000 flash-flood deaths that occur each year around the world.

Full Story

3 September 2007

CAB76-07

Sir Michael Pitt, the independent chair overseeing the government’s Lessons Learned review into this summer’s floods, is calling on those affected to log on and share their experiences.

The review, which is being led by the Cabinet Office, will study the emergency response to the floods in June and July and look at ways to reduce the risk and impact of flooding in future.

Full Story

Flood driven innovation

Cheltenham Borough Council have been driven (or perhaps a creative employee has taken the opportunity presented) by floods to innovate with their communication strategy using some key web technologies.

Due to the fear that Council servers and workers would be flooding and stop working the council decided to launch a Flood Updates blog to keep a line of online communication going. Peter Riley the Council Web Development Manager started Flickr (photo sharing) and YouTube (video sharing) accounts to help embed pictures and video into the site.

The rate of blog posts is impressive. Pictures, videos, contact numbers, updates and general information have all found their way onto the site. The council has requested people to let them know about flooded properties and have used it to spread good news stories. Naturally some enterprising types have used the comments section to spread sales pitches. Err thanks Ernie as they say in Cheltenham.

Full Story