Natural disaster coping hints — from Arbitron

The ratings company's thom.mocarsky@arbitron.com says Arbitron is in the process of distilling the lessons from the hurricanes of 2004 into a report called “Riding Out The Storm.”

ARB wants to get out some key points because of current weather.

What’s unique is that these hints are taken directly from diarykeeper comments.

Such as —

* Keep all information as local as possible (not just the metro).
* Give detailed info about how to get resources —sandbags, food, water, etc.
* Be as descriptive as possible about what happened.

Arbitron’s Dennis Seely says “as soon as the electricity goes out, radio becomes the main information source, and listeners are counting on radio to give an accurate and thorough description of what’s goingon.”

* Remind listeners to have portable, battery-powered radios (as soon as it looks like there may be an emergency).

* Make sure the station’s own backup systems are working and that people get regular training in how to use them.