* CONVENTION: How do I interpret the "URGENCY of Needs Listings"?
QUESTION: What is the difference between "urgent" and "very urgent" needs?
- Click on the button called "Availability/Needs". It's "blue" at the very top of the page, near the right, just under the title "Citizen Action Team's Relief Database"
- This is a list of all "needs" and "availabilities" that have been input. see the item listed on the right side as well as the "URGENCY".
- DEFINITION OF "VERY URGENT": We ONLY list "VERY URGENT" if the organization is situated in or serves a current, FEMA "declared" disaster zone. To see what counties/towns are currently "declared" disaster zones, please refer to: www.fema.gov (choose the "disaster info" button the top line.
For "on-going" or "regular" needs for a social service organization, or a group that is "in recovery", we list the needs as "urgent".
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* CONVENTION: "State" designation for other countries
* QUESTION: "State", what is in the field called "State", when it doesn't look like it's one of the 50 states of the US?
ANSWER: the system was designed for use in the US only. Since then we've had volunteers want to work in other countries. We haven't gotten round to modifying the system to accept a "country" designation yet. So we're using the database field "state" to store the country, as well.
Here are the CONVENTIONS for the Country Codes used in the database field called "state":
https://reliefdb.org/shelters/2615