Apptitude: Apps to help weather the storms, and the winter

For a winter highway breakdown or a natural disaster, there are smartphone applications that can help you cope. Take a look at these before another storm hits and as winter looms.

The FEMA application from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, free for Android and Apple, offers access to the FEMA blog, which this week has updates on the nor'easter and on Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath.

There are also links for applying for FEMA assistance, maps and directions to FEMA facilities including shelters, instructions for volunteering to help, and a lot of guidelines for coping in and after a disaster.

Winter Survival Kit, free for Android and Apple, is from folks who know about winter — the North Dakota State University Extension Service. The app is set up so that if you find yourself stuck in your car in a snowstorm, you can go down a checklist of things to do to summon help and to keep calm and warm until that help arrives.

Most of this is common sense, such as advice to stay with your vehicle. And functions like calling 911 and other emergency numbers don't stretch the imagination, but they're organized by the app when you hit the big red button on the screen labeled, "I'm Stranded!" The app will tell you your location without any further hunting and pecking.

In addition, there's an exhaustive checklist for things to have in an emergency travel kit, including "books, games, puzzles or other activities for the children."

By the way, for the winter at home, the university's extension has another free app, called Fuel Comparison, that helps consumers compare the costs of heating with different energy sources, such as natural gas vs. fuel oil, or running an electric heat pump vs. a propane furnace. This is always tricky because fuels come priced in different units — kilowatt hours, gallons, therms or tons, just to name a few.

Added features of the app are a home energy checklist and several lists of tips for energy savings.

Relief Central, a free app for Android and Apple from Unbounded Medicine Inc., is a field manual for emergency responders, with news feeds from the Centers for Disease Control, FEMA, the Red Cross, and other agencies.

The app includes the U.S. Agency for International Development's Field Operations Guide, Medline journals for medical workers, and, if you are an emergency worker traveling abroad, there's also a world fact book with entries on every nation.