After yesterday’s feature concerning steps you should take to assure you and your family are taken care of in an emergency, new ideas have been coming to us, but one seems to have particular merit.

For an emergency responder, nothing is quite as difficult as having a victim unable to communicate. Without communication, it’s not only difficult to determine the extent of injuries, it’s nearly impossible to locate an interested party to let them know someone has been injured.

When that happens, the very item that is synonymous with communication and nearly ubiquitous in all scenarios - the cellphone - is actually very little help. After all, with the reams of numbers stored, it’s difficult if not impossible to determine who should be called in case of emergency.

We all have a speed dial for 911, but what if emergency personnel are trying to let someone know you’ve been in an accident? Do you have a number in your phone that’s obviously for emergencies?

That’s the reasoning behind the ICE Campaign. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency and it is a simple idea that may save lives. The concept’s simple, your cell phone should have a number programmed into it that is ICE - your emergency call number. It can be whomever you’d want to know you’re in trouble.

The idea came from a paramedic who found that when he went to accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but no way to know which number to call. He thought that there should be a nationally recognized name or acronym for that specific purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would quickly be able to contact the correct person by simply dialing the number you have stored as “ICE” in your directory.

If there were a list of people to call in case of emergency, you could simply label them ICE1, ICE2, and so forth.

This was an idea passed to me yesterday that seems to make good sense - to the point that I now have an ICE number in my telephone.

If the idea resonates with you, you should do two things: 1) put an ICE listing in your cellphone and, 2) pass the idea on to your friends. If enough of us get behind the idea, it just may save a life.

And in California, the devastation continues to spread from wildfires. At this point 500,000 people have been evacuated. It’s orderly, but the problem of where to house and shelter a half-million people is one that officials are working tirelessly to address.

Firefighters are exhausted after four days of nearly-continuous efforts to contain fires whipped by California’s fierce Santa Ana winds and the tinder-dry conditions that have led to what many firefighters say have been nearly hopeless conditions. Late yesterday evening, however, the Santa Ana winds seemed to be letting up, allowing the prevailing offshore winds to blow inland, slowing the progress of the racing wildfires and bringing much needed moisture into the atmosphere.

On top of everything else, it now appears at least some of the blazes were the result of arson. President Bush has issued a disaster declaration, freeing federal funds and cutting through red tape that seems not to have slowed rescue efforts at any level resembling the disastrous conditions following Hurricane Katrina.

Hopefully, there will be more good news weather-wise as the sun comes up this morning.

And finally, across the country, college students protesting “gun free zones” are wearing empty holsters on their belts in protest. As expected, anti-gun groups like the Brady Center are taking their shots at the students via a willing media. Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Center, suggested that students who didn’t like the fact they couldn’t have a gun on campus should “drop out of school.” From the University of Idaho to George Mason University in Washington, students are making their opinions known, despite the fact they are being ridiculed by officials and media alike.

The chairman of the Florida State University chapter of Students for the Second Amendment, Justin Turner, says the protest is serving its purpose making “people realize that this is something that college students are serious about moving forward.” He says it’s not about “taking the law into your hands; it’s about taking personal responsibility for yourself.”

Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, is a group of college students, parents and citizens who organized after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University in April in order to protest the “gun free zones” that they contend have turned college campuses into killing zones.

–Jim Shepherd