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You’re abroad and tragedy strikes. How prepared are you?

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Times Staff Writer

Bill FLEETWOOD and his wife, Sam, were anchored in their 50-foot ketch, the Blue Banana, off Phuket, Thailand, on Dec. 26 when they felt the sea heave. Then they heard screams.

“We climbed into the cockpit to watch a giant wave devour the beach,” where “hundreds of people had been sunning and playing,” Bill said. Beach chairs, food stands, clothing shops and the pizza place where the couple had dined the night before also were swept away.

The Fleetwoods, a California couple who have been sailing the globe for eight years, were lucky. They were not harmed. More than 5,000 people, nearly half of them foreign tourists, perished that day on the beaches and islands of Thailand’s Andaman Sea. An earthquake off Indonesia triggered the tsunami, which killed thousands in a dozen nations.

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The Fleetwoods’ story is a reminder to travelers that disaster can strike in an instant. Although few of us could imagine a tragedy of this magnitude, much less prepare for it, there are fairly simple preventive steps that all of us can take to help deal with weather, medical and other emergencies abroad:

* Leave itineraries and contacts with trusted people.

In the days after the South Asian tsunami, the U.S. State Department fielded over 20,000 phone calls about the disaster, said Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Many callers had questions about the situation, she said, but others, armed only with sketchy information about the whereabouts of family and friends, were frantically trying to find them.

“They’ll say, ‘I know my brother was traveling, but I don’t know where,’ ” Aggeler said. That’s not much to go on.

The bureau’s Office of Overseas Citizens Services maintains a toll-free phone, (888) 407-4747, for inquiries from citizens in the U.S. about travel safety and other issues. Those abroad can call (317) 472-2328. The government website www.travel.state.gov offers a wealth of information.

* Register with the State Department. You can do this online at www.travel.state.gov. (Click on “international travel,” then “registration with embassies” from the menu on the left side.)

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By providing contacts, your itinerary, passport number and other information, you offer consular staff one-stop shopping on your whereabouts. If you give permission, they’ll also release information to relatives and friends who inquire about you.

The State Department actively tries to find Americans during a disaster, Aggeler said, by combing hospitals, city halls, beaches and other spots. During the recent tsunami tragedy, she added, “The ones who registered with the embassy, we were more easily able to locate.”

* Set up a phone tree or e-mail address roster. Overloaded networks and wrecked infrastructure can make it tough to call into or out of a disaster area. Internet cafes may be crowded or even destroyed. So every call and e-mail is precious.

With a prearranged phone tree or e-mail list of friends and family, one message can do the work of many.

Don’t underestimate the geographic ignorance of your compatriots or the maddening vagueness of news reports. Try to let family members know you’re OK even if you are miles away from a disaster.

* Rent or take a cellphone. But don’t rely on it.

Cellphones “weren’t working worth a darn for the first few days” after the tsunami hit, Bill Fleetwood said.

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Even so, the few calls that got through supplied much of the news to Fleetwood and his fellow sailors. He said he had no TV reception, local radio was in Thai, and BBC broadcasts, which he could tune in on his marine radio, were too general to help much.

Bruce McIndoe, chief executive of IJet Travel Risk Management, which assesses problems for companies doing business abroad, said that in a crisis thousands of callers compete for scarce air time.

But text messages on cellphones have a “very high likelihood of going through,” he said. That’s because they use a different system that has more capacity, fewer users and will cache messages and repeatedly try to send them. Be sure you know how to text-message before you go, he added; it takes practice.

In any case, your cellphone must be equipped to work with a local service provider and on the frequency of the place where you’re traveling. Contact your provider for details or rent a phone at your destination. It’s also wise to buy a phone card for regular land lines when you arrive.

* Devise a Plan B. Before starting a trip with a companion or group, agree on a place to meet up if you become separated. Make sure you have a way to contact one another, whether by phone or e-mail.

* Take photocopies of your passport information page, airline tickets or receipts, hotel reservations and other documents, and put them in your carry-on bag. Consolidate emergency information, such as your doctor’s phone number, on a 5-by-7-inch card.

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* Prepare for health emergencies. Your carry-on should contain a first-aid kit; prescriptions, translated and in their generic form (brand names may vary from nation to nation); and a history of your inoculations.

* Consider travel health insurance. The policy you rely on here may be limited overseas; medical evacuation, which can cost $10,000 or more if you need special care, may not be covered.

Among established organizations that arrange medical evacuations are Philadelphia-based International SOS, www .internationalsos.com (costs start at $80 per person for a 10-day trip) and Birmingham, Ala.-based MedjetAssist, www.medjetassist.com (costs start at $205 per person per year).

* Use a travel agent. A good one is an expert at everything discussed above and can be well worth the investment. He or she almost always can help you, even from afar.

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Hear more tips from Jane Engle on Travel Insider topics at latimes.com/engle. She welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write to Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.

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