Privacy

What happens when you check an address

We don’t log or store the address you type, and never put it in a link on this site; it goes only to the Census geocoder over HTTPS. The geocoder, run by the U.S. Census Bureau, turns it into coordinates.

The coordinates, not the address, are then sent to the map services of the federal, state and local agencies we check, for example FEMA, USGS, NOAA and its National Weather Service, CAL FIRE, NIFC, Cal OES, the California Geological Survey, the State Water Board, EPA and LA County Public Works. Several of these agencies host their maps on Esri’s ArcGIS Online service, so Esri also receives those coordinates.

To keep the site fast, we save each check’s answer (for example, a flood zone) for up to 24 hours, and a few answers that change slowly, such as which drinking water system serves the spot, for up to 7 days. They’re filed under a salted, one-way code made from your coordinates rounded to about 10 meters, never under your address, and a saved answer doesn’t include your address.

To keep the site usable for everyone, we rate-limit how often the same visitor can run a lookup. That uses a salted, one-way hash of your IP address — never the address you typed — kept in memory or in our Upstash cache for a few minutes, then discarded.

The household box

If you describe your household (renter, pets, an upper floor, and so on), that text is sent to Anthropic’s API to build your list when the feature is enabled. Under Anthropic’s commercial terms, it isn’t used to train models, and Anthropic deletes it within 30 days unless it must keep it longer to enforce its usage policy or to comply with the law. We don’t store the text ourselves.

Please don’t type names, addresses or details about anyone’s health condition into the box. A general note like “medical equipment that needs power” is enough.

When the AI classifier isn’t available, a simple keyword match runs on our own server instead, and the text doesn’t leave it.

Your list stays in your browser

Checked-off items, your budget setting and household answers are saved in your browser’s local storage only. They never leave your device, except the anonymous counts described under Analytics, or if you choose to share or print your list.

Your household plan

If you fill in the household plan, what you type — names, medical needs, phone numbers, meeting places — is saved only in your browser’s local storage on this device. It’s never sent to us. Clearing your browser’s data for this site deletes it.

Share links

A shared list link normally carries your checked items, budget and household answers in the part of the link after the # sign, which browsers don’t send to us.

If a list is too long for that, we store the same list contents in our database under a random short ID. That includes household answers you set, such as medical equipment, a disability or young kids — never your address. Anyone with the link can see the list. After 90 days the link stops working and the stored list is deleted automatically. Email contact@elnino2026.org if you want one removed sooner.

Buy-button clicks

When you click a buy button, our /go link records the item, the store program, the item’s tier, where the click came from (only as this site, a well-known site such as Google or Reddit, or “other”) and a daily session code. That code is a salted, one-way hash of your IP address and browser type that changes every day. We never record the web address of the page you came from, or your own address. We use these records to count clicks and delete them automatically after 90 days.

Lead forms

Requesting installer quotes for a big-ticket item stores what you type — name, email or phone, ZIP code, the project, and your consent — and a one-way code made from your browser type, and passes what you typed to our installer partner(s) and to the person who runs this site. They may contact you by phone call, text or email. We may be paid a referral fee. We keep quote requests for 12 months, then delete them automatically. Email contact@elnino2026.org to have yours deleted sooner.

Warning alerts

If you sign up for warning alerts, we keep your email address or your browser’s push address, the spot you chose rounded to about 1 km (never your street address), its National Weather Service zone and county, the name of the nearest town, your language, and a record of your consent: the words you agreed to, their version and the time. We use them only to send one message when a warning starts, plus a short update if the Weather Service changes its end time or raises it to an emergency. We also log which warnings we sent you, for 30 days, so the same one never arrives twice.

These records are stored in our Supabase database. Email alerts are sent through Resend. Push alerts go through your browser’s own push service (for example Google, Apple or Mozilla), which delivers them to your device.

An email signup you don’t confirm is deleted after 48 hours. Stopping alerts with the link in any message deletes all of it at once. If your browser ends a push subscription, we delete that subscription too.

The daily briefing (when it’s offered)

This section applies once the daily briefing is offered. If you sign up, we keep your email address; each place you add, with its label, the spot rounded to about 1 km, its ZIP code, county, state, weather zone and time zone, and the hazard levels your address check found; how often you want the email; your language; whether you also asked for warning alerts; and a record of your consent. We also log which issues we sent you, for 30 days, and note which paid items we’ve shown you, so they don’t repeat too often.

It’s stored in our Supabase database and sent through Resend or Amazon SES. Warning alerts you turn on from the briefing are kept separately, as described above.

A signup you don’t confirm is deleted after 48 hours. If you unsubscribe, we stop sending, but your record stays until you choose “Delete everything” on the manage page linked from every issue, which deletes all of it at once. If an issue bounces for good or you mark it as spam, we stop sending and note that on your record.

Sandbag waitlist and delivery requests

While sandbag delivery isn’t open, the sandbag waitlist keeps your ZIP code, your email address or phone number, a record of your consent and a one-way code made from your browser type. It’s stored in our Supabase database and emailed to the person who runs this site, through Resend, so we can contact you about delivery.

A delivery request keeps your name, your email address or phone number, your ZIP code, the bundle you picked and a record of your consent in the same database, and emails them to whoever delivers in your ZIP. Today that’s the person who runs this site. We never ask for your street address; whoever delivers gets it from you directly.

If you pay online, Stripe’s checkout page collects your name, contact details, delivery address and card under Stripe’s own privacy policy. We keep only the order number, bundle, ZIP code, amount, payment status and a one-way code made from your email or phone, never your address or card number.

We keep waitlist entries and delivery requests for 12 months, then delete them automatically. The record of an online payment isn’t yet deleted on a schedule. Email contact@elnino2026.org to have yours deleted sooner.

Once other delivery companies join, a request from a ZIP one of them covers goes to that company: your name, phone number, email address and ZIP code, so it can contact you, confirm the price and arrange delivery. The person who runs this site gets a copy. We may be paid a referral fee.

Partner applications

If your business applies, we keep the business and contact name, work email and phone, website, services, service states and ZIP codes, license number and state, whether it’s insured and has employees, notes, and the consent version and time. We don’t ask for a street address.

It’s stored in our Supabase database and emailed through Resend to the person who runs this site, so we can review the application and, if we both sign an agreement, run the partnership. We may check public license, business and insurance records. We don’t sell or share it, and it isn’t added to any mailing list.

An application that doesn’t go ahead is deleted 24 months after its last status change. A partner’s record is kept while the agreement lasts, then for 24 months. Insurance certificates sent by email are deleted within 30 days of a decline. Email contact@elnino2026.org to have yours deleted sooner.

Analytics

When enabled, we use Umami, a cookieless analytics tool that doesn’t track you across sites. Its servers are in the U.S. and the EU. It counts page views (the page’s path, never the part of the link after ? or #) and actions such as checking a checklist item, exporting your list or clicking a buy button, sometimes with the item’s tier, the item’s id or a count. Umami also records your browser type, screen size and language, and works out an approximate location from your connection, without cookies and without building a profile of you. It never receives your address or anything you type.

Cookies

We don’t use cookies.

Do Not Track

We don’t track you across other sites, and we don’t let anyone else track you through this one. If your browser sends Do Not Track, we don’t count your visit in analytics. When a buy button takes you to a store, that store’s own policy applies there.

Services we use

These companies run parts of the site for us: Vercel hosts it; Supabase is our database; Upstash runs the short-term cache and rate limits; Resend sends our email, and Amazon SES may send the daily briefing; Umami counts visits when analytics is on; Stripe takes sandbag payments; and Anthropic classifies the household box when that feature is on.

We keep encrypted copies of the database for up to about 8 weeks (a copy each night for 14 days and one a week for 8 weeks) on our hosting provider, Vercel, so we can recover from a failure. A deleted record can remain in an older copy until that copy ages out.

Selling your data

We don’t sell or share your personal information, as California privacy law defines those terms. There are two cases to know about. A quote request: if you check the consent box, we pass what you typed to our installer partner(s) and may be paid a referral fee. A sandbag delivery request, once other delivery companies join: we pass your name, phone number, email address and ZIP code to the company that covers your ZIP and may be paid a referral fee.

Children

This site isn’t directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update the date above and post the new version here.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request to see or delete your data? Email contact@elnino2026.org.