At least 12 wildfires are still burning across Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Since the fires began on Sunday, more than 40 people have been injured, including 16 firefighters, and more than 350,000 homes have been evacuated. Earlier today, President Bush declared a federal emergency for seven counties to help speed disaster-relief efforts.

Here are some resources for Southern California business owners to receive the latest information and to learn how to deal with evacuating their business:

• The L.A. Times offers this Google map to pinpoint the areas affected by the wildfires. You can click on the interactive map for the latest information on each fire.
• The Orange County Fire Authority serves 22 cities in Orange County.
• This site includes animal evacuation information. Don't forget to bring your animal's vet record so your animal won't be turned away.
• This site discloses road and evacuation route information. You can also call 800-427-ROAD.
• It's a good idea for evacuees to post a sign and change their outgoing phone recording to say they've evacuated and where they went.
• Visit the California Department of Insurance for valuable tips.
• This article from Entrepreneur.com shares how other entrepreneurs dealt with disaster.
• Hurricane Katrina victims share how they salvaged their businesses after the disaster hit.

If you have time, these are important items to grab before evacuating:

• Valuable Papers--Insurance papers, passports, children's immunizations, wills, deeds, marriage certificate, tax records and your address book
• Battery-Operated Radio--It would also be helpful to bring batteries and flashlights.
• Items You Can't Replace--Items you can't live without like family keepsakes, antiques, photos and negatives. If you must take a computer, think about a laptop or just the tower of your PC or Mac.

If you have any family or friends in need of emergency shelter, find the Red Cross Chapter in your area with the links below:

Claremont Chapter, Claremont
Antelope Valley Chapter, Palmdale
Arcadia Chapter, Arcadia
Three Rivers Chapter, Yuba City
Carmel Area, Carmel
Del Norte County Chapter, Crescent City
Fresno-Madera Counties Chapter, Fresno
Glendale - Crescenta Valley Chapter, Glendale
Greater Long Beach Chapter, Long Beach
Humboldt County Chapter, Eureka
Kern Chapter, Bakersfield
American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Merced-Mariposa Counties Chapter, Merced
Monterey-San Benito Counties Chapter, Salinas
Orange County Chapter, Santa Ana
Palo Alto Area, Palo Alto
San Gabriel Pomona Valley Chapter, Pasadena
American Red Cross, Sonoma & Mendocino Counties, Santa Rosa
Rio Hondo Chapter, Whittier
Riverside County Chapter, Riverside
Sacramento Sierra Chapter, Sacramento
Inland Empire Chapter, San Bernardino
San Diego/ Imperial Counties Chapter, San Diego
San Joaquin County Chapter, Stockton
San Luis Obispo County Chapter, San Luis Obispo
Santa Barbara County Chapter, Santa Barbara
Santa Clara Valley Chapter, San Jose
Santa Cruz County Chapter, Santa Cruz
American Red Cross of Santa Monica, Santa Monica
Shasta Area Chapter, Redding
Silverado-Napa Chapter, Napa
Stanislaus County Chapter, Modesto
Tulare-Kings Chapter, Visalia
Ventura County Chapter, Camarillo
Yolo County Chapter, Woodland
High Desert Chapter, Victorville
Morongo Basin Chapter, Joshua Tree

Last week, we mentioned a company manufacturing a washable mouse and keyboard. Now, the company Shoreline is offering a new, eco-friendly office item. They're taking recycled soda and water bottles and turning them into protective laptop covers and sleeves under the name act2-GreenSmart. The company says the fabric they've created will hold up just as well as other common fabrics used for laptop covers, and as a benefit, one laptop jacket saves enough energy to power a laptop for 149 hours.

For Shoreline, it's part of a commitment they've made to make all the products they sell green by the end of 2008.

Breast Cancer Awareness isn't all about pink ribbons. Entrepreneurs who have dealt with the disease are bringing some interesting products to market in response to their experiences.

Two entrepreneurs taking action after a fight with breast cancer are sisters Jeanette Caligiuri and Bonnie Scalfaro, owners of Faith and Hope Boutique in Abington, Pennsylvania. Their boutique specializes in breast forms, bras, loungewear, bath and body products and more.

After the sisters both had mastectomies, they found that they couldn't find bras that fit properly and that the items made for breast cancer survivors weren't very attractive, so they took matters into their own hands and just started selling attractive bras and personal care items in their new store this month. 

Banu Ozden, formerly the director of computing systems research at Bell Laboratories and a faculty member at the University of Southern California, started her business, SmartMedicalConsumer.com in response to the trouble she had with her medical bills when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. First, she had trouble getting a straight answer from doctors or insurers about what her treatment would cost. Then she ended up being over billed by more than $4,000, and it took her months to find and right the mistakes.

In 2005, Ozden was diagnosed again--this time her breast cancer had metastasized. After finding that she could tolerate her treatment well, she decided to take the leap, leave her job--and her good health insurance plan--and start her business.

She developed an online application that would not only track patients' bills, but would also detect billing errors. SmartMedicalConsumer.com, which launched in 2005, has been available to the public since January. Ozden expects it to receive about $6 million in funding over the next two years and plans on licensing the app to corporations and insurers while still letting individuals use the service, too.

For more on women entrepreneurs with breast cancer, check out "In Business With Breast Cancer."