xthread: (Default)
xthread ([personal profile] xthread) wrote2005-09-01 12:13 pm

The Big One [I]

I'm really upset watching what's happening in the Southeast right now.
I'll go into how and why and so forth in my next post, but the very short form is that this disaster dwarfs anything that we've seen in this country since 1968, and frankly I think its the worst disaster we've ever seen period. But again, more details in the followup to this.

This post is about what you can do to keep track of what's going on.
[livejournal.com profile] interdictor has an excellent journal tracking what's happening, from inside New Orleans (go sysadmins!)
The New Orleans Times-Picayune also has managed to keep operations going on the web and have a running log that's extremely good.

The American Red Cross is struggling to keep up with the response; their site appears to be in much better shape today, though, hopefully that means that the ninja sysadmin community stepped up and made sure that they can bloody well accept money and deliver information over the Internet.
I've also donated through the United Jewish Communities site. I'll explain a bit more about that in the next post as well, but the synopsis is that churches are going to be a critically important, if not the critically important vehicle for delivering aid and rebuilding infrastructure. I feel its important that 'church' in that sentence means 'churches, mosques, and synagogues.'

[identity profile] northofvoontah.livejournal.com 2005-09-01 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
'the worst since...'

hey! '68 was not *that* long ago.

[identity profile] xthread.livejournal.com 2005-09-01 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Oops, fixed.

Mrf.

[identity profile] d3l1r1um.livejournal.com 2005-09-02 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. I've been pretty TV and otherwise news-deprived, but what I've seen makes my skin crawl. I'm also incredibly frustrated that I can't do anything that I know will actually matter. Sure, we are short on cash right now (this is written as I take a break from writing checks for some overdue hospital bills), but we can forego a few meals out and donate some money... except I have no faith that the money will get where it's actually needed. I will probably go through the United Jewish Communities link you provided though. I can't donate blood for a totally bullshit reason. And with the current financial and general life situation, actually going there to help is completely out of the question.

So it'll be the old standby -- throw some cash in the general direction, and hope it lands where it's needed. :/