Newhouse (Owner of OREGONIAN) recognized for blogs & website saving lives in Katrina

The New Orleans Times-Picayune is owned by Newhouse, who also owns the Oregonian. Those Newhouse papers have websites which at times are not as good as they could be, but in Katrina, NOLA.COM really shined. Here's an Online Journalism Review article about that NOLA.COM website, and a very relevant quote from its editor:

Donley: It was weird because we couldn't figure out where these pleas were coming from. We'd get e-mails from Idaho, there's a guy at this address and he's in the upstairs bedroom of his place in New Orleans. And then we figured out that even in the poorest part of town, people have a cell phone. And it's a text-enabled cell phone. And they were sending out text messages to friends or family, and they were putting it in our forums or sending it in e-mails to us.
The cell service didn't work, but they could send text. They're saying now that the body counts won't be as bad as they thought, and I know at least some of that is that people figured out how to hack the system, to use this kludge to save people's lives.

This stresses the importance of the SMS capability of your cellphone. See a previous article for details you, and your family, should know about SMS.

Finding Family & Friends: Connecting to storm survivors

NEWER: Google search site.

NEW: Search multiple lists with this one search engine, courtesy Lycos. Searched sites begin with *.

Register here with the International Committee of the Red Cross registry.

Other sites:
WLOX in Biloxi, their 'Online Forum' for open discussion from southern Mississipppi and their Citizen Journalists' bulletin board
*CNN 'reported safe' list
Katrina survivors site
*Craigslist-Baton Rouge, Lost and Found (which people are using for multiple purposes).
*Craigslist-Mobile
*Craigslist-New Orleans Lost and Found.
Federal advice on finding loved ones
Federal 'FirstGov' Index of people locator websites and Hurricane Katrina Recovery Information
Family Messages
FindKatrina.com
Katrina Check-In
Missing Persons Database for Katrina - Easily searchable database of missing and safe persons
Missing Persons Database RSS Feed for Katrina
National Next of Kin Registry
*New Orleans Times-Picayune Missing Persons List
*New Orleans Times-Picayune I'M OK List - check in here
NowPublic missing persons search list
Refugee Registry -- for people to register that they're safe or that they're looking for someone.
Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network - to send a health and welfare request by radio (SATERN Emergency Net Activated on 14265 KHz)
Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog
Survivors' DataBase
Think New Orleans Wiki w/ Lost & Found section
View and post missing people photos {Karmus.com}
WDSU missing persons list
*WWL-TV: Searching for - Alphabetical
*WWL-TV Searching For and "I'm OK" Forums
*Yahoo's Missing Persons boards, sorted by state & community

Blogs of the Southron Apocalypse

The three top blogs/blog indexes, so far IMHO, from the Southron Apocalypse are:

Interdictor Live, and awe-inspiring, from a data center in the Central Bus. Dist. of New Orleans; the Help Wiki for Katrina, with a blog index, and the Storm Digest.

However, there are many other fine blogs which do deserve mention. I'll keep updating this list as my time permits... but with a thousand folks coming to Portland Real Soon Now, I expect I will be updating this randomly.

New: SF Paramedics vs The Authorities - an audio cast, requires MP3 playing software like WinAmp

Air America blog index
ArtsJournal list of blogs
Blogdex index of top blogs, all topics
Law Librarians assisting peers & law students
LostRemote index of blogs
LSU's JohnBritton.com
LSU's Kaye Trannell's blog
N.O. Pundit area board
Rex Hammond
South Central Region, NLM blog
Technorati index of Katrina blogs
Think New Orleans Wiki
Times-Picayune blog of breaking news
Truth Laid Bear with Katrina Blog index
WWL-TV's Tom Planchet's blog

If you find a jewel I haven't, or one of our thousand points of truth go dark, drop me a note; look for the Webmaster Link at the bottom of the right-hand column of links.

News, and news about the news

NEWEST: A thousand Canadians en route on three Canadian Forces ships. Again, we know who our friends are.

NEWER: "..this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water." The normally reserved Keith Olbermann, steaming, on streaming video from MSNBC.

NEW: National Geographic article, one year old, warning of..... well, guess what?
And, despite insults and abuse, Venezuela commits to send us a billion, yes, B-for-Billion barrels of oil. Gratis.

Of course, then, there's Japan, sending us $200,000, plus $300,000 in tents and suchlike. Kinda paltry compared to what some poor nations will send. Guess we know who our friends are.


NBC censors Kanye West in telethon. Many other items archived here at Crooks and Liars. Worthy.
CNN interview with FEMA director Brown (formerly, an estates attorney!) & Sen. Landrieu. A Must Read.
TV Newsers analyses news coverage. Worth your time.
Do You Know What It Means To Lose New Orleans? A poignant essay from New Orleans' leading fiction author.
And more fiction: Federal Emergency Management Agency practices for New Orleans hurricane with a cache of the FEMA story, should that link change).
The Wall Street Journal's Katrina story tracker (open, no subscription)

Other sources of merit include:

Google News re: Katrina
Gulf Coast (MS) News
MSNBC re: Katrina
New Orleans Time-Picayune Newspaper website (sister paper to the Oregonian)
NOLA-Intel Wiki
NOLA Intel Wiki unscreened information
TV Newsers analyses news coverage. Worth your time.
WikiPedia's Katrina entry
WWL-TV: News, blog and forums by parish

DirectNIC needs site to keep Interdictor on the air

Here's an appeal for a site where volunteers can work to support the Interdictor blog (the most massively useful thing anyone watching the situation could have):

As an owner of Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelming support you have shown our company, our group, and our fight. This week has been a nightmare for everyone involved. The team at Outpost Crystal has done an outstanding job. There are many employees behind the scenes who have also committed themselves to working 16 hour days amidst complete turmoil, to keeping direcNIC.com up and operational.

Unfortunately all of these people are scattered across several states and telecommuting via hotel connections, pc cards, dial-up connections and even wi-fi hotspots. This dedicated group needs a temporary home until New Orleans is rebuilt!

Please help us to find a temporary home for 55 employees. We are looking for the following:

Short-term solution * 6,000 - 8,000 square feet * Ready to occupy, desks, chairs, etc * Workplaces for 55 people * Nearby datacenter preferable * Internet connectivity * Nearby housing * Texas, Northern Louisiana, Georgia, & Florida are preferable...

Please send any information to noah@intercosmos.com.

I also want to take this time to thank all Internet providers who have offered assistance in secondary collocation, bandwidth and hardware. We especially want to thank National Net, Marlin Web Hosting, and EV1. They have been invaluable with their assistance.


Best regards,

Noah Lieske, Co-owner / Director
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.

Do You Know What It Means To Lose New Orleans?

This poignant Ann Rice op-ed in the New York Times bears reading.

Resources

Catholic Response Center
CraigsList- New Orleans Resources
Katrina Help: Wiki Portal
Salvation Army Hurricane Katrina Relief
US Coast Guard

Hams Needed to Deploy in Dixie

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is seeking experienced licensed Amateur Radio emergency volunteers to help supplement communication for American Red Cross feeding and sheltering operations in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Special consideration will be given to operators who have successfully completed the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications course training (Level I minimum) to serve as team leaders. All interested should e-mail Katrina@arrl.org, with name, call sign, contact information and any equipment you can take along on a field deployment for an indefinite period. Volunteers may face hardship conditions without the usual amenities and will need to provide their own transportation to the marshaling area.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) will provide a $100,000 grant supplement to ARRL to support Amateur Radio's emergency communication operators in states affected by Hurricane Katrina. The grant will help to fund "Ham Aid," a new League program to support Amateur Radio volunteers deployed in the field in disaster-stricken areas. It is effective for operations established and documented as of September 1, 2005, and the aid is earmarked for Hurricane Katrina deployments only at this point. Guidelines are being established that will permit volunteers who have been involved in bona fide field support operations on or after September 1 to apply for a reimbursement voucher on a per diem basis.

[Health/Safety] Katrina workers

1. If you're going, get a tetanus booster if you do not know you've had one in the past 10 years. Me, I'd get one anyway. Getting a Hepatitis A vaccination is also a good idea if you've not had one. Federal employees can contact their local Federal Occupational Health Clinic who may (no guarantees, folks) be able to provide. County public health agencies may also have vaccine, but your best bet is a Travel Medicine clinic.

2. WISER is a free program for palmtops and Windows PCs which can help you identify Bad Stuff. You know the Rule of Thumb for toxic material, right?

1. If you're downwind, move and get upwind.
2. Hold out your arm, fully extended.
3. Raise your thumb.
4. If your thumb does not fully cover the toxic material, you're too close.

3. The Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine has compiled an index of links to potentially useful information for emergency response teams who are dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The posted information includes Environmental Cleanup and Recovery, Drinking Water, Food Safety, Farming and Agriculture plus other items of merit.


4. And, if you have idle time and a web connection, Plucker (open source freeware) lets you collect HTML pages from a website and turn them into something a PDA can read when stored in memory or on memory chip. Could be handy if your team has to tote around other health & safety info.

Messages to and from mobile phones in disaster areas despite system overload

SMS, Short Message Service, or text messaging, will work over intermittant and often even overloaded connections, to get messages in and out of congested areas to/from mobile phones. It's worked transcontinentally to save lives.

eMail-to-phone

Don't have an SMS-ready cellphone yourself? You can e-mail from a computer to an SMS-capable phone. Here's E-mail to SMS addressing for major carriers:

1+AreaCode+MobileNumber@mobile.mycingular.com Cingular

AreaCode+MobileNumber@mmode.com former AT&T users on Cingular

AreaCode+MobileNumber@page.nextel.com Nextel

AreaCode+MobileNumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com SprintPCS (US)

AreaCode+MobileNumber@tmomail.net T-Mobile (US)

AreaCode+MobileNumber@vtext.com Verizon (incl. AirTouch)

AreaCode+MobileNumber@vmobl.com Virgin Mobile (US customers only)

AreaCode+MobileNumber@teleflip.com For all US cellphones with SMS (see Caveats below)

For example, to SMS someone on T-Mobile with a phone number of 202-456-1212 send an email to 2024561212@tmomail.net

Caveats:

1. You need to know what carrier your SMS recipient uses (see FoneFinder- but that's not accurate in the event of number porting).
2. You must keep the message (including sending e-mail address and subject) down to 160 characters.
3. Won't work to analog phones.
4. Won't work on some older digital phones.
5. Teleflip offers a SMS gateway service for e-mails to all US cellphone carriers, which solves the ''I don't know Aunt Minnie's cellular company'' problem. Their privacy policy is weak and can change to a no-privacy policy at any time; Vazu's privacy policy may be better (YMMV). However, if there's no other way to get the message into Aunt Minnie's phone, at least changing a number that's been SMS-spammed is generally cheap.

Here are some multi-carrier and non-US eMail-to-SMS gateways.


Web-to-phone

This has the advantage of rejecting your transmission right away if the carrier for the receiving phone ain't what you think (a real problem Stateside with Number Portability). Here are some websites where you can prepare and send SMS messages to mobile phones.

Cingular
Cingular-ATTWS
Nextel
SprintPCS (US)
T-Mobile
Verizon

Google - requires you know the destination carrier

Vazu - All carriers
Teleflip - All carriers (but see above privacy risk).

Virgin Mobile USA representatives say if you use any of the above web pages to enter a text message, it should get through. Their own texting web page is available only to Virgin Mobile users, who can reach it by starting here, and entering their mobile number and password. Click on Ringtones and More on the menu bar near the top, then scroll down to Messaging to enter a text message.

If you need to do a lot of this, Open Source SMS software for Windows and many apps for Linux are available, as well as a lot of commercial stuff.


And, now the other way; phone to e-mail
Some carriers permit messaging from mobile to e-mail. Forex, T-Mobile users can send an SMS to address 500. The first string, up until there's a space, is the e-mail address(es) to send to. The second sting IF ended by a # is the subject; otherwise, if the second string is not ended with an octothorpe (yeah, that's the name for a #), the rest of the text is message.

so, an e-mail sent by SMS looks like this on the mobile:

To: 500
floyd@whichonespink.xyz Ummagumma# Now is the time for all good bricks to fall from their wall.

and arrives as:

From: AreacodeMobileNumber@tmomail.net
To: floyd@whichonespink.xyz
Subject: Ummagumma
Now is the time for all good bricks to fall from their wall.

The gateway address will vary from carrier to carrier, and I regret I don't know it for all major carriers. I also have not tested the second-string-ending-with-# feature on Cingular/ATTWS. So, I have:

121 Cingular
0000 Cingular/ATTWS
???? Nextel
500 T-Mobile

For Sprint, try entering the email address instead of a mobile number. (J. P. said it worked with his Treo 650.)

For Verizon, put the email address in the "To:" form. (Thanks to D.C. who provided this tip.)

Virgin Mobile has their own similar procedure here:

Select an email address from one of your contacts, or enter a new email address in the Send To field. To enter text, click on the ABC button. Then select Normal Alpha. To enter the "@" symbol, choose Symbols from within this menu.

Once you have entered the email address, hit Next. Then, enter the message and hit Next/Send.

[Resource-Tech] Finding a way to deploy comm gear to help

Wireless Internet companies, in cooperation with the FCC, have quickly built a way to get communication gear and skills to where it's needed. Part-15.Org has a website with a fillable form if you have resources (time, skill and/or material) to give to the effort.

Got gear? Got brains? Got time? Volunteer.

[Jobs] Working for FEMA in the disaster area

I found an article at BoingBoing.net (warning: That site is not always worksafe) which describes one possible method to find paying work with FEMA. Since many folks want badly to go, it might be a good way to get there if you have the knowledge, skills and experience they want.

Here's FEMA's official employment information page for temporary disaster workers.