resources for Katrina survivors

[cellio]

siderea began a page of resources for Katrina survivors. She's going to be offline tomorrow, so I have made a temporary copy that I will update while she's gone. If you know of functional sites that you think we should include, or if you have updated annotations for any of the sites already listed, please leave a comment. (We are checking that, for instance, the sites are live and have the kinds of information they say they do; a list of a bazillion links, many bad, does no one any good. But we want to include everything that's useful.)

Comments

Better idea for sending messages

[(Anonymous)]

I saw this over there http://lifelist.us/ or call TOLL FREE: 1-877-LIFE-LIST. and I know of a much better way of sending a message. It is called a Radio Gram; it has been around for as long as ham radio has been around. It is all set up and does not need donations. It also lets a message be sent back, so that it is not only a one way communication. So if the people that want to send info back to family and friends they should find a ham radio operator and ask for some traffic to be sent. The ham radio operators are trained to do this, and do this all year round. Plus it will work in places where phone lines are not up and running yet. See http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/pscm/sec2-ch1.html for more information.

Michael P. O'Connor
http://www.mikeoconnor.net

Re: Better idea for sending messages

[cellio]

Thanks for the information. How does someone not in the know already locate a ham-radio operator? Is there a registry somewhere that people can check?

Re: Better idea for sending messages

[siderea]

Hi Mike! Thanks for thinking of us, but this is exactly the kind of information which is unhelpful and is not to be included on the list. These are instructions for refugees. Unless you can tell a refugee exactly how to find a resource, it is not useful to them. "Find a ham operator" is not an instruction someone stuck in a hotel in Baton Rouge or camped out in a convention center is in any way equiped to follow.

If you know of contact stations which have been set up by hams in particular locations that are taking walk-ups, or if you know of a phone service which connects refugees with hams, please let us know.