Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those now endurin the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

As we are discussing this, is there a project that could have benefitted by better coordination of IT resources applied to storm and flood prediction prior to landfall of Katrina ? Is there any way that more dedicated Grid resources could have increased the flow of information to residents thus reinforcing the message "get out of here before the flooding after the storm surge"?

I wonder if the decentralized concentration of computing resources in disparate un-coordinated commercial "news" organizations is an example of resources that could have been harnessed as a grid and coordinated better in times of emergency. Each "news" organization competes to get the best resolution on radar imaging, rather than coordinating and working on reducing information from ocean sensor data, sensors on levees and dikes, and better resolution of storm predictions with images and information available to ALL radio and television news outlets ? Many do make use of NWS data feeds and commercial products produced from them, but in cases of impending natural disasters what of a "Storm Grid Resource Pool" which could be dedicated once an appropriate agency declares the need ?

Might more residents of Southern LA moved out instead of "riding out the storm" if more outlets had information more quickly ? The loss of life and lawless situation is a direct result of decisions people made, especially in New Orleans to "sit tight and ride it out".

So we too are giving reactively to the Red Cross and other organizations to assist those in need. How in the future might we target our type of resources to better predict and avoid having so many remain in harms way?

Cheers de Mark

Here's the link to PASS AROUND to find a bedroom or housing to offer, or are seeking survivor housing from KATRINA.....

http://katrinahousing.org/

It's the same link I have at the bottom of this SIG.

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copy/paste from page:

VOLUNTEERS

OFFER HOUSING

Post a listing


SURVIVORS

NEED HOUSING?

Search for housing


Print a complete list of available housing


This is a housing services hub for Katrina victims. You can offer up housing space for victims, or hurricane survivors can search for available rooms/houses/apts/etc. This site is working in cooperation with support organizations.

Please distribute this website widely across the web. We already have hundreds of people posting, but we will need thousands more in order to make many housing options available to Katrina survivors. Also, if you are involved in the rescue and recovery efforts, please print the housing lists and distribute to those in need of temporary housing. The number of posts have doubled every 2 hours today.

LATEST STATUS (& OUR NEEDS)

PHYSICAL LIST DISTRIBUTION
We need volunteers, volunteer agencies in the disaster region to print lists and pass them out. However, at the moment, FEMA will not let smaller groups help. So victims have no easy way of accessing this information yet.

RED CROSS AND FEMA SUPPORT: Currently they will not directly promote this effort since they are worried about the legal liability of "representing" individual volunteers, so unless you can get this accomplished, official endorsements/support is unlikely at this stage.

PRESS: Contact the press, especially CNN and WWLTV

INTERNET:
Post to Katrina relief blogs and contact webmasters to link to this site
Contact Craigslist.org to point their site to ours.

EMAIL: Send emails to your friends advertising this site.

PROGRAMMING SUPPORT: If you want to volunteer your PHP/MySQL skills, please do so.

Press Release: Moved by the devastation and homelessness facing thousands of Americans displaced by Katrina, many people have logged online to offer shelter to hurricane survivors. Now three young Web designers have launched a new website, www.katrinahousing.org, to organize these housing offers in one easy-to-find place.

I have family in Slidell, Louisiana and Picayune, Mississippi. My Slidell family is now living with me in Atlanta.

I just learned yesterday that my Picayune family is OK, but no phones, electricity or running water.

300 National Guardsmen, fresh from Irak, and with locked and loaded M16`s who shoot to kill ought to do it.

Seriously. This president doesn`t have a clue what a human disaster is.

Maybe I could, but then I'm not paid to be the most powerful man on earth - he is.