Start of Season Marks New Milestones and Renewed Commitment
BATON ROUGE, La. (June 4, 2007) As the 2007 hurricane season officials kicks off, the Beyond Katrina blog and its creator, Margaret Saizan, prepare to keep thousands of established readers and curious first-time visitors up to date on all the twists and turns from an expected busy season. Since its creation on the eve of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, www.hurricane-katrina.org has logged roughly 700,000 visitors from 186 countries and featured more than 2,000 individual blog entries.
"Clearly what began as an idea to track one storm has become a vibrant online community of concerned citizens wanting to stay informed, learning from past mistakes and looking forward to a better understanding of now natural disasters can shape the cultural landscape for generations to come,” explained Saizan, creator of the award-winning “Beyond Katrina” blog. “I hope that Beyond Katrina can become the most comprehensive source for information for this hurricane season and the second anniversary of the storm, itself."
While the blog’s mission is to inspire recovery, transformation and new vision through the deeper wisdom of crisis, the information contained in daily posts from Saizan and her team of guest contributors has helped shaped the debate following the nation’s worst natural disaster. From the challenges of rebuilding a city and restoring a state’s coastline to understanding the profound psychological impact of the storm and celebrating small victories in the course of daily life, blog entries continue to make readers think, laugh and respond by the thousands.
National climate experts project a 75 percent chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will be above normal this year and recommend those in hurricane-prone regions to begin their preparation plans. Researcher William Gray predicts there will be 17 named storms, with nine becoming hurricanes, of which five could become major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher.
“Whether it’s a New Orleans civic group hosting a storm preparedness clinic or a national watchdog group keeping elected and emergency leaders true to their word,” if it has to do with hurricanes, it will be included at www.hurricane-katrina.org,” added Saizan. “I also hope that through my current online, interactive survey, I’ll learn what readers want to know more about.”
Saizan, with the assistance of Informative and the company’s Adaptive Conversation technology, is eliciting reader responses to her blog. The goal of the current online survey is to be an open, democratic, interactive communications medium that engages blog readers in not only helping to shape the content that appears at Beyond Katrina but to encourage them to identify and act with real solutions to significant issues in Katrina recovery.
Saizan says the blog will remain strong through the 2007 season and through the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in late August of this year.
About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in history – Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media. Her blog, “Beyond Katrina,” won the 2006 Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.
To view press release in downloadable formats go to prweb.com.
Comments