Beyond Katrina

Using Social Networking to Prepare for Hurricane Gustav

Great post on social networking for hurricane preparation and also  some helpful information there by community strategist and social networking enthusiast Connie Bensen-- here. I  witnessed the power of social networking/social media during my blogging stint with  hurricanes Katrina and Rita - so yes I am believer!

LA. BLOGGER NEEDS HELP POSTING - GUSTAV

I NEED HELP POSTING INFO ABOUT HURRICANE GUSTAV AT BEYOND KATRINA, www.hurricane-katrina.org. IF YOU CAN HELP OUT SEND EMAIL to MARGARET SAIZAN,  beyondkatrina@gmail.com

New Orleans IT departments brace for Gustav

These four organizations survived Katrina and explain how they are more prepared this time

August 29, 2008  (Computerworld)  As tropical storm Gustav approaches hurricane strength and heads toward the Gulf Coast, the IT lessons learned from the devastating Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that smashed New Orleans and other areas in 2005 are on the minds of many worried IT managers. Continue at Computer World>>>

Hurricane Gustav – Notice to all amateurs in IARU region 2

From  The Hurricane Watch Net:

Hurricane Gustav is currently making its way through the central part ofthe Caribbean basin and has passed through Dominican Republic and Haiti and will be affecting the island of Cuba in the next few hours.  It has
been requested that IARU R2 member societies remind their members to be aware of emergency communications that may occur in that region, and to keep those frequencies clear for emergency traffic. This message does not indicate any particular frequencies that may be used for this purpose.

Communication breakdown may have been responsible for Mississippi River oil spill

Newly released radio transmissions by the Coast Guard indicate a communication breakdown may have been responsible for last week's Mississippi River oil spill. Continue>>>

 

SoCal earthquake has everyone a-Twitter

oh this is a good one from the Los Angeles Times...

Twitter was first on the scene again when an estimated 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck near Los Angeles today. Tweets started rumbling nearly as soon as the ground stopped shaking. That's a lot of Twittering on the Richter scale. "So, now people tweet first and then run for safety?" one amused onlooker commented on Feedalizr. Continue here>>>

and this one from C/Net news...

Los Angeles earthquake chokes phone calls, not Twitter

Truly I don't know how we social media types keep up with it all. Does anybody actually work these days?

Hams Active as Hurricane Dolly Strikes Caribbean, then Texas:

The Hurricane Watch Net wound up about 19 hours of operation, experiencing some of the worst band conditions we've seen in many years. Most of the traffic to the National Hurricane Center on 14.325, was relayed off of 40 meter frequencies by Bob, K5SIV. The Net also put out regular advisories to those in the affected area in English and Spanish. -- tnx John Ellis, NP2B, Section Manager, Virgin Islands Section   

Later, as Hurricane Dolly made landfall near Brownsville, Texas, on July 23, the VoIP Hurricane Net was active for a 24-hour period, reports Rob Macedo, KD1CY, of the VoIP Hurricane Net. We had N5CCW on the air from the National Weather Service in Corpus Christi, Texas, and W5DCH from the Driscoll Childrens Hospital EOC and several other Amateurs from the Corpus Christi, Texas area.  They assisted with relaying reports from their area as well as from the affected area of Brownsville, Texas which included sustained hurricane force winds with gusts to 105 MPH. We owe a debt of gratitude to these stations for being on the system with us despite their pressing issues locally, said Rob Macedo, KD1CY, Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net. The Driscoll Childrens Hospital briefly went to a code black emergency mode as a tornado, related to the outer rain bands of Dolly, was sighted near the hospital. The code black was lifted after it was determined the hospital would not be affected by the tornado. Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, relayed rainfall reports in excess of 10 inches from the Texas Emergency Net. Those reports were then relayed through the VoIP Hurricane Net to the National Hurricane Center.

Website:     http://www.arrl.org/

Source:

The ARRL Letter Vol. 27, No. 29 July 25, 2008

Call for News, Photos, Videos / Hurricane Dolly

Beyond Katrina Network is a free community site offering blogs, email, a forum, content sharing --- photos, videos, and music ---as well as the means to post events and make announcements. If you are located in  locations impacted by Hurricane Dolly we welcome your photographs, videos,  observations, news, and resources about the storm's impact and aftermath. It's simple to join and post content -- Simply follow this link to get started: http://beyondkatrina.ning.com

Katrina decision could cost mobile phone industry millions

THE MOBILE-PHONE AND TOWER SECTORS could take a significant financial hit as a result of a new Federal Communications Commission mandate requiring backup power sources at key facilities. The FCC rule, which industry sources claim could cost wireless carriers hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, flows from recommendations of the Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks. See this article at RCR Wireless News.

Social Media & Disaster Communications

Blogger Rob Paterson at Fast Forward has penned an interesting post about how public tv station KPB is using new technologies such as Google Maps, Twitter & Flickr to broadcast news about the California fires. Screenshots at the post, check it out here.

and here is a very comprehensive look at web 2.0 coverage of the California fires by tech guru Mark Potts.

and yet another here.