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.
