Monthly Archives: September 2005

Can’t take the Katrina dog stories

Katrina

Why is it that with thousands of people dead and immeasurable suffering, it’s the dog stories that I can’t stomach, I won’t watch, I can’t read. Damn you CNN for putting it front and center on the home page.

I have seen images of floating bloated human bodies. But they become “bodies” – somehow there’s a disconnect. We know there are still people undiscovered in their homes hoping and waiting – no food, no water, run out of their meds. But it’s hearing about people euthanizing their dogs and that the larger dogs are fighting the gas (I have big dogs), seeing the dogs on the rooftops being left behind (not by choice, not by anybody’s real choice), hearing them suddenly being referred to as stray dogs and something to fear, knowing that eventually the answer to “wild roaming packs of dogs” will be to shoot them. This I can’t bear. Why? Why is that more powerful?



Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Attempting to centralize Katrina Data – and they need programming help

Just Rambling

by way of Rocky Lhotka’s blog where he is also passing on the information:
 
We’re a few local (ATL) ASP.NET programmers who have created a central datastore, collection web interfaces, and processing system for missing/safe person data on people affected by hurricane katrina.
The idea caught on quick… we’ve only got 2 guys working on this full time and a third helping out when he can. Since going online we’ve ben contacted by LOTS of groups who want to work with us. We’re overwhelmed and need help… we’ve got plans for a mobile device interface to our data, and are working with a callcenter fielding calls from disaster victims (the callcenter needs some special enhancements to the interface we can’t get to fast enough.). We’re being listed as the central survivors database on the emergency web terminals being deployed in disaster zones ( http://www.publicwebstations.com/ )
We’ve got people on the ground at shelters trying to gather lists and transmit them to our datastore electronically. We’re also contacting almost 50 other websites which have lists or data collection systems… they are starting to use our MSP file spec and transmit data to us.
If you could get the word out that we are looking for volunteer programmers who can hit the ground running and take ownership of some of the special projects we have WE WOULD APPRECIATE IT.. but there are people out there looking for loved ones who would appreciate it even more.
Current experience we need:
  • .net mobile framework using our data classes to collect and process data
  • string data parsing experience… there’s a lot of data in forum posts we can’t use but could triple our data if we could parse into useful fields
  • Mass emailing system… as our system processes incoming bulk data, it makes matches between searchers and safe persons, flagging them as needed contact via email. We need a system to read from a database table containing these contact requests and send them out
  • any general ASP.NET (we’re using VB) experience to help build special lookups and interfaces
I hate to make such a request on a holiday weekend, but we are swamped.
Please spread the word if you can.
Thanks!
-John
Developer, The Katrina Data Project

email: john at katrinadataproject dot com



Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Inspired – and I hope you are too

Purely Personal

I went to a wedding today, well, actually a Civil Union of two dear friends who have been together for 20 years already. I was talking with another guest who asked, “hey didn’t I see you at Costco with a couple of pallets loaded with stuff?” I said that I was there with a cart and pallet but there were a lot of other people doing the same. But she told me “No, it was you. I recognize your hair. And I didn’t even know about the drop off center. But when someone explained to me what you and so many others were doing, I was inspired and we collected a bunch of stuff and also went to the drop off center.”

Exactly my point…. 🙂

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

.NET Community and Katrina

Community Cheerleading

Here are some things from the .NET community that have caught my eye.

Within the .NET community, there are plenty of developers who live in New Orleans. There is even a small .NET user group, GNONUG, run by Manny Dennis, who was an INETA liaison during the time that I was the chair of the related INETA committee.I haven’t heard from him, but I am confident that he, his wife and young child are far away from New Orleans.

Sara Ford at Microsoft is from Mississippi and has been blogging information on the status of family and her town, with a reminder that there are bulletin boards style blogs for relaying information about survivors.

Another Microsoft employee, Bill Steele who is one of the DCC’s ( the folks who present at the MSDN events), is planning to fly his plane to the Gulf Coast to deliver 10,000 MREs. This is coming 3rd hand, but the sources are pretty good.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

I LOVE Vermont – thousands donate to hurricane relief drop off centers

Vermont

update: In total, Vermonters filled up 34 tractor trailers, which arrived in Gulfport Mississippi over Labor Day weekend.

I witnessed the most amazing thing yesterday. In one day, thousands upon thousands of Vermonters donated amazing amounts of needed supplies for victims of Katrina. Here are two stories about it. One from the Burlington Free Press the other from Vermont Public Radio.

Here is my own account of what I saw at the local Costco and at one of the drop off centers.

After packing up a bunch of those geeky t-shirts and some other stuff that I have hardly ever or just never worn, I went to Costco. As I am not a member, they gave me a one day pass. The parking lot at Costco was completely packed, hundreds of cars at about 2 in the afternoon.

Inside, though there were plenty of people just doing their regular shopping, it was easy to spot the many folks who were shopping for the hurricane victims. And there were a LOT of them!! They had carts loaded with huge bags of dog food, cases and cases of canned goods, diapers and more. Armed with my credit card as well as promised contributions from Canadian Sharepoint geek, Michael Reinhart and VTdotNET user group member, Dan Smith, I went shopping. It was addictive. I loaded up a cart and then a “flat bed”, stood in line with many others who were buying the similar requested items and then with help from James, a Costco employee who was reminiscing about packing up items for soldiers in Iraq, loaded everything into my SUV which I nearly filled. A good feeling. I obviously stopped shopping just on time.

I drove to Williston where one of the 10 drop off centers around the state was located. When I got off the highway, there were state troopers directing traffic, which was backed up and barely moving, with long periods of no movement at all. When I got closer to the drop off point, I saw another trooper signalling a long stream of cars into the parking lot. It had been like this all day. I finally got in there and was astonished, thrilled and elated at what I saw. Sprawled everywhere were various areas for each type of dontation – pet food, baby stuff, women’s clothes, hygiene, food, water, etc. Hundreds of volunteers, many just people who had come to drop stuff off or were just driving by and saw the activity, were organizing, sorting through, boxing up items and then loading up pallets. The pallets were then wrapped and moved into tractor trailers. The local paper said that 20 tractor trailers were hired for this job. I wonder if that will even be enough?

These photos don’t even come close to capturing what was going on.

The incoming cars were never-ending. I went and parked my car in a nearby parking lot and came back and jumped in. Another trooper and I brought about 20 grocery carts over from Dicks and we then used these to get cars emptied quickly so they could go and more could come. I then would run around dropping off items at the appropriate station and then go attack another car. “Ma’am, have you been emptied yet?” was the catch phrase of the day.

Thousands and thousands of people were bringing donations in.

Everyone kept thanking each other. We thanked people for donations, they thanked us for helping. Everyone was feeling pretty good (for the moment). We had found SOMETHING we could do to help. We knew that this food and water and other items would be in people’s hands in one or two days. It was so tangible.

There were news cameras at Costco and at the drop off center. I can’t find any video links, but there are links at the top of this post to some news stories and my few meager pictures – oh how I wish Shelley had been there to capture the beauty of this.

One source for more info on how Vermonters can help is the Northern Vermont Red Cross website.