heidi | (no subject) (Reply)

elke_tanzer, queen of useful links, has a wonderful collection of links with donation information here and methods of getting and sharing information here.

Flickr has over two thousand photos that ordinary people have taken on camphones and their own cameras and uploaded to the site. It's heartbreaking.

hurricane_blog is the RSS from our local Sun Sentinal's hurricane-themed blog. It's very down to earth and useful in terms of flat-out information, but if you want something very local, check out the Times-Picayune's blog.

And

fandom_charity is thanking donors with gifts of fics, icons and art. The general fic "rate" is $1/100 words, $10/1,000 words.

A big thank you to the US Navy, who are en route with amphibious crafts to rescue and transport people to safety, and bring food and drinking water for those in need. My brother in law, who is in the Navy, is currently in Ft Worth where everyone from his New Orleans base is relocating - it looks like he'll be there for weeks, if not months. I am choosing to avoid politicizing right now, but I may later rant about the morality of vacationing. On the flip side, though, there was a family quoted in the Herald this morning who decided that if they were going to spend a hundred dollars a night on hotels, they were going to drive to Orlando and take the kids to Disney World and try and distract them from the fact that they may not have a home to go back to. I'm not sure if I'm cheered or devestated by that.

It's probably too early to really talk about this, but back in 1992, everyone said that Homestead and County Walk and even Kendall and the Gables would never recover from Hurricane Andrew, which flattened nearly two hundred thousand homes, destroyed towns and ruined lives. Yes, the devestation from Katrina is multiple-times-multiplied from Andrew, but the sentinment should be the same - New Orleans, Biloxi and all the other devestated towns need to be rebuilt and revitalized. Kudos to the casinos who've promised at least three months pay to their employees. Kudos to those who are helping their neighbors and the refugees in their midst. Best wishes and the all important "please stay safe" to everyone in the area, and may they get that damned levee closed.