Project Katrina

The next week or so I’ll be swamped at work on several projects for …. well work. You know the poeple that pay the bills. So posts will be few and far between until the 13th or 14th of January. Since this blog is my blog, a journal of Katrina, I will back date a few items for historical sake. I don’t like to do this, but there is just not enough hours in the day for me to post them in a more timely fashion.

I am getting thousands of hits from people searching for "Katrina and Housing." In many instances they are searching for specific locations. The results they are getting don’t appear to be very helpful!

I am actually UNHAPPY my site is coming up in the top ranking in many instances. I am just a guy sitting in my home office. I can’t even begin to keep up. So PLEASE try this workaround to get the information you are looking for:

1. Go to Google News and do a search for Katrina and refugees and the state or city you are looking for. This should pull news reports that will contain specific information like the location and the name of center where the people are being moved.

2. Then go to any Zip Code locator on the Internet and type in the town and state.

3. Then go to this Red Cross page and enter the zip code. You’ll get contact information for the local chapter that should be helping in the efforts.

Please email me or leave a comment if you gather this information on any location.

Continue Reading »

Let me attempt to explain my thought process in more detail. Thousands of Americans are willing to open their houses, apartments, and condos to complete strangers. Many more Americans want to help in other ways. Well here is your chance. We don’t have to, nor should we be powerless.

I’m not a dreamer, my glass is usually half empty, not half full. In situations like this America wants to help. But as days and weeks go by our memory fades, we go back to the "rat race" that is our day-to-day lives. We forget that burning desire we had just a few days or weeks ago.

Well I want to capture that intense desire before it fades.

Get the word out to anyone and everyone you know that wants to help. Tell them for a few hours they can help to move a family from Baton Rouge to Vicksburg. From Memphis to St. Louis. From Nashville to Louisville. And as each city connects to another we move people closer to a place where they can sleep in a home.

Leave me comments with more information. Thoughts. Suggestions. Next steps.

Footnote: There are MANY issues I still don’t understand, and with your help we can work through them here. I am still getting my mind around them all, so look to a future post tomorrow after I can speak with a few government agencies.

The purpose of this blog is simple. Thousands of Americans are offering up their homes to those hit by Katrina. Amazing! It shows yet again that my fellow Americans are the most giving people in the world.

But there is a big problem, how do they get to our homes? These people don’t have water in many instances, much less Internet access. And if they had access to a car, they’d have already left.

I am sure the Red Cross and other organizations will get to this. But alas, they have more massive and immediate problems right now. In the short-term I see no other solution to this problem other then you, me, and others coming together to figure something out. Even if we can just help a handful of people, then we have done something important.

I will maintain this site close to 24/7. The objective is to connection families that need housing, families that are willing to offer up a spare room, and then locate people that can get those people to us. I envision a pony express type operation. It is all about planning to make this work!

If I don’t have a family in my house in the next week I will feel like a failure.