Helping Hands
Lisa Owens (IABC/San Antonio) suggested in a response to my last post that IABC chapters consider holding fund raising events to aid disaster relief efforts in the wake of hurricane Katrina. The San Antonio chapter is already busy organizing an event. Watching the news this morning, it is obvious the relief efforts will need to be massive. Here are a couple of organizations that are involved in the relief efforts - the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
Our friends and neighbors in areas hit by this disaster will need all the helping hands they can get. Please use the Cafe to share information about what you and your chapter are planning.
August 30th, 2005 at 8:05 am
The Southern Region is organizing an effort as well - details are not nailed down yet, but we hope to collect $$ from our chapters (and anyone who wants to donate) and then give to the chapter. As I know more about how we’re going to handle this, I’ll send to Warren to post an entry.
August 30th, 2005 at 8:47 am
Gerard Braud Says:
August 30th, 2005 at 8:28 am
HELP. Please, please, please help. This is Gerard Braud. I have evacuated safely from New Orleans, but now I am trying to return home to offer my services as a communicator. Specifically I an trying to get to Covington, Louisiana to help in St. Tammany Parish. The problem is, there is no way to get information to anyone in an official capacity who can get me in to help. I need an official police or emergency vehicle to get from Destin, Florida to Covington, Louisiana. Only official vehicles are allowed on the interstate.
As with most disasters, everyone is busy handling the crisis and no one is communicating. I have a broadcast camera and computer editing in my car. If I can get in, I can drive back out to places with power to get this information out to citizens who need it. ONE MILLION people are trying to get official information and there is NO SOURCE FOR IT. One Million people will be HOMELESS for week and don’t know it yet. I have the tools and the know how. I just need a way in.
If you know anyone, ANYONE, who can help, we need you desperately. I need someone at the Federal FEMA level who can cut through red tape and show interest in my offer to help lift some of the communications burden.
I am currently camped out at an Emergency Operations Center in Florida, where they are trying to help me facilitate my offer.
If you see this posting, please contact me here at 850-651-7560.
My e-mail is not working. I will look for your postings here.
Because the TV networks are showing the same footage over and over, and only a few dramatic interviews, my goal is to gather official information that I can bring back out to TV and Radio Stations, as well as websites, so other evacuations have real info. Official government websites are down because the servers are only based locally and there is no power–there are no phone lines.
We need to think outside the box. I need brain power and the networking capability of this global organization for us to do something BIG.
My evacuation site numbers are as follows:
My cell: May not work-504-908-8188
Elaine Tucker’s Cell-my house host-850-585-7294
My e-mail is not working. I will look for your postings here.
August 30th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Warren Bickford asked that I contribute to this thread to inform IABC members as to how they can help in this disaster.
I’m pleased to do that, but will direct my comments to only your Canadian members.
The American Red Cross is, of course, managing this response. And at this point, they have not requested that the Canadian Red Cross or other Red Cross national societies go on appeal for donations. That may well happen in short order, but until then, we are accepting donations rather than proactively pursuing them. This is part of the process used in disasters to manage the flow of donations.
Discussions are currently taking place between the American and Canadian Red Cross Societies regarding the need for personnel to support the response. Recruitment instructions will be sent to local Canadian Red Cross offices in the next few days. Any Canadian business communicators interested in supporting the effort should contact their local Red Cross office for details. Thanks for this opportunity — and all the best to our American counterparts through this difficult time.
August 30th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Gerard, I’m glad to read that you are OK and touched by your driving desire to get back for the sake of communication. Have you been in touch with other IABCers who have been displaced?
Here are some random comments for you.
1. I have been watching cable and scanning blogs, and it seems that one of the most pressing needs now is for information about smaller towns. Covington would count. Most news reports are about the larger cities. People are frustrated about the lack of information about places their relatives live, and of course, there are no phone lines to contact family. Having lived in Mandeville, I’ve been looking for any information about people and places around there and found essentially nothing — either about Mandeville or Covington (except that there was a fire in Covington that emergency workers couldn’t reach).
2. Keep posting. Tell us what you need. Tell us what’s working and what’s not. Tell us what you are thinking and feeling. It’s ashame that anyone has to go through this disaster, so at least we should try to learn from it. Your experiences and those of other commjnicators along the Gulf Coast can help us refine our crisis communication thinking and planning. If we can’t do something BIG this time, we can be ready if — heaven forbid — we get another shot at it.
3. The best (realtively speaking) source of information I’ve found is http://www.nola.com. But as with any media, it’s only good for people outside the disaster area. People in the middle of it have no electricity, so they have no media (the Times-Pic didn’t even publish today — except online for people OUTSIDE New Orleans who can access it).
Prayers are with you.
–Sheri
August 31st, 2005 at 2:08 pm
I experienced this in a mini-way last year. My vacation home on Estero Island/Ft. Myers Beach Florida took a direct hit from Hurricane Charley, Category 4, on Friday the 13th of August. As president of the Association, I played a major role. It took nine months and nearly $4 million to complete the recovery just for our 180-unit/5-building complex on the Gulf. The urgency and despair people feel in those first hours was less complicated for me because 80% of the owners did NOT live there full time and nearly everyone heeded the mandatory emergency evacuation.
But the urgency for communication was relentless…we set up a website that first week and began nightly e-mail posts to owners. Our lists and contacts grew exponentially as people found they had a connection.
This is so much more massive as the people inside are stranded, physically, emotionally and more. I can empathyze and vividly imagine the enormity of it.
I’m great at roofs, mold, water and wind damage, calming the troops and all but I’m struggling with how I might put my newfound experience to work …
Any ideas…
September 6th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
Gerard -
If you know of any accomplished public relations people who are displaced, our agency (Edward Howard & Co., http://www.edwardhoward.com) can potentially offer office space and/or job openings if there is anyone out there who has family in Ohio or is otherwise interested in Ohio. We have offices in Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton and are hiring at all locations. We’re the oldest independent PR firm in the U.S. Anyone can contact me at kobert@edwardhoward.com or call 216-781-2400.
Best of luck in your efforts,
Kathy