Will Kisses

A brief break from all my crazy Red Cross and Hurricane talk for some baby news - Will is no longer a baby. At 17mo he is quite the Little Boy. He's walking, doing his best to talk with a handful of words and into EVERYTHING. "Bob the Builder" is his favorite show, (he only watches Sesame Street, Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer), though the ""Elmo's World", "Journey to Ernie", and "Count the Count Number of the Day" segments elicit great excitement from him. He loves playing basketball and soccer - to the extent that he can.

He's gotten good at temper tantrums and knowing what he wants - he's working on perfecting his tantrums. We haven't read a lot of books though Daddy and Mommy know quite a few by heart. The problem is his attention span is too short. So we spend a lot of time just snuggling as he lays his head on our shoulder and actually gives kisses on command. (Well, he leans towards your cheek and says MWahhhh.)

He pretty much understands anything we say - you just have to point, say an action and say the name of the object. We do use full sentences but it's the latter information he understands. He points to things and tries to say their names....from books to doggies to balloons. Usually it's because he wants them in some fashion but often it's just to let us know he knows what they are.

Our favorite word of his is "Neigh". He points to pictures of horses and other animals that may resemble horses and says "neeeeigh". Occasionally you'll get a "Maaaaaaa" for a sheep.

All in all while he is a handful, is into everything and wants his way.....he's not like that all the time. Overall he's a mellow, incredibly happy, engaging kid. I love him so much.

Just came down from putting him to bed - 3 stories, "Goodnight Moon", "But Not the Hippopotamus", and "Guess How Much I Love You". He's still a little restless, sitting up in bed, lolling around then flopping back down. Kirky's gone up to have a few moments of snuggling.

Rita Update: From the Road

Leaky Lounge Moderator Darcey posted about her attempts to get to her sister's house from SE Houston and how they only went 25mi in 17hrs.

Rita: Live Data

If you want to see close-to-live readings for yourself, check out the NOAA National Data Buoy Center's "Rita" site. They're taking Rita's GPS reading and marking the various buoy weather info closest to it.

It's just northeast, (by like 5-10mi), of Buoy 42001 at 25.84, -89.66 which is reading winds at 68kts, (roughly 80mph), and gusts up to 87.4 kts, (roughly 103mph). Greater than 64kts, obviously is hurricane strength on the Beaufort Wind Scale. Wave height is at 32ft, Pressure is at 929mb.

I'm looking for live flood gauge data at the landfall point.

Blech. I've got a YIM chat happening with a few friends in the area and would like to add in more of those who stayed. My YIM is bkdelong.

Rita: Friends in texas, please check in

Just a quick note....it looks like Rita is slowly changing its track east. But it's still huge and I'm concerned about all my friends in Texas - especially those in and around Galveston, Houston, Dallas etc.

For my piece of mind, if you have 2 minutes can you email me your address? Including those of you with friends or family in Texas? I promise not to give the information away but I'd like to map out all these addresses to include them along with the massive amount of live data from ocean buoys, passing ships, all the NOAA models, live tracking from NOAA etc. so I know whether you're alright or whether steps need to be taken to have someone check on you. I'd be happy to share all these with you if you're Google Earth/Mapping geek - just not the personal addresses.

Be safe out there.

Cautionary Note: Rita + Oil = chaos?

Got this message from a friend who immediately suggested I fill up on gas. Looking for data on refinery locations to map it myself and not sure how much I trust without data on such percentages....

BP is shutting down all refineries and pipelines near the Texas coast, and several other petroleum companies including Shell and Mobil are preparing to shutdown tonight. If a Category 5 hurricane hits Houston something like 30%+ of this counties [country's sic] refining capability will be destroyed in a matter of hours (not damaged, destroyed).

Daily Red Cross & Rita

Another long day. Didn't do much at Red Cross except train a new batch of Bank of American employees to enter forms. Then while working on some forms myself I helped reinstall a desktop running Windows 2000 for one of the regional offices.

Just took a look at the BAMD Model for Rita and in 96 hours it puts the damn storm less than 5mi WSW of the Houston Astrodome. Quelle Surprise. *sigh*

I signed up for a bunch more courses that include Shelter Simulation, On the Scene, First Aid, and EOC Liaison. I've also signed on to be "on call" with a Disaster Action Team, (DAT), for Monday-night call-outs to fires. Should be interesting.

Dull post....I'm tired and a bit lethargic. Besides, I think my Red Cross talk has stopped you all from reading my journal anyway. ;)

Hurricane Warning: Rita in the Keys

Since I've become more involved in the Red Cross, I've gotten more into my "Weather Geeking" hobby. Right now I have a live webcam from the Northwest corner of Key West streaming - WITH SOUND. It is awesome - you can hear the wind, see the wind and watch the water and a large boat bobbing up and down. Unfortunately, I also see a handful of people walking around from time to time :( Be safe everyone!

I'm also keeping an eye on the Monroe County, (FL Keys), Emergency Operations Center, (EOC) for alerts. They just posted storm surge/flooding updates.

TLC Art Director John Noe is in Tavernier, FL south of Key Largo. He still has Internet access & power. I can't believe he stayed but luckily there's a "last resort" shelter, (ie you should have evacuated when we made it mandatory but since you didn't...), less than 1/2 a mile down the road from him at the Dept of Health. He's taken 20+ pictures that I've placed on Flickr for him. Be safe John!!

Elton John Rocks On

Kirky () and I had an awesome time at the Elton John concert last night. I have to admit - I'm a music snob. I really enjoy truly heartfelt music from all ranges of emotions from the lustiness of Sarah McLachlan's "Ice Cream" to the lamentations of Mozart's Requiem to the rolling rowdiness of Ben Folds on his piano. But when Elton John belted out old favorites like Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man, and Daniel, I couldn't help but feel exhilarated.

John's still got his flying fingers - man can he play. And the long, flamboyantly played overtures to his songs were just wonderful. He truly enjoyed playing last night - you could see it on his face and hear it in his music.

Luckily the evening was fun enough to overshadow the annoying people around us. You'd think we were in college again. Beer spilling all over the place, a drunk couple behind us who could barely stand on their feet, and an absolutely infuriating man in front of us that kept taking video clips and camera shots with his phone.

At one point this guy got annoyed at people moving in front of his shot so he moved up to empty seats three rows ahead. Several minutes later, he disgruntledly came back, I assume because the people who owned tickets to those seats had returned. However in the meanwhile another couple took his seats and he furiously went off to first find a security person and then an usher. I can't count how many times ushers with flashlights interrupted the moment because of people who came late, were too drunk to find their seats again, or to resolve disputes.

While taking Kirky to this concert was very important, (since I oft tease her for her music choices - and joke about her tone-deafness, I wanted her to have a fun music-oriented evening), I definitely prefer the smaller, cozy folk-house settings where I hear some of my favorite singer-songwriters like Ellis Paul, Rachael Davis or Erin Dooley, (who I went to HS with).

Red Cross: Back

I'm back from another day at Red Cross. Drove down to Otis ANB base at 7am, arrived at 8:45am. Helped load up the previously boxed "Mass Care" supplies including baby diapers, clothes, packaged snacks and drinks as well as all the cots into 3 vehicles and 1 trailer - one of the vehicles being the Suzuki I bought from Megan () which happens to be red and fits right in. They're even talking about getting me magnetic red crosses that I can stick to my car while working. Not sure if that was a joke or not ;)

After we filled up the vehicles, (about 2hrs), we dropped a few off at the New Bedford office and brought the ERV to the Boston HQ and unloaded it.

Until Monday.....other non-ARC posts to come...I swear. When you do this much driving you listen to a lot of NPR and do a lot of thinking.

Be well.

Got more exposure to the ERV. I think I've going to get Red Cross Driving training which will let me drive any of the 3 vehicles we had today - a van, a suburban tricked out with GPS and the ERV. I believe I need "ERVs: Ready, Set, Roll", "Defensive Driving", and even Logistics Initial Response Vehicle (LIRV) Driver Training while I'm at it.

We are on "Stand Down" from Ophelia - it all but dissolved about 9am ET this morning several hundred miles off the coast of Massachusetts. However Tropical Depression 17 is headed roughly for the Mid-Atlantic states and there's a tropical wave northeast of the South American continent that's targeting Miami. But hell....the computer models are only accurate for a few hours and if you watch the past tracking paths they're all over the place. I have a feeling I'll be more needed in the winter when the No'reasters hit.

Daily Red Cross: Climbing Higher....

Today I headed into Mass. Bay ARC this morning about 9am and met with Marc Fernandez, Help Desk Manager. While not the chapter's director of IT, he is the de facto tech guy - the IT Director is also the Comptroller, the latter job consumes 99% of his time.

I was led downstairs to a computer lab with Compaqs running Windows 2000 and told, on the way, that I would be supervising a Bank of America team doing data entry of "Client Intake" sheets into the master Client Assistance System (CAS).

The CAS is running on some sort of Siebel system requiring a Siebel High Interactivity Framework ActiveX control. So while Marc got everyone setup on the lab's computers and through entering their first client, I sheepishly tried to figure out how the hell to get IE to let me install the stupid applet.

The system was incredibly slow when we started this morning. To the point that logging in would take 2-3minutes. Unfortunately, add the fact that an IE Window saying I needed the ActiveX control would popup as would the "security" bar asking me whether I wanted to install the program. I had to click OK on the IE Window and by the time I did the "install program" bar disappeared as well. Ugg! I had to disable all sorts of security features to get it to default install - *shiver*

Luckily I'm pretty intuitive with tech so after about 5 minutes of rapid-fire questions about the form, I was able to get through my first client record. Well, 5min + the 15min to actually make it through all the damn prompts.

I offered to write some documentation for Marc because he is obviously overwhelmed supporting such a big chapter like Mass. Bay on his own AND having to train people on Data Entry, which he normally does not do. So I went through a few more forms and whipped up a tech doc. It's a start - I took screenshots which I'll add over the weekend so newbies that come in can enter the forms via DIY.

About 1ish, I got whisked downstairs to their walk-in service center where folks staying with friends & relatives, (including many Tulane students at Harvard and Boston University), would come in to register, get their "Client Assistance Card" activated and just have someone to tell their stories to that would understand. Normally these cards, (which we are also activating upstairs), take 24 - 48hrs to activate. Upstairs we were sending them to Chase to be activated. However, downstairs, I would be handed a form, enter it and within 3 minutes of clicking the button the card would be activated. How's that for service?

I only got through 6 forms though before I had to head out. Kirky, () and I are going to see Elton John at the Fleet Center, (TD BankNorth whateverI'mnottypingthatlongname) - a present for Kirky's birthday.

Tomorrow, however, more fun! We have to go back to Camp Edwards/Otis ANG base to pull back all the Mass Care supplies to the New Bedford office in the rapidly north-ward headed Ophelia. How's that for irony? Hopefully she will continue to downgrade so we don't have to evacuate the evacuees from Otis to inland - you may recall I said that they were originally due to come into Logan and be housed at the Boston Convention Center. Mmmmm hmmm. We'll see if your playing politics backfires, Mr. Romney. These people can't afford the trauma of yet another extreme weather event. If they're watching the televisions in their rooms, no doubt they're petrified at the slight possibility of it hitting the Cape.

I've also offered to help prepare various Cape and South Shore shelters for Ophelia if there's flooding or other problems. Haven't heard back yet. I will also be returning to help Marc on Monday if my schedule allows it.

That's it for now!

Red Cross Update - Tech Work

I finally connected with the head of Information Systems for the Massachusetts Bay chapter of the ARC. He needs someone to help backing up and reinstalling W2K machines, doing some desktop support and helping with all the data entry for the Otis evacuees and volunteers. I'll be in town tomorrow for the Elton John concert, (Kirky's [] birthday present), that night so I figured I could spend the day helping out.

I asked him about "RTT" which apparently stands for "Response Technology Team" and he said it would be "On the Job" training down South. So he took my resume and is sending it into the main office apparently fast-tracking it. We'll see what happens.

Bush on Katrina: I take responsibility

To quote a friend, "hell has freezeth over".

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush says.

I am quite impressed, Mr. Bush, I think this is one of the first times you ever issued a mea culpa in your entire administration. Now it's time to fix things.

BrainStream: Renewable Energy

With all of the talk of NOLA and surrounding areas being absolutely demolished I can't help but keep thinking what an awesome opportunity for renewable energy solutions this is. Solar is a given - stick panels wherever possible. For an area that gets a lot of storms and wind, why not stick a few Wind Farms both off the coast and inland in various areas?

For an area near the Mississippi and other Rivers as well as the Gulf of Mexico, it is ripe for hydroelectric power plants. Why not also make use of the hydrothermic vents in the Gulf tho, at the moment, they may be too deep.

Turn this important, needed area for oil refinery and shipping into a shining example of clean, renewable energy.

As this is a brainstream of mine, it needs a token "crazy idea". Has anyone thought about using lightning as a renewable energy source? Or do we simply not have the technology to withstand and hold lightning charges yet? I mean, it can't be any worse than calling "nuclear waste" a result of a "clean energy" solution. I mean, what would happen if we relied solely on Nuclear energy? Where would we keep all the waste without effecting the environment, people who currently live in desirable dumping locations, and simply leave those sites be for hundreds of years?

This got sparked as I was trying to come up with a solar/wind solution to keeping various gadgets from flashlights to iPod shuffles to digital cameras charged while headed down South without relying on power needed for relief efforts.

NB: Like any good BrainStream, this is mostly editorial rather than factual otherwise it would be filled with links.

Personal Update and Katrina Stories: Stunned, EMS Worker

I've had a rough day. My harddrive started giving me crap last week but I could still eek out enough to get work done. Then it decided to die a few times so I backed up what I could before switching drives. I'm just lucky to have a spare drive to get onto.

In addition to ever-so-slowly getting my primary apps back online, I'm finding myself having problems "coming down" from Otis/Red Cross mode. As per usual the arenaline-fueled mania is dropping to a bit of an anxious depression.

And to add to that, I'm having problems catching up with feelers I've put out last week with my professional network trying to get my tasks done that I've set for myself, preparing to file for unemployment, and get simple chores done around the house.

Finally, Will really fought going down for both naps today and just sobbed. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him as he usually lets US know when he's ready for nap. He went to bed early and without resistance but Will's reaction combined by a perceived frustration of Kirky for my complete lack of ability to self-start has just got me in a nasty mess.

Everyone is now in bed and I feel myself relaxing a bit. Tomorrow I'll have a little more time to catch up on sleep and get my "chores" done before heading to MIT for an afternoon meeting.

Katrina Stories

Speaking of Katrina, I was absolutely stunned by this article I came across on the Socialist Worker Web site. It was authored by two people who were attendees of an EMS conference in the French Quarter. Double-checked Snopes before posting this and found someone had done a bit of due diligence that seems to pan out.

ETA: Found an article from the New York Times and another one from the San Francisco Gate that seems to coroberate some of the account.

Red Cross Update - Standby Once Again

I'm home and tired - despite sleeping from roughly 8am to 3:30pm. I think part of it is too much sleep leaving me tired....and headachy if that makes sense. My laptop harddrive has gotten worse - it's sticking so I'm backing up email as I type this and will hit the My Documents directory before going to bed. I have a replacement HD to move to soon - just know that it will take me a few to get back to email.

It seemed to be not as many people on the 2am flight. It was the same plane. A lot more children and men outnumbered women by almost 4 to 1. We also apparently had six snakes and there were rumors of a goat, birds and squirrels on this plane.

I tried to get in and be a "greeter" but I was truly fearful of what I would encounter. Perhaps it was fear of the unknown and feeling too fatigued to deal with my emotional state. I didn't feel I had the power to put empathy-shields up should I need to. But I did get out from behind the Mass Care tables to cheer as people got off the plane and spent about 10min getting and handing out plates of ham, mac & cheese, American Chop Suey, and Franks & Beans to the evacuees as they got off the plane.

I heard a few stories from my new, good friends who were greeters - Yacine and Jess. They talked about one man who brought two black mutts with him. He saved their life while they saved his - he rescued them from a locked house. When he was upstairs in his and sleeping prior to the water rising, looters broke in and the dogs chased them away. He felt he would be dead if they hasn't done so.

I've also heard of several people who were angry and upset at essentially being forced to leave and not being told their destination. While many were placated and quite relieved and excited about the warm welcome we gave them, many simply did not want to be there.

FEMA is "delivering" evacuees to different states based on a rotation schedule. Our "day" was yesterday and we don't come up again until next Wednesday. Meanwhile, I will be going down to the Mass Bay Waltham office to get my remaining Disaster Training for going South at some point.

Currently, the folks who arrived last night are in their housing and Red Cross volunteers are helping them fill out forms to get monetary aid and other paperwork to get them onto their "new" lives. I heard rumors that those doing CORI Criminal Record checks were also taking photographs and eye scans for biometric tracking. No confirmation but interesting nonetheless.

Not sure if I went in detail about the "process". The plane arrived, various Air Marshalls secured the plane, the Governor and CEO of the Mass Bay Chapter of the Red Cross welcomed them and they started to deboard. "Greeters" like Jess and Yacine would escort people off the plane through a "gauntlet" of well-wishers that included people from Massport's CARE group.

They would then be pulled out to use the restrooms or take a shower in the "Tent Showers" supplied with water via a giant tanker truck. Their first stop was "Registration" where they had their background checked and was given a temporary Massachsuetts State ID.

Then they were brought through medical including triage and mental health counselling. Their next stop was housing which took AGES. Come to think of it, it really took them a long time to get these people all the way through.

Last stop is Red Cross registration so people know who and where they are. Finally...they arrive at Red Cross Mass Care which is the area I was at. This is where we handed out diapers, formula, clothes, shoes, slippers, toiletries, snacks, drinks etc. The Salvation Army had a place with cribs and loads of toys plus a TV showing various movies to keep the kids busy. It was probably one of the best places to be next - to look over and see these kids who have been through hell enjoying themselves and being happy.

On another morbid note, I'm increasingly disturbed about what I hear regarding the standing water in NOLA - ten times worse than Love Canal says EPA Senior Policy Analyst Hugh Kauffman. Plus there were Manatee living in Lake Pontchartrain where the water is now being pumped. Just stunning. I despair over the immediate epidemiological implications not to mention the complete environmental destruction of the Mississippi Delta.

Red Cross Updated - Tired but Anticipatory

Just got the ack that wheels up on the next round a little after 12am ET. 110 souls on board a plane with quite a few pets apparently. They're due to arrive around 2:15am. I think after we get them situated probably around sunrise, I'll talk about heading home or finding a better plac to sleep. Went back to the visitor's center about 10:30pm and only really dozed. Got up about midnight, brushed my teeth, combed the hair and got into clean clothes.

Red Cross - Wheels Down

I'm here. Plane of about 111 came in from NOLA around 2pm ET. These were people who JUST left their homes yesterday. Some looked pretty bad but many had been cleaned up well in the shelter. Was told, however, that the shelter they came from had dead bodies intermixed with the live folks. Still nasty. And people had no clue where they were going until after they got off the plane. They were told nothing. Despite setting up more permanant homes via base housing, many were just expecting to get in and get out.

Next shift is 1am ET tomorrow morning. Plane, (N465AT), went back to Houston after decon, changing crews and heading back to NOLA for another batch. I'll be staying over. Will check email soon when I get a chance. Miss you all.

Red Cross Update - On Standby

Got up a little less earlier this morning to head directly to the Cape with fellow volunteer, carpooler and Peabodian Jessica. We got there 30min early only to find out that FEMA has suspended all flights to various states because "evacuees may not want to go there.

Politics

I can understand that - I wouldn't want to go to another state potentially permanantly without the chance to visit my former residence to see what was left and try to salvage something.

However there is some unfortunate political wrangling going on. It was noted that the Boston Mayor Menino and the Red Cross had been working on plans all last weekend to welcome evacuees at the Boston Convention Center. It was Gov. Mitt Romney who decided to move it to the Otis Air National Guard base on Cape Cod. You may note the base was slated for closure after the Pentagon submitted and a committee agreed that it, along with a handful of other military locations, were no longer practical. Hmmmm.

I haven't done the research but I wonder what other states were set to do something similar with their due-to-be-closed locations and the reason FEMA is truly not sending out more flights is due to political reasons.

Status

So we are on standby. Everything was left setup from cots to diapers & formula, to drinks & snacks to all the sweatsuits from Child Small to Adult 4XL we sorted by size. I believe we will get at least one plane with 200-500 evacuees simply to politically benefit Republican Governor Romney who is set for a possible 2008 run for President.

Some Boston television reporter tried to lead and goad me into saying I was "disappointed" that the evacuees weren't coming and did I feel that "my prade was rained on". Whatever. I was there for the evacuees. At the end of the day it isn't about me or what I'm doing or how I feel - it's all about the people I'm there to help.

Training

I re-watched the "Introduction to Disaster Services" course video today and found a few things I'm thinking about training for. I did Red Cross, Lifeguard and CPR certification when in Boy Scouts and Kirky and I have Infant & Child CPR that we worked on just before Will was born.

I'm on a waiting-list for a set of courses tomorrow from 1pm-8pm. I think it includes Mass Care: An Overview and Shelter Operations. These courses along with a lot of paperwork are what's needed for me to go down South to help. However I'm also interested in "Coaching the Experienced Driver", which would certify me to drive Red Cross vehicles, Disaster Assessment, Logistics: An Overview and Public Affairs in Disaster 1.

I didn't realize just how much the Red Cross does even in local communities - it really was an eye opener. I think in addition to becoming a member of Disaster Relief and Search & Rescue groups, I think I'll renew my First Aid and Adult CPR.

OK, the last thing I need is another project to get hyperfocused on but I think this ties in a lot of different things: lust for adventure, helping others & volunteering, and I can put to work my combination PR, tradeshow & conference management, and technology skills.

The Waiting Game

So I'm just going to wait until I get the call, try to learn some things, and get back to job hunting in the meantime. Meanwhile - take the time to look at your own Local Red Cross chapter and see what you can do or learn.

Red Cross Update - Status Quo

Evening all. I am home and exausted. The damn plane never came in today. It was a day of rumors as we waited at 10am, 12pm, and 6pm for a plane or planes to come with our roughly 2,500 IDPs. That didn't stop us though.

I got to the Boston Red Cross office at 7am to help drive people down to the cape. I ended up taking 3 of the volunteer coordinators who were up until 3am making phone calls to get people in to volunteer and up again at 6:30am to head to the Cape. So I had 3 girls passed out in the Subaru with only WBUR to fill the void.

Arrived at 9am to setup cots, chairs and tables. Before and around lunch we unloaded 3 large vehicles full of snacks, juice and water, and lots of clothes. I was up to my ears in boxers, briefs and sweat suits. We sorted them all by size and paired them up so they're ready to go.

The whole operation, (run by the Governor's Office and including the Salvation Army, Mass EMA, Massport and a few other groups), did a few half-assed dry runs to test but by the third one prior to closing up shop....everyone was exausted and not many people were left.

I'm staffing resource handout so I felt like a greeter at a tradeshow - except I couldn't crash on my bed after hours - no plane meant no one was staying meant I had to drive the 2hrs home. I got lost to boot but still managed to stay on time per se.

Plan is to return tomorrow and arrive at 9am. I may be commuting with another local volunteer and the plan is to stay overnight tomorrow night......provided FEMA gets their act together and sends us a plane. I can totally see the US Govt balking sending long-term residents, (2-3mo), to Otis Air Base so soon after a committee agreed with the Pentagon's recommendation to close it.

Until tomorrow - I can be reached at the same places. Entertaining SMS messages welcome, (Thanks Elyn!!)

Red Cross Update - Going Tomorrow Early AM

Just got a call from the American Red Cross last night - training is cancelled. But that's because we're meeting there at 6am tomorrow morning to head to Otis Air National Guard Base where, I presume, we are either preparing for evacuees or they're already headed up. I will have more information in the AM prior to leaving.

I'm not sure how long I will be there - I was planning on going to NOLA for 2 weeks so just in case, I'm packing clothes and toiletries as I'll be driving there. Something tells me, I want to be prepared to stay if they need me. And more often than not in volunteer situations and event organizing I make myself indispensible in that fashion.

Kirky () is on AIM during her workday and I will have my cell on me - +1.617.797.8471. I will leave my laptop behind logged into IM in case people want to leave messages. Kirky will be checking them while I am gone.

I'll try to record my experiences when I can and will eventually blog them here. Will miss you all.

Techie Hackers vs Project Management

What a day. I had a temper tantrum of sorts working with the #interdictor crew today. We simply don't have enough consistent resources to handle transcribing and summarizing as well as project management. Since the latter is being ignored, the effort is in chaos. Transcribers and Ops Managers come and go - the latter not recognizing those from previous days or different timezones. Ops Managers on one shift are changing the organization of channels and creating new ones so the rest of us "vets" have no clue what is going on. It's ridiculous.

There's a lot of tech geniuses out there but, man, if they only understood the concept of organization and project management we'd be one hell of a society. We need more friggen iNtuitive people out there who understands tech, can figure out these STP's thought processes and get things done.

Just leave the processes running as-is and work on a plan behind the scenes. An all-emcompassing plan that can be presented with gradual transition points. Not implementing bits here and bits there without knowing the rest of the plan.

It's the same in a lot of the spaces I'm in - Web standards, Semantic Web, RDF, FOAF, the hacker community. They have all these grand ideas but they can't organize to implement a sustainable project that will reach fruition and eventually autonomy. *sigh*

The good news is there is some movement in SemWeb stuff for disasters - PFIF or People Finder Interchange Format. The key from here as they continue development is to get buy-in from the various UN IDP programs, Relief NGOs and the Red Cross technical folk. They also need some basic working implementations with sample data sets. I'd use data from Sudan (Darfur crisis), Sri Lanka, (Tsumani), and NOLA, (Katrina). Finally, I'd even see what is used to currently markup various refugee and IDP-related information and perhaps work on a handful of XSLTs. And those are just first steps.

Thoughts on Transcribing, Rescue, Katrina, Red Cross

It's funny....I find myself of the same mind regarding the govt and soldiers to Iraq as I do about the govt and rescuers to Katrina. Love the rescuers, disappointed with the government. I'm happy we're there now, we're getting things done but....damn.

Too Little

I'm hearing Coast Guard pilots just saying we don't have enough resources - in St. Bernard Parish Hostel there were 20 people. By the time rescue could get there, 10 had passed on and the other 10 were on their way. President of another Parish was talking about their local emergency management coordinator whose mother was in a home for the elderly and kept calling her son. He kept saying, day after day, they're coming for you - they're coming for you. She and others drowned by Friday. Yet another pilot was heard to be grumbling about all the briefings FEMA and other officials have them in while they could be out saving lives.

And, yes, I will provide sources at some point. I rarely say something I cannot prove. Today has been a crazy day on the scanners. I spent about 6hrs playing pinch hitter for various channels so others could be relieved. Yesterday, I was limited in my ability to help due to Trillian's inability to handle so many channels at once. I'm now using mIRC.

Transcribing

It was a different experience switching between 2 channels of FEMA, the Astrodome, the National Guard, and the San Antonio Airport. I've grown quite attached to all the call signs I find myself typing over and over - Seahawk 40, Omaha 44, Bulldog, Fuel 1, Fuel 3, Sheriff Command Post, Windham command post, Pelican JOC. 1536 etc. These folks are working damn hard out there and taking breaks only when they can't work any longer. I hope someday I can connect the callsign with the name to buy them beers.

Lots of food and water drops, lots of pickups, lots of flights of refugees into texas, and we even heard a few gunshots and knew about the chopper crash before anyone else.

People keep asking me why we're doing this. Well, as you just heard....we're on the front lines. We hear about chopper crashes, gunshots, people being killed or found dead before most. Those of us transcribing are being monitored by a team of "summarizers" who then post salient news bits to several other IRC channels. Who is reading? Well, obviously Interdictor () as he and DirectNIC setup this whole operation - so you're seeing a lot of this on his Weblog. Others? Media, folks with relief organizations, government agencies and those just concerned about our country linger in these channels awaiting news.

I'm also amazed at who is helping. Two of our most active "Ops Managers", Neovanglist & Technix are from Denmark and Amsterdamn respectively. They've worked 8 hour days online managing this. I hope next time I make it to Europe, I can connect with them.

Red Cross

I got an email from the Red Cross today. I'll be attending Boston training Tuesday afternoon to manage a team of....incoming volunteers. Guess they're interested in my conference and tradeshow experience. Hopefully they'll get to see and I'll get to use my intuition and drive that appears when something is very important to me...I hope I can help a lot more.

Thanks VERY MUCH to all of you who offered me rides, cars, plane tickets, and places to crash. Who knows...I may still use them. I know I've been out of touch and annoyingly absent from a lot of you but what I am doing right now is very important.

Worries

What scares me most is hearing how short we are on resources - my brother Jon () and his Blackhawk unit are still going to Iraq. Friends keep telling me to remember the hurricane season isn't over. Don't forget the large amount of earthquake activity in Southern California.

I really think we, the online and technology community, should take the goddamn time to combine all the "good things" coming out of Katrina because of our interest - Web of trust, housing and ride offers, self-sustaining, ad hoc wireless networks, ALL frequency scanner monitoring and immediate transcription, etc. We have power and can help even tho we're not there. We need to be prepared for the next disaster despite whether our government is or is not.

I hear rumblings about refugee vs evacuee. How about IDP? Internally Displaced Persons - here, in the US? Who woulda thunk.

Katrina/Interdictor help - Meme style. PLEASE!

Morning folks - if you have some down time on this 3-day weekend, love spending time in front of the computer and want to help, we could really, really use help transcribing NOLA scanner frequencies. We have the audio streams available.

If you can help, please carefully read the directions on transcription and then login to irc.freenode.net and join the channel #nola-intel-help.

If you don't think you can help, please, please pass this URL on so we can recruit more helpers. We've had people doing this 8 hrs straight with little breaks and we need to give people rest.

Also, feel free to join #interdictor, #interdictor-chat or #interdictor-dispatch on the same server if you want to see what's going on.

Please send this around, via mailing lists, Web boards in OT forums, and in your LJ. Those who think they can't make a difference.....can by just using your computer.

Tired and Transcription

Thanks so much for all the well-wishes and support. I am far from a hero nor a victim and it feels refreshing to help out. I got but a taste of what I'd be doing should I go to the Red Cross Call Center in VA, (have't heard from RC Boston yet), by listening to 4 audio feeds of scanner channels at once and playing "Ops Manager".

Basically, the job is to log on to IRC, recruit transcribers and keep the scanner-transcription channels filled with 3 functional transcribers at all times. Been going for 5hrs straight now. But now my friend Chris () stepped in, without me knowing he had done this the night before, and I'm taking a break.

The other Ops Manager who worked beside me was from Denmark. He was up until 3AM! I feel like such a slouch beside him.

I really hope I'll hear from Boston Red Cross tomorrow. If not, I will take up the various offers from friends - a plane ticket to the destination of my choice, a car to borrow in DC, several places to sleep, and Sushi/Harp/Yoga etc.

I really haven't had time to read my flist, I feel guilty. I'd love to hear from those of you posting about Katrina and what you're thinking o doing......miss you all and have a safe night.

APB: Interdictor & NOLA Folks need help

I just logged onto irc.freenode.net channel #interdictor and have been incredibly impressed by the organization. However they need people desperately to help monitor the scanners via online streams and transcribe them for Law Enforcement and other effected parties.

They are also having massive bandwidth issues and need help setting up mirror for the photos and webcam. They have rsync setup and it looks like they're doing things right. So if you've got massive bandwidth, connect with them to mirror.

Be sure to read the FAQ and fill out this application. But definitely check out IRC. fascinating.

Volunteering for the Red Cross

I can't take it anymore. Reading the personal accounts, seeing photos and, worse, watching it on tv, the situation in the Gulf Coast has gotten to me so much, I have decided to volunteer with the Red Cross. I was unemployed during 9/11 due to ZOT Group failing during the Internet "bubble burst", and did not do anything but gawk at the television. I see this as even more important since my younger brother () has gone down to Fort Dix to prepare for deployment to Iraq.

Now that I have decided to move on from MIT to bigger and better opportunities, I am taking this opportunity to volunteer for at least two weeks with the Red Cross - at, surprisingly, the suggestion of my wife, (). Hopefully those at the handful of jobs I've applied to and a few of my professional collegues I've set up meetings with will understand.

I'm nervous because, as I've made clear on here before, I am very overweight. I have athletic-induced asthma and don't need meds for it. I have to be attempting a sprint for it to crop up. I have cold-induced asthma but, well, I don't think I'll have to worry about that down south.

But I want to work and help so I hope they will accept my request. As many of you also know, my MBTI is an INFJ - strong on the intuitive feeler "NF" so I'm more nervous about being able to control my empathic tendancies. However part of preparing for my volunteering effort will include reading up on various ways to shut myself off from it when need-be for my own sanity.

I will keep everyone posted on my efforts and I could seriously use some advice on renting or borrowing a Blackberry or Sidekick or some other device to check email or at a minimum store and send myself emails on what's happening. My handwriting sucks and if I can send it off as soon as I write it, it won't get lost should the device get damaged, (or in the case of handwritten accounts, destroyed by water or lost in chaos).

Moving on from MIT

I have been with the MIT OpenCourseWare project for over 3 years. I joined as a temp worker in August 2002 to help bring the 50-course pilot online during which I spent a full 24 hours on launch day to make sure we were up on time.

I played an integral part in setting HTML and CSS authoring standards, processes for making PDFs and participating in some of the efforts to better use the massive amount of metadata we were collecting.

As I finish a very large accessibility retrofitting project, (due to be made live this month), I feel a sense of completion - since from day 1 of my involvement I had always advocated Web accessibility as part of the process rather than an afterthought.

Just as we had to create the initial Web site using tables for layout due to time, we weren't able to fully complete all my desired modifications such as bring our site to XHTML 1.1 instead of XHTML 1.0 Transitional, changing our external linking policy to no longer use the deprecated "target=_blank" attribute and fixing some of the markup errors and falacies caused by MSCMS 2002's implementation of the .NET framework.

However, I've learned an incredible amount working for MIT OCW and met a lot of great people. As I wait for the OpenCourseWare movement to grow and development of a consortium to come together, it's time to take these skills, my talents, passion and drive to another organization that can use what I've learned and know in addition to continue teaching me through my lifelong learning process.

Those of you who may be wonder why I've suddenly come out of the woodwork everywhere, now know why. I took pride in my ability to have my hands in all sorts of projects scattered around the Web and I sometimes regret losing touch with those innovative ideas while I had my head down at MIT.

I've posted my latest "CV" to LinkedIn - one of the few Social Networking applications in my mind that has truly succeeded. I encourage you to check out the service.

I'll let everyone know what I'm up to as I've already had all sorts of leads and interesting projects come my way. I hope they will continue to pour in.

Disaster Ridesharing and Semantic Housing

I've taken some time yesterday to further organize my thoughts from this post. We needed such an application on 9/11, we need one for Katrina and no doubt as the hurricane seasons get worse and worse and the potential for other natural disasters like blizzards and earthquakes, we need to create such an applications.

I passed some of these ideas onto MoveOn.org, perhaps they'll take the lead but they're a political organization. The US Goverment has already proven that they're to mired in politics and turf wars to execute a successful aid operation and they're always behind in technology. NGOs and other aid organizations don't really have the resources to create such a system so it's up to the technology community.

Not only is this an app that could be used in the US but with open mapping data initiatives springing up around the globe, and platforms like Google Earth to make use of them, this could be used for any number of worldwide natural disasters.

<Open BrainStream>

1) Trust Issues - It may be too late to implement this in a fast matter but between Katrina and 9/11 it may be wise for a massive organized effort to support such a thing - take the "friend of" concept of Orkut or LiveJournal which gives a level of trust to the friend-of-a-friend level. You see, how many people really want to open their home to a stranger with absolutely no context to who they are? Far fewer than if there was some sort of trust system in place.

I've been builging up my contact list on LinkedIn as I personally see it as one of the most successful applications for Social Networks to date. There's about 5 people I haven't directly interacted with online or in person who are on my contact list but all the rest I have some degree of trust with them. So take 78 contacts with their total 5,900+ contacts, and those contacts' contacts equals 367,400+ according to LinkedIn.

Combine that with Orkut's "levels" of trust: friend but 1) haven't met, 2) acquaintence, 3) friend 4) good friend, 5) best friend. I'd almost add a similar level for family: 1) Immediate family 2) Sibling's family 3) Parent's family etc. Honestly, I'd like to see a flexible filter-like system of LiveJournal where perhaps we have a large set of defaults, (like above), add a few more relationship types and allow people to create their own and set trust levels that are translated into "English" for them to verify.

2) Ridesharing - Both due to a friend's need to get a relative from TX to BOS and since many of the homes appearing on hurricanehousing.org are way further out than 100 miles, people either need to get to friends or family or even these hurricanehousing sites.

I see the ridesharing almost like bus/train connections. W can get X to point A and Y can take X to point B and Z can take X to their final destination at point C. Almost like a massive socialist communing network ala Zipcar.

Interesting....who needs gas and oil? Set up rideshares across the country! ;)

3) Google Maps/Earth mashups - Take all the basic location data for both rideshares and hurricanehousing and stick it in a google maps setup for people to see and have access to. This will be very helpful when trying to determine how to get from one Rideshare location to another. Perhaps hack the Google Directions to say ....."to get to Boston, take rideshare A555 from Baton Rouge to rideshare D453 in Kentucky. Take rideshare D453 to Pennsylvania rideshare T887. Take T887 to Boston's South Station.....or whatever.

<Close BrainStream>

We have the tools - I passed these ideas on to the rdfweb group instrumental in developing FOAF and the Google Maps ideas to a geowanking list.....we just need to reach more geek types. They're out there and we can do this.

When it Rains, It Rumbles

I want to take a moment from my massive amount of Katrina posts to point out some strange goings on in the Salton Sea in SoCal. In addition to the massive cluster of earthquakes in the area over the past few days, there's been over 15 small rumblings, (2.8 on the Richter scale and below), since midnight last night.

It could be anything but those of you in So. Cal and Nevada and elsewhere near effected areas - heed the advice to make sure your usual Earthquake preparedness kits are up-to-speed and be safe.

Gas Prices - Gouging and Tracking

A friend just pointed me to this Snopes article about gas in GA being $5.87 a gallon. Disgusting. Not to mention a quite disappointing appearance of "87". My deepest apologies to all my friends in the Southeast and elsewhere being taken advantage of. It's horrible.

I think I pointed this out around the start of the Iraq War - GasPriceWatch.com. It seems to be getting more popular and heavily used. Since many of us are trying to find the most economical gas prices, take the time to write down various prices on your route to work or running errands and enter them in. If you're driving, use your hands free phone, (please!), to leave yourself a voicemail message or a voice recording. I used to forward my work phone to voice mail on the first ring before I left so I could speed dial, hit "#" and leave verbal notes to write down later.

Not only will this help us find the gougers easier and the better prices, it will also get us in the habit of contributing to such a community data source. Hopefully we can convince them to open their database so all sorts of geowanking can be done with them via RSS/Atom feeds, planned routes based on gas prices, Google Earth layers for the country, etc.

Hurricane Housing Drive via MoveOn.org

This is a great idea - creating an online site of "Housing" listings available to all the IDPs in the gulf coast. (Who ever thought that US Citizens would ever be IDPs in their own country?). Anyway, I know a lot of you on my flist are in the South or have friends who are in the South. Please pass the URL on.

I bet long-term these people will need places to stay and get back on their feet. If all you Social Networking types and SemWebbers, (Semantic Web folk), were smart, you'd get down to developing a Google Map/Google Earth overlay with the data as well as setup a "friend-of-a-friend" (FOAF) network for people seeking housing.

Think about it - the biggest hinderance to people offering up spaces in their homes will be trust. How do you establish such trust? By using a FOAF-type authentication scheme more similar to LinkedIn than Orkut or Friendster. Combine that with the work of Mindswap.org in trust and reputations in Social Networks and you have something that will give people a little more of a comfort level in sharing their bed with a friend or family member of someone they trust.

I'd love to help if someone gives me some direction. At a minimum - even if you don't sign up, send it to someone who might.