Warmest Greetings,

On Hurricane Katrina: Support, Expression, Communication  

:: Friday, September 02, 2005 ::

Due to the response to my post yesterday, it was felt that perhaps there was a need to open up Cre8asiteforums to discussion on Hurricane Katrina.

Encouraged by signs of help arriving, the vast majority of opinion I've read certainly shows human nature. It falls into these areas:

1. Grief and shock at what's happening; helplessness. For those willing to admit it publically, embarressment at the US response.

2. Anger at the looters and anyone who is taking advantage of what's happening, including price gouging; fear for the safety of those still stranded

3. Blame. Directed to the people who didn't (or couldn't) evacuate, and for whom many feel they're getting what they deserve; blaming the Government for failing to prevent the disaster or planning properly for it; and everything from it being the fault of gay people to those who didn't buy flood insurance and now taxpayers will bear the burden

4. Motivated to assist via donations, gathering resources, writing blogs that cover what's happening by those who are there, putting together ways to send support; prayer

In the thread we started, called On Hurricane Katrina: Support, Expression, Communication, my long-time friend, Carol Daly, wrote an insightful post. In it she offers,

"And after the initial shock, when first responders go home . . . organizations like the Methodist Men and the Baptist Men disaster response groups do amazing work to try to help those individuals who had no insurance because they couldn't afford it, so were living in homes with no roofs or dangerous electrical or plumbing issues. When asked, these people come with free building supplies and work crews and fix as many of those structures free of charge as their time allows . . . and it should be noted that the vast majority of them are not young men . . . they're senior citizens who do hard manual labor all day and sleep wherever they can at night -- on school gym floors or old canvas Army cots (which in all fairness were on loan from the Red Cross) for sometimes weeks on end). All the supplies they use cost money -- see if you can donate there through local churches, or more importantly, donate your time and skills when they're ready to go in."

Another respondent wrote:

"Too many people in todays modern society seem to lack the capacity to sort themselves out in an emergency, relying on others for handouts and blaming others when things fail.

Where are the stories of people banding together, using initiative and sorting themselves out?"

We hope that if you need to talk about this, you'll take advantage of this opportunity to share.

Chilling Prediction

"Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great."

Source: Gone With The Water, The National Geographic, October 2004

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/02/2005 03:30:00 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

Feed Bin

Learn how to make RSS Feed Buttons

Highly Recommended!
(Read review)
Search Engine Marketing Kit, by Dan Thies

• User Centered Design
• Usability Industry Research
• Increase Website Conversions
• Starter Ecommerce Checklist

• Web Design & The Usability Effect
• Usability and SEO Humor

Crooked sunglasses

My artistic friends love this picture.

• About Kim Krause Berg
• My Articles
• Me Again (My Fave Blog Posts)
• August 2005 : Expanding on Usability - An Interview with Kim Krause Berg
• Kim's Wish List

Recent Posts

Sympathy Is Not Enough for Hurricane Katrina Survivors

Sympathy Is Not Enough For Katrina Survivors

Flirting With Forms

Quick! Opera is Free Today

A Strawberry Blond Leading Figure in Usability?

Economical Web Design, Cheat Sheets, and Digging Up Good CSS

Sympathy for the Devil and Search Engine Rage

Cre8asiteForums Server Move Done, Nicknamed SpeedRacer

The Continuing Saga of the Boring Text Link

Cre8asiteForums Is Moving

Monthly Archives

It's That Book Again

Conversions Topic is New York Times Best Seller (Seriously)

Kim is a Member of the Usability Professionals Association

"This report exceeded my expectations. After reading it a few times, I went through and highlighted those parts of your actionable advice that I want to implement right away... I ended up highlighting most of the report. Stellar job. I won't hesitate to recommend you to one of my own clients." -- Andy Hagans of AndyHagans.com

"I have implemented the most obvious changes and I suppose the fact that we've seen an immediate increase in sales/conversions is no coincidence. I'd highly recommend your service to anyone running a serious web based business." -- Steve Clay, Plumeriabay.com

"As soon as we get our hands on one of her usability studies, my clients and I have a better understanding of what needs to be done with their sites to make them the best they can be from their site visitors' perspective."
-- Jill Whalen, HighRankings.com

"This is an exemplary piece of work." -- Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz.org

View more Testimonials | Clients
Learn about Website improvement services.