(ISF) Disaster Preparedness - Redux

(A version of this item - with live links - is available at
<http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2006/8/29/2275565.html>.)

Dear ISF Colleagues,

As we mark the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I'm feeling rather
glum about whether we've been able to make constructive use of what we
saw and what we learned during that tragedy.

In volunteering with the Katrina PeopleFinder Project, I found a lot
to celebrate in the geek emergency response, and John McNutt was quick
to point out the internet's potential as a second social welfare
delivery system.

But a year later, I'm not sure whether we've made a year's worth of
progress. I had hoped that teams from the Katrina PeopleFinder
Project, the City Cares/Hands-On Network, and the Community Technology
Center Network would join together to do advance preparation and
training that would not merely replicate but improve upon the online
services that an ad hoc network was able to offer in the wake of
Katrina.

In the weeks that followed Katrina, I did my best to advocate for
collaboration and planning among these various teams. Of course, most
of them were focusing on mitigating life-threatening situations, and
couldn't spare much time for long term planning. Perhaps it's time to
restart that discussion.

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finnpost.harvard.edu
www.cyber-yenta.org

Hi Deborah,

This week the Sahana project is represented at Strong Angel III to help collate and learn from the lessons of Katrina and other disasters - and a few people from the "People Finder&quot; project have joined us (Sahana).

I have been promoting a raised level of involvement from CTC's in disasters for the past 10 years - Mostly to operate as EOC's (Emergency Operations Centre's) when other local civic infrastructure has been destroyed in a disaster. CTC's are ideally suited for this because of the communications and collaborative technologies available to assist a disaster response.

Unfortunately in my experience it's very hard to get the CTC movement motivated as a whole to get involved in anything beyond trying to achieve sustainability.

Cheers, Don