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Hurricane Katrina And The Tech Community
by Chloe Albanesius
The value of the Internet as a resource amid tragedy has become increasingly clear in recent years, as evidenced by its roles after the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Now in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Americans desperate to locate loved ones, raise funds or vent about the government response to the disaster are turning to the Web again.
Technology companies also are doing their part to help Louisiana, Mississippi and other Gulf Coast states recover from the tragedy. They are contributing funds, offering free technology and working to restore crippled communications systems.
Connections And Criticism Online
The high winds and storm surges from Katrina toppled wireless towers and telephone lines, initially making voice communication all but impossible in southern Louisiana and Mississippi. People desperate to locate friends and relatives instead turned to online venues like Craigslist.org.
The New Orleans "missed connections" section of the site is filled with names and descriptions of the missing. A Harold B. White Jr. "refused to leave the house before Katrina hit," one poster wrote. "Can you help please?" Another requested information on "Bobby Lewis, the fantastic harmonica player and visionary B.J.'s bartender."
Countless posters offered to use their free long-distance cellular services to call hurricane victims' family members. "I feel so helpless," wrote one Washington resident. "I can make phone calls anywhere in the world, write e-mails/letters, just about anything."
Not all sentiment was heartfelt, however. As news outlets noted that many people left behind in New Orleans were poor and black, the "rants and raves" section of Craigslist began to generate racist and ill-informed comments. One person said the post-Katrina mayhem in New Orleans "makes all blacks, in general, look to be like an inferior race of people!"
The remaining messages were predominantly political in nature. A Cuban resident who lived through Hurricane Kate in 1985 said Fidel Castro did a better job of evacuating residents 20 years ago than U.S. officials who are handling current Gulf Coast rescue efforts. "While Castro has done a lot of bad things, at least he knew how to do a proper evacuation," he wrote.
Others bickered over Monday's announcement that a Halliburton subsidiary would use a portion of its $500 million Navy contract for Gulf Coast reconstruction. Vice President Richard Cheney was an executive at Halliburton. One person noted that President Bush "waited long enough to do enough damage so Halliburton can go in to clean up the mess." Another writer angrily encouraged people not to make the disaster "a political tirade against Bush."
The Katrina Auction Onslaught
The Internet also is being used to raise money for disaster response. More than 4,000 items currently listed on the Internet auction site eBay have ties to Katrina, with some or all of their proceeds promised to hurricane relief. The items include beads from a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, a half-acre of land in southern Utah and inflatable carousel horses.
As of Monday, there was one listing for "Hurricane Katrina Debris." The seller, who resides in Alabama, is hawking a roof shingle that was apparently blown off her house during the storm.
The auction, which ends Thursday, has yet to receive any bids. When asked via e-mail if the money would be donated to charity, the seller said that "proceeds are being used to purchase personal hygiene items that our local Cub Scouts are collecting."
Another listing features shingles, too, and the seller, who identified his location only as the Gulf Coast, also said he will use the proceeds to purchase relief items for victims.
In the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, eBay removed items selling debris from the World Trade Center towers. The company did not return a call by press time for comment on its approach to the Katrina-related items.
EBay also features more than two dozen listings for Katrina-related Internet addresses. The majority, whose opening bids range from 1 cent to thousands of dollars, are part of the site's giving program to donate some or all proceeds to Katrina relief. Others, like a $2,500 listing for eight domains, including hurricanerelief2005.com and neworleanshurricane.org, do not mention charitable contributions. The Washington Post reports that eBay last week halted a domain-related auction after the seller failed to follow policy on listings for charitable contributions.
By Tuesday, meanwhile, the list of top-selling books on Amazon.com featured several disaster-related options. At number 12 was "Rising Tide," a book about a 1927 flood that ravaged Mississippi, while "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," was at number 25.
Google has emerged as the go-to sight for satellite imagery of the affected areas. Major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC are showing images using the company's interactive Google Earth program, which allows users to see certain areas and highlight points of interest like the New Orleans Superdome and the levee at Lake Pontchartrain.
Toward Relief And Recovery
Google and other technology companies are part of the relief effort, too. Google has posted a link on its main Web site that directs users to the Red Cross donation section of Amazon.com, while Microsoft has pledged $1 million in cash to relief organizations and will match all employee donations to nonprofit groups. The software firm also will partner with Cisco Systems, Intel and SBC Communications to provide equipment for 240 relief centers.
SBC, whose foundation donated $1 million over a five-year period to the American Red Cross earlier this year, is providing 1,000 telephones with free calling at the Houston Astrodome, where many New Orleans evacuees have been relocated. SBC further will team with Cingular Wireless and SBC Yahoo DSL to provide free wireless and high-speed Internet access.
Verizon Communications is matching all employee donations to the Red Cross on a 2-to-1 basis and has raised $2.5 million so. MCI, which soon will be acquired by Verizon, donated $250,000 and is looking to raise at least $3 million via an employee matching program.
Two of the Gulf Coast region's dominant communications providers, BellSouth and Cox Communications, are still working to restore service. BellSouth said on Sunday that some of its efforts have been delayed due to contractors and residents who are cutting underground telephone lines as they dispose of debris. A single cable can serve thousands of customers, and the company urged residents in Mississippi to use extreme caution.
Bill Smith, the company's chief technology officer, said Friday that "restoration efforts are ongoing and we have made progress." While there are an estimated 750,000 customer lines in the most heavily damaged areas, it is too soon to know exactly how many customers and how much equipment has been affected, he said.
Cox is "committed to rebuilding our cable telecommunications systems in a state-of-the-art facility as quickly as humanly possible," Pat Esser, chief operations officer, said in a statement. The company has located about 60 percent of its New Orleans employees and is working to find the remainder. It has created "tent cities" in Baton Rouge, La. and Gulfport, Miss., with food, shelter, clothing and employee assistance programs for workers and their families.
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