Titans respond: In addition to the news I blogged earlier about Steve McNair joining Brete Favre in sending a semi-truck full of supplies to their home state of Mississippi, it appears Titans and other NFL teams and players are gearing up for major fundraising efforts. At the pre-season game I attended tonight, there were jumbogtron PSAs of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue urging Red Cross contributions for Katrina relief. Also, the NFL announced it was contributing $1 million to the Red Cross hurricane-relief fund and Falcons running back and Louisiana native Warrick Dunn is putting together a drive to get all NFL players (except those on the Saints) to contribute $5,000 each for hurricane relief efforts (if all do, that’s over $8 million).

Titans Radio announced tonight that this weekend on its website, it will be conducting a hurricane relief fundraising auction that will include items like dinner with Jeff Fisher and the chance to travel to an away game with the radio team. Also, many country music stars are adding items to the auction. I’ll link to it when their website adds the auction page.

My daughter didn’t attend the game but watched some of it on TV. She said a fan was interviewed who brought to the game six Katrina evacuees who are staying in Nashville.

From the story “Regaining Control”: (Scroll down) “It appeared the city had finally hit rock bottom, setting the stage for humanitarian efforts that could soon begin to quell the mass suffering of thousands of New Orleanians.”

Also, in another story, news that the Times-Picayune will start printing again tomorrow.

tag: katrina

Two Mississippi natives respond: Brete Favre and Steve McNair (I’ll be seeing them both in a pre-season game in about 90 minutes) have arranged a tractor-trailer filled with supplies for hurricane victims in their homestate of Mississippi.

Quote:

“McNair is offering to swap an autographed photo in exchange for a minimum donation of $100 to his foundation. Those funds will be distributed to victims in rural Mississippi. Meanwhile, Favre’s foundation is shipping supplies to Mississippi via a prop jet donated by Wisconsin Aviation. The foundation’s Web site says Favre’s wife, Deanna, will disperse any money and items donated to the appropriate organizations helping hurricane victims in Mississippi.

Magazine audit advisories: The two magazine auditing agencies have issued advisories to their members on how the interuption in postal service to Katrina-impacted areas should be treated in audit reports. BPA’s member alert is here. ABC’s information is here.

Insurgency: (From Reuters) “New Orleans’ mayor issued an urgent plea for relief of his flooded city on Thursday as gunshots and looting hampered the evacuation of desperate crowds trying to escape Hurricane Katrina’s destruction.”

Observation: This sounds like those apocalyptic predictions of what would occur after Y2K. In reality, I feel certain the stories of selfless “pulling-together” are far more prevalent than looting. Yet to hear that evacuation and relief efforts can’t take place due to gunfire is beyond my understanding.

Staci’s challenge - we need a better way to find people, not just links: (From Staci Kramer on Trust but Verify) “More and more (post-hurricane) information is popping up on line and I don’t think collecting links is enough. Just to narrow it down to one area, very specifically, can anyone help figure out how to aggregate all of the personal status reports (missing/safe/lost/found, etc.) into one searchable database or other searchable format? Ideally, we’d be able to do the same by zip code, neighborhood, parish and other formations but if we could just accomplish an aggregated people finder that would be a huge accomplishment.”

Update: Jeff Jarvis suggests a small step in that direction is to start tagging posts about missing people with the tag “missing”

Where to get Red Cross donation banners: You can find them here. The Red Cross is in need of folks like you who can provide space on your weblog.

(via: PaidContent.org)

Do you want to volunteer to house someone displaced by Katrina? Here are two lists developing. One on Craigslist, the other on a Nola.com forum.

(via: Jeff Jarvis)

Tulane at Vanderbilt: A rexblog reader (one of the original seven) reports that several Tulane faculty members have temporarily re-located to Vanderbilt. The university is also participating in efforts to offer coursework to displaced students. By the way, the Tulane website has become a weblog.

Nashville convention-visitors bureau resources: The convention-visitors bureau folks have set up a web-page listing Nashville hotels and motels offering special rates for Katrina victims and Nashville attractions offering free admission for those from the devastated areas who have relocated here temporarily.

The Times-Picayune Breaking news weblog deserves a Pulitzer: From life-saving advice to in-depth analysis of the options available for where the Saints will play this season to first-person vignettes, the Times-Picayune breaking news weblog is breaking new ground in integrating traditional news reporting with the conversational, real-time conventions of blogging.

It’s almost a relief when a T-P item like this hits my RSS newsreader:

Ant balls not an urban myth: In addition to all of the other horrors befalling New Orleanians during the flood was the creepy discovery that red ants form themselves into floating clusters to avoid drowning. As Dante Ramos and I paddled along Carrollton Avenue on Wednesday, I saw two glittering, golf ball-sized masses of ants floating beside our canoe.

Mobile update: Much of Mobile is still without power, however, my family is so dispersed around the bay that they’ve relocated to a family member’s home who lives on a lucky grid. One of my brothers is an emergency physician at one of Mobile’s hospitals and has been working non-stop for days. In addition to true emergencies, they are coping with the medical needs caused by doctors offices being closed due to lack of power.

Nashville responds: In addition to sending trained response teams to the areas effected by Katrina, Nashville is becoming a destination for people leaving those areas. There are lots of folks here opening their homes to friends and relatives.

I have heard there will be some formal announcements about response plans and ways in which Nashville residents and businesses can ease the burden on these visitors. For example, I have heard that the Opryland Hotel has dramatically slashed its nightly rates for those fleeing southern Louisiana and Mississippi. I’ve also heard that area museums and attractions are waiving admission fees for those who find themselves in Nashville as unintentional refugees. Additionally, there are plans being developed for other, more ambitious responses as well.

Update: The Nashville City Paper has more details about the city’s (official government departments and the local hospitality businesses) response.

Quote:

Area attractions providing free admission to hurricane victims include the Parthenon, Centennial Park Sportsplex, Adventure Science Center, Nashville Zoo, Country Music Hall of Fame, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and the Jazz and Blues Music Festival on Saturday and Sunday.

Local hotels and motels are working with the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) to aid hurricane victims with special discounts and other services, he said.

Also, the paper reports that the state’s governor has announced that students attending accreditied colleges closed by Katrina are being invited to study at Tennessee universities during the coming weeks.