The Greater New Orleans Foundation has announced the launch of Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund: As we learned with the Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989, there will be long and short-term effects. The Greater New Orleans Foundation administers the Environmental Fund, one of the region’s largest philanthropic funds solely dedicated to addressing the […]
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Illustration of the Spill Site
Posted on May 2, 2010
Interesting diagram of what’s happening on the site of the spill. Click on the photo to see the full-sized image at The Times-Pacayune.
New Oil Spill Websites
Posted on May 1, 2010
In modern days we’ve got modern ways to get involved, and we’re happy to see that many people are making sites to help address the needs arising from the spill. Some of the new sites that are sprouting up: Sea Grant Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill site: good general overview and links to information on […]
Oil Spill Volunteer Coordination Website Up
Posted on May 1, 2010
Not much on the site yet, but there’s a new website up designed to help coordinate people who want to help with the clean up from the oil spill. There’s a very simple form to fill out on-line, and they take it from there. OilSpillVolunteers.com (photo: qnr)
Oil Slick Nears Gulf Coast
Posted on April 29, 2010
This doesn’t look like it’s going to be pretty. NOAA’s models show the slick hitting the Louisiana coast late Thursday (reports are just coming in that it’s already arrived) and proceeding into Breton Sound and Chandeleur Sound on Saturday. The rest of the Gulf Coast appears to be at risk, too. You can see the […]
When Life Gives You Lemons: Galveston Turns Storm Damage Into Art
Posted on April 27, 2010
The City of Galveston (Texas) has taken a novel approach to cleaning up some of the 40,000 stumps left over from Hurricane Ike’s 2008 visit: carving them into sculptures. So far about 20 of them are serving as tourist attractions (and hopefully reminders of the storm’s devastation). UPDATE: Speaking of devastation, the Chronicle is reporting […]
High Tech (and generally free) Tools for Disaster Preparation
Posted on April 15, 2010
Mashable has written a short article outlining some of the many ways that people can take advantage of the technology they already own (computers, smart-phones, etc) to help prepare themselves for natural disasters. Some of the ideas: Using Google My Maps to create evacuation maps (see video below for an intro on how to do […]
Eight Hurricanes, Fifteen Tropical Storms for 2010 Forecasters Say
Posted on April 7, 2010
The leading storm forecasting team at Colorado State University is predicting eight hurricanes and fifteen tropical storms for this year’s hurricane season. “While patterns may change before the start of the hurricane season, we believe current conditions warrant concern for an above-average season,” researcher William Gray said. Not good news. “U.S. forecaster sees increased 2010 […]
When Are My New Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) Going to be Ready?
Posted on April 2, 2010
FEMA has released a list of all communities scheduled to have new Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) go active during 2010. WARNING: the list isn’t particularly reader-friendly. I’d recommend downloading it, then doing a search for the name of your community in the document. If it appears, look at the top of the table on […]
National Flood Insurance Program Expires (Again)
Posted on April 1, 2010
At the same time that parts of New England are threatening to float away from record-breaking floods, Congress allowed the National Flood Insurance Program to expire for the second time this year. As legislators won’t be reconvening until April 12th, the program looks likely to sit in limbo for a couple of weeks (at least). […]