The following
is taken from Senior Planet and I think there are some important ideas below.
During the desperate days of flooding in Texas last
week, much of the rescue effort was organized and carried out by regular citizens,
many of them far from Houston, using simple digital tools. Official emergency
phone lines were backed up, so Twitter became the place to cry for help—and
across the country, people found ways to amplify and act on those tweets. A
small group dubbed @HarveyRescue created an open database—a simple Google
spreadsheet—and via social media mobilized an army of remote volunteers to
enter details from the SOS messages that Texans were tweeting. Other volunteers
helped to create a rescue map using the data in that spreadsheet. And those
with access to boats used the online map, along with an app-based walkie-talkie
system, to find folks who were trapped in their homes with the waters rising.
Now the recovery effort has started, and regular
people are pitching in again. You may already have donated (see here for local, on-the-ground organizations that
are funneling 100% of received funds to those in need). But there’s more you
can do—including help with phase two of @HarveyRescue.
1. Use the
Amazon Wishlist
Lysol disinfectant, large plastic totes, fruit
leather—these are some of the items currently needed at shelters around the
Houston area and for clean-up. To help with the logistics of getting the items
to where they’re needed, the Red Cross and Amazon have created a wishlist. All
you have to do is select one or more items, place them in your cart and check
out. Amazon will deliver what you’ve bought directly to an operational center.
The list is a work in progress, so you can check back frequently.
2. Open
Your Home
AirBnB is making it easy for people in areas of
Texas and Louisiana to offer temporary shelter to evacuees—just a room or a
whole home. The site is waiving service fees for anyone checking in by
September 25 and has created a simple page with two buttons: I Need a Place to
Stay and I Can Offer My Place for Free. More than 500 people have already
posted their offers.
Click here to see which areas are covered. You’ll have
to create an AirBnB account to get started.
3. Verify
Information with @HarveyRecovery
If you have some spare time, you can make phone
calls to verify the accuracy of information that’s being collected about
available shelters, food distribution centers, hospitals, crisis lines and
other resources for people who’ve been affected by Hurricane Harvey. The list
is being created by @HarveyRelief—formerly known as @HarveyRescue, the group
that created the open database during the flood. Like that spreadsheet, this
list is open to anyone who has information to add, so your job is to make sure
the info is correct before it’s mapped by other volunteers. The map is
available to anyone who needs help.
Click here to access the list and
read instructions. Note that you’ll need to know how to highlight text (it’s
easy if you ask someone).
4. Use
Aerial Images to Plot Damage
The catastrophic flooding in Texas downed bridges,
flooded homes, blocked roads and created large piles of trash over a large
area. Before the damage can be fixed, it has to be mapped. If you’re computer
savvy and have a good eye, that’s where you come in. Tomnod is a crowdsourcing
site that helps in post-disaster situations by presenting satellite imagery and
relying on thousands of people around the world to search those images for
specific signs. You’ll be shown what to look for; when you see it, you tag it
using your mouse and keyboard. Then you move on to another square in the satellite
image grid.
5. Be a
FEMA Reservist
If you’re able to travel and have experience in any
of a number of specialized occupations (for example: customer service, media
relations, insurance, data entry) consider this on-call opportunity to help.
FEMA will train you and call you when your services are needed on the ground in
Houston; some tasks may be remote. This is a paid gig.
If you know of other ways to help, please add them
in the comments section below.
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