Want to help? There are many many (many) people who are looking for loved ones. There are multiple places where these people are posting the information. There is now a massive Wiki effort to consolidate the information into one massive database for people to search. They need volunteers to take chunks of data and enter information into a web form. It’s super easy, all it takes is your time. There is a lot to do, so let’s get together and get it done.
People Finder Volunteer – Katrina Help Wiki
Just click on the link… all instructions are right there. All you have to do is register, pick a chunk of information, grab a coffee and get typing.
I was thrilled when I came across this. At least it will allow me personally to do something besides give money. I can’t afford to give very much, and it was grieving me to feel so helpless. I probably won’t get the time to sit down and get to work until later this afternoon, but I’m going to put the coffee on, put on the headphones and work into the night. Looks likt there is a hugh amount of work to be done.
That is excellent. I had been thinking of scouring the various sites to see if I could match people up. Huge kudos to the people at Wiki for taking this on. I’ll definitely get over there and help! Thanks so much for posting this. Finally – something literally hands on that I can do to help these people.
This is great. I checked out the site and as soon as I wake up a bit more I’ll go back and sign on.
I just completed my first batch of forms for l6 people that others are looking for. My group was from MSNBC’s list and it was both easy to do and hard to do. Once you understand the instructions, the form itself is beautifully simply to fill out. The hard part is the incomplete and confusing nature of a lot of the posts. Incomplete names, confusion between who’s asking and who they’re looking for, etc. But I think every tiny bit of info helps so you just write it in the best you can decipher it.
Okay,I’m going back to get another batch.
Blog traffic should go down today. 🙂
Some of the messages:
“Where are you?”
“Praying you and your family are safe.”
“Have plenty of room for you all!!”
I have to stop for a little while. Tears. All of the posts I’ve had up to just now have consisted of one post per person. In this second batch there are 7 different posts from a father searching for his 12 year old son. Sometimes he mis-spells the name as if he’s too distraught to type, and then in the next one he spells it right. The boy’s name is Glenn Eagle and he lived in Biloxi. “Please call you dad, Glenn.”
God love these people. I’m just finishing up chores that couldn’t be put off and getting ready to sit down and get to it. I knew there would be lots of folks here ready to pitch right in. Pace yourself. Take breaks… do whatever you need to do for yourself. We’ve all been so torn to shreds over this. At least this gives us a way to actually DO SOMETHING.
Hey, Nag, I just saw you over at the MSNBC lists. 🙂
I’ve done maybe 70-80 names now and I’m going to stop for awhile to rest eyes. I’ve typed several messages about people who are found and safe.
I saw you as well. I’m on a little break too. Good for you that you’re able to type “found” messages. It’s so disheartening to see some of the messages are initials , a city and a state. And they ALL should have contact numbers or emails… I’m getting anxious that quite a few of the posts will be in vain and my heart breaks. But damn, it feels good to be doing something.
At first I wondered about the point of the ones with so little info, but then I reaized, well, if somebody else who knows them sees their name then maybe that person will report on them. But if they’re just initials. . .? I wonder if the reports from any of the other sources are more filled out?
Is anybody working from a source other than MSNBC? Are you finding very little info to put on the forms, or quite a bit of it?
I did DirecTV as a source. Most of the posts I was able to enter into the form, usually a missing person’s last and first name (that’s all — usually had no address or even city or state), and usually only a contact name and a contact phone num. A bunch of posts gave a contact phone num, without the contact’s name. Even without all the extra detail to enter, I still believe this can help people get in touch with people who care about them.
Once you get the hang of it, it’s a very pleasurable feeling to be making available this info.
I have a perverse love of data entry (I did volunteer data entry for Howard Dean last year, obviously I didn’t do a good enough job); and I’ve been worrying unhelpfully about Katrina. Thank you, and the Wiki folks, for posting and doing this.
I tried but am unable to figure out how to do it. I guess I am behind the curve on all this.
I am having a bit of a learning curve on that as well, but I got as far as the edit part, not quite sure on that. Any hints…..anyone
Whatcha need to know, Diane?
After you make an account and are signed in, go to the page with the list. Hit edit on the top and then just go down to your selection. Change “unclaimed” to “claimed” and then put four ~~~~ next to it. You can hit the back button and there will be your batch with your username next to it. Then you can just get to work.
Now, Kansas? I made a stupid sorta minor mistake on my first two entries — do you know how to go edit stuff already entered, or do I have to email someone?
Hi, Izzy. They say you can’t edit, but what you do instead is fill out new forms for them: “The system was designed with a specific decision not to accomodate edits or correction. If you make a mistake that feels significant, please just re-enter with the correct data.”
Thank you! Y’know, I’d read that and forgotten already. Okay, I’m going back to it. I’ll check in periodically and my email is set up to chime through if anyone needs anything.
Ok, I’ll go back and try again…but so far I’m really, really frustrated that I can’t seem to figure out simple instructions. I created account but I can’t find the claimed/unclaimed part you’re talking about…dammit I want to do this now but I suppose I’ll figure it out eventually and no doubt this project will be around for awhile.
You will figure it out. Does anybody want to call me? I’ve already walked one friend through it. I’d be glad to help. It’s so rarely that I get to tell anybody how to do something at the computer. 🙂
E me first, at Npickard(at)kc.rr.com
email me w/your phone number and I can talk you through it. I have unlimited long distance. Same goes for Diane if you’d like.
Ditto on the unlimited l.D. I can call anybody back, too.
Chocolate, i just figured it out, send me your phone number and i will walk you through. or talk you through since I think you have dial up. well whatever, i will help.
thanks diane, if I can’t figure it out I will contact you. I guess now might also be the time for me to check that link you gave me for getting calls when I’m online…be back later.
What threw me about this at first, Diane, was that it doesn’t look like a page you can write on. But you can. Also, when you’re finished, you go back to the edit page again and edit out “claimed” and write “completed.”
yes I figured it out, hint to folks, scroll down the edit page and find the entry with the no you want to do, I picked a number 33 on one of the lists. then just delete un, from uncliamed and add ~~~~ of these which is located on far left of number line on type pad.
Decentralized data collection and distribution. Connecting the Unconnected.
Think what 50 million people around the world could achieve with 10 minutes a day. By my calculations that is 950 wo/man years of work, done every day.
I begin to see how we might not need those middlemen called politicans any more…
Isn’t it just the nuts? There is a huge amount of info to be transferred, but there are a bunch of people typing away at it. I’m surprised how quickly the unclaimed pages are claimed.
It’s breaking my heart how little information a lot of entries have. If only there were a few more words in some of them they might have an outside chance of finding each other. I wish people would not assume that an evacuee knows their number or email… what if that person is ill and someone else has to do the contacting?
At least it’s something. I’m on a break, and thought I’d bop on over, check in, and click on a few ads.
Yeah, I just completed my first chunk and now starting on my second. Several of my bunch have been found so that is heartening…
One of the ways I have made it easier for me is to copy the whole message into “other” and then taking out the individual parts I need for filling in, so I don’t need to go back and forth.
Ok back to work for me….
This is a great project (and I’ve done my share of data entry this afternoon), but sadly, the most heartrending cases of separation — ones where parents are separated from their young children — are likely to be among New Orleans’ poor, who do not have easy access to Internet bulletin boards to post their pleas for info. One can only hope the aid agencies are taking down names and info to share in their own database at the shelters.
Okay. I’m on my way over there in a while. I had to go out to refill my prescriptions so I can actually sit comfortably. You guys that have already jumped in are great! I’ll get back to you if I have any questions. 🙂
Fuck you Katrina, victims. Especially the ones who live Louisiana. You do not deserve our compassion or our help. You fired on helicopters and sat around waiting for a handout from the government.
This meme is ALREADY OUT THERE.
Somebody PLEASE HELP ME OUT!!!
Is Karl Rove so clever that he could look into his crystal ball, calculate the impact of a category 5 hurricane bearing down on NO, and know that the victims would be the MOST EASILY BLAMED and most likely to call out the self-righteous narcissism of the profit mongers and their enablers?
I seriously need some help here as I try to debrief my soul from a close encounter with my RED NECK NEO CON mother who wants to make a donation to the relief effort only if she is reassured that it won’t go to Louisiana.
Poor you. Focus – focus. At least your mom is willing to help someone. That’s more than a lot of people. I doubt you’ll be able to change her perspective, so just do what you can do and remind her that true compassion means loving all people. You can’t pick and choose because you’re not in a position to judge. The people who caused the problems are such a tiny, tiny minority. In the meantime, thousands are suffering and dying and that should be the focus. God forbid your mother should ever be a victim of such a horrific tragedy. Maybe then she’d realize that these “government handouts” are actually keeping people alive. If government ought to do anything, that must be its mission. In fact, it is.
Hugs to you. This too shall pass and you will use your heart to love and support those you want to and can help. That’s what matters to the victims.
catnip’s got it right. At least that woman is willing to help somebody. I guess you could also ask her, “If your city had a disaster and a handful of people shot at the rescuers, do you think the rest of the country should get mad and refuse to help the rest of you?”
And note that physicians are saying elsewhere that dehydration can cause delirium, which might have been part of the problem.
Or just take away mom’s water for a day. And her flush toilets.
I told her that I doubted anyone would be at their best under those circumstances, including me, and she responded that I would not be firing at helicopters, when I said it was only a handful of people who were doing this she said, THEY don’t deserve any help since she immediately assigned the criminal behavior of a small minority to the vast majority of victims (DOUBLE-victims of the tragedy and the criminals in their midst).
But she said that she was willing to give to the Salvation Army, so I found their website and gave her the phone number. They have an interesting “package” for $100 that feeds a family of 4 for 2 days, a supply of water, and clean up equipment including brooms mops etc, and she wrote down the number. She said she would call and ask to be assured the supplies would not go to anyone in Louisana!
Since her husband (my step-father) is an avid Republican who lives on the internet, and she is the mouthpiece for his bigotry, I assume that her segregated humanitarism is a result of his access to RNC talking points. This is just intuitive, but I would be grateful for anyone with links or information that can give me more insight.
This is just intuitive, but I would be grateful for anyone with links or information that can give me more insight.
more insight into…?
Sorry about that.
I meant more insight into whether anyone else had heard similar “talking points” and where they were coming from. 🙂
I thought that’s what you meant. I was incredibly tired when I read it, but I’m up from my nap now. 🙂
Those talking points are everywhere and they come from selfishly vile people who are only concerned with themselves and their own survival. There’s no stopping them and, sometimes, there’s no understanding how people can be so inhumane. That’s why you have to hang onto your own humanity, because that is what will endure for you and that is what will help the victims. It’s hard to feel compassion for people whose thinking is narrow-minded, but I truly believe that some cannot bring themselves to move beyond their selfishness and judgmental ways because they are afraid of their own hearts and their capacity to love all – it’s just too much for some to bear. Those of us who can bear it must do so though. That’s how we can move on and do the right thing.
I hope that helps. Hang in there. You’re one of the few with a heart full of love.
I appreciate at that. It helps to know there are others out there who care and who are trying to do some good in such a horrible situation.
Let her contribute to whomever she wants and try like hell to walk away. I don’t care what meme is out there; the vast majority of people in this country are getting it. If that’s the way she feels, let it go. Arguing probably won’t change her mind and will just upset you more. Yes, it’s easy to blame the victims… those who are doing so are mostly Bush and his administration, and it sounds like nails on a chalkboard every time I hear it. You will have to find solace in the fact that at least you know better. Don’t make yourself sick.
Thanks, Nag. I hear the truth of this.
I’ve been entering names off and on the past few hours. After putting in a rather detailed entry, I saw “Updates: Found in Texas”, at the bottom of the screen, posted one hour earlier. I have family from Fort Worth and Houston–I never thought I could be so happy about anyone being in TX.
(it’s http://connect.castpost.com/detail.php?n=648 if anyone cares to read the entry.)
Woo hoo! I had only one case where 4 family members were found, but the family was still looking for their elderly father from NO. I’ve got my coffee in hand and I’m getting back over there in a few.
Wow, I just checked in, thinking I’d do a few pages, and found every list either totally completed or “claimed” except for a few on the very last one. Do you think that’s right? I wonder if I’m missing some, somehow.
Also. . .they could use donations.
Maybe you are looking only at the craigslist entries (the ones that were supposed to be the priority)? At http://192.122.183.218/wiki/index.php/HurricaneKatrinaSurvivors#Missing in the upper-ish right hand corner there’s a list of other sites’ entries (e.g. HurricaneKatrinaSurvivors) that still have uncompleted data.
That’s where I looked, and it was only the last one at that time that had a few unclaimed. But I’ll take another look! They’re saying they’ve had 47,000 entries in 24 hours.
Kansas, go to the main page linked above in the diary and scroll down to ready for claiming. There are many lists with a lot of unclaimed entries. Also in this area are lists being prepared to be claimed and entered. Lots more to go. I just finished with a page that often had multiple entries on one page and it took a long time to complete. Break time.
Wow… 47,000 entries in 24 hours!!! Looking at the names it seems like most of the people working on this are bloggers.
Thanks, guys.
They can’t be done. I just woke up from my nap. My dr upped my pain meds and they knocked me out. At least they didn’t make me loopy. Well, I’m naturally loopy anyway. Okay. Tea time and off to the races! Some days I have a very weird schedule, but you do what you can when you can. 🙂