I recently spoke to Ramsey Rayyis, our representative in China, when he was back in Sichuan Province – the area most affected by the May 2008 earthquake. Listen here:

AUDIO
>> Jeffery Biggs is on the ground in Enterprise, AL

The tornado occurred around 11:50 a.m. Wednesday. A tornado warning sounded for Coffee County and the National Weather Service initially reported the warning would last until 12:17 p.m. The storm then moved into and continued in Dale County.

>> AUDIO: Maya Chawla at Houston’s mega shelter

This morning, as I approached the Mega Shelter in Houston, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Never have I seen an abandoned superstore turned mega shelter housing anywhere from 800 to 1,000 people weeks after a disaster struck.

Hurricane Ike, as of late, hasn’t gotten much media coverage with the whole financial debacle happening on Wall Street.

Don’t be fooled.

There are still so many people that need help. If I could give the general public one piece of advice, I would say don’t invest in the stock market, invest in the Red Cross. Invest in the fact that the money you give will be doing something good for someone else. It will be helping the Red Cross provide a meal, a blanket, a shoulder to lean on (among other things) to someone who has been affected by the storms.

>> AUDIO: Red Crosser Jason Broaddus performs first-aid.

While paying for gas at a gas station, located in Rochelle, Illinois, I performed first aid for a lady who smashed her thumb in her car door. I had a Red Cross first aid kit in my car ready for action and it worked perfectly.

broaddusj‘s Mobile post sent by AmericanRedCross using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3

>>AUDIO Actress Andrea Bowen comes to headquarters

Andrea Bowen visited Red Cross headquarters today and was kind enough to record an Utter! Here she explains her interest in the Red Cross and why she thinks service is important for all youth.
Mobile post sent by AmericanRedCross using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3

Ever wondered how the Online Newsrooms work? You know… those web pages that offer up-to-date information about and personal accounts from each hurricane?

The thought did not cross my mind until a few days ago. I began volunteering to help the social media response to Hurricane Ike, and after a crash course, began to really appreciate the amount of information that is sorted through the Public Affairs department here at National Headquarters.

Local chapters and national headquarters have the opportunity to submit press release with updated, relevant information to the department, which reviews them, formats them, tags them and posts them to the relevant WordPress account(s). By contrast, there are professional and volunteer photographers located throughout disaster areas that have tasked themselves with documenting Red Cross response, as well as the more interesting stories they can find (check out this recent post about baby Katrina!). These photos are screened, uploaded to Flickr, captioned and tagged before they are even added to the WordPress account. Audio and video are submitted almost entirely by volunteers either through Utterz or YouTube and go through the same process.

The volume of information coming in each day is determined by the stage of the disaster and the specific hurricane but public affairs is usually working long after each disaster to report as the operation winds down. It can take two people to stay on top of all of the information coming in.

And the daily schedule? The day starts off with a 9:30 meeting in the Red Cross “Ready Room,” which is located in the basement of the building and is surrounded by high definition televisions showing different news feeds. Each office within the Communications Department offers their assessment and updates for the day and other staffers decide if they can help and how they should change their day’s priorities. Later in the day, there is a 4:00 meeting in the Disaster Operations Center, in which all departments – fund raising, disaster operations, etc. – report on their progress for the day and ask for help if needed.

Have any questions about the Disaster Operations Center here in DC? Want to send your information to the Online Newsroom? Let me know!

Mat Morgan

>> Jana Sweeny Audio

Also, take a look in the left column of this blog to see our audio player. You can hear all the reports coming in from the Ike response by clicking play there.

You can continue to hear clips like this and much more from the Hurricane Ike Response by visiting the Red Cross Hurricane Ike Online Newsroom.

Hi! I’m honored to be a guest blogger this week, especially given the full plate of hurricanes facing the southeast!

It’s not well known, but even during Katrina and 9/11 in Manhattan, text messages were often able to get through when conventional, especially broadcast and landline, communications failed.

Why? Because, going over the Internet, they’re packet- and IP-based and are so short that they consume miniscule bandwidth and can route around network disruptions and still arrive at their destination.

As cellphones (and, even more important, camera- and video-phones, because of their visual capabilities!), smartphones, wi-fi laptops become ubiquitous, more and more of us instinctively turn to applications we use every day such as Twitter, Utterz, and Flickr to share information in emergencies, as was the case during the San Diego wildfires last fall, and, this week, with Gustav.

The American Red Cross definitely gets it about the importance of these tools: I’m particularly impressed with the Safeandwell Twitter channel for reporting lost and found relatives!

Hopefully, police and fire officials will begin to automatically check Twitter, Flickr and others (my new favorite is Qik, because it lets you provide a combination of visual and voice “situational awarenes” via streaming, live, location-based uploads).

The number and range of these applications continues to increase — driven particularly by the growing power and versatility of wireless devices. I hope you’ll go to the Wireless Foundation’s website, learn about the tips on smart cellphone use I created for them, and be ready to use them in an emergency!

If you’re a regular reader here you’re probably expecting this announcement by now.

We’ve opened an Online Newsroom that will offer all our stats, shelter location info, photos, videos, audio, and press releases from the affected area.

Please subscribe now so you’ll be on top of our response as the storm blows closer to shore.