The online community has sprung into action on Gustav; here are some helpful resources:

Andy Carvin has launched a Gustav information/aggregation center on Ning you can join for updates.

If you are using Twitter, please use the gustav hashtag (#gustav) so we can find your updates and aggregate them into the information center.

The Red Cross has a blog up and is updating Gustav news and information

The Gustav wiki is up and running here.

FEMA has launched The National Emergency Family Registry and Locator System to help evacuees reconnect. You can register via the web if you still have access or dial 1-800-588-9822 to register.

Twitter has many Gustav tweeters and real time updates. The best channels for hurricane specific information are:

http://www.twitter.com/redcross
http://www.twitter.com/dfwgustav
http://www.twitter.com/gustavreporter
http://www.twitter.com/gustavalerts
http://www.twitter.com/gustav08
http://www.twitter.com/hurricanealerts
http://www.twitter.com/hurricanes2008

Some of the NPTech folk following Gustav via Twitter include:

Andy Carvin
Beth Kanter
Mark Mayhew
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Wayne Sutton

Tom Watson has a good look back and forward glance at the online communities disaster response (via Beth).

Jeftek has a great roundup of live feeds and resources to monitor Gustav.

I’ll update this post as more information becomes available – feel free to leave links in the comments section.

Update

Beth has a new post up outlining how you can volunteer to help in the wake of Gustav. Most urgent, I think, is checking the links and resources in the Gustav wiki.

Cerando has also created a Gustav widget available for iPhones & mobiles that is full of Gustav updates, resource links and contact information.

Doc Searls has a post up with radio & streaming information along with photos and additional resources.

Sarah Perez at Read Write Web has collected additional Gustav resources and tracking sites – check comments for new additions.

The American Red Cross has requested that people register at their website if they are safe & well.

Maddie Grant is tracking social media efforts and has some Gustav video up.

Duncan Riley at the Inquisitr has links to live video from Gustav’s path.

Nola.com has updated local coverage.

Folks that participated in the Katrina Peoplefinder project are needed to work on the PeopleFinder Interchange Format to help people locate each other.

MSNBC has an updated Gustav hurricane tracker.

Totally unrelated – I really miss Ashley’s voice. Glad to hear everyone got out safely!

Hannah Sassaman has a list of ways to help with Gustav.

If you want to donate funds to help in the recovery effort, Charity Navigator has some suggestions to help you ensure you’re helping a legitimate organization. Beware disaster fundraising scams – they’re already popping up like mushrooms.

Craigslist’s New Orleans and Baton Rouge pages are hopping. If you’ve got shelter or want to help these are great places to post. There is now also a newsfeed of safe shelter and support.

Nola.com is using Twitter for updates.

Jeff Masters from the Weather Underground is liveblogging Gustav.

New Orleans Metblogs are still up & running with updates.

The Blog of New Orleans is also being updated with local citizen coverage.

Damon Cortesi set up an SMS tool to update people if you’re safe or need assistance.

Outside.in has the latest updates from bloggers in and around the gulf states.

DHS has a nifty blog widget (you can see it in action on the sidebar) with hurricane response links for you to add to your blog, Facebook or MySpace page.

It is one of the earliest parades of the New Orleans Carnival calendar, and is noted for wild satirical and adult themes, as well as for showcasing a large number of New Orleans’ best marching bands. The floats are hand made and decorated by members of the respective sub-krewes, often with themes satirizing local politics and customs, sometimes of a bawdy nature — in such aspects arguably closer to early 19th century Carnival traditions than any other Krewe currently parading.

Tonight’s parade comes on the heels of Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana’s decision to allow residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and St. Bernard Parish that were flooded during Hurricane Katrina to sue the Army Corps of Engineers over their claims that a government-built navigation channel was largely to blame.

Successful lawsuits against the corps could result in billions of dollars in damage payments.

Let the Good Times Roll!

I’ve previously written about the Road Home program, a $7.5-billion housing program established by Congress this year. Prior to the elections, just 22 people had received access to funds to begin rebuilding. Today’s NYT has an update on the program:

In a sign of painstaking progress for Louisiana’s biggest rebuilding program, the state has sent letters to more than 10,000 families stating how much money they can receive to rebuild their homes under the $7.5-billion housing program Congress financed this year, state officials said yesterday.

While that sounds like great progress, but as you dig into the story we discover:

The number of homeowners who have actually received Road Home grants has increased by just 26 in the last month, to a total of 48. Those homeowners received an average grant of $50,715, according to the most recent statistics from the program.

Some program officials said they thought the delays in closing on the grants stemmed not from bottlenecks in the system, but from homeowners’ uncertainty about rebuilding.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with the New Orlean’s friend that has been feeding me images from the recovery. Since I was familiar with the program, I asked about Road Home – she explained that the uncertainty about rebuilding was more a result of money and time – going into the 16th month, many of these people are just now finding out whether or not they are eligible for recovery funds. Buried near the end of the article:

More than 50,000 applicants have not yet had their first meeting with program counselors. Others, who have been to their appointments and had their property inspected, say they still do not know how much money they are eligible for. {emphasis mine}

Would you like to help Gulf Coast residents start the new year with fresh hope? Contact your representative (and if you’re getting a new one, contact them, too) and encourage them to investigate the pace of lending in this area. It’s one thing to promise help, but apparently delivering it depends on the rest of us keeping an eye out to ensure it is done.

Today’s NYT has an update on the Road Home program designed to help New Orleans homeowners to rebuild. The numbers don’t look encouraging:

Though nearly 79,000 families have applied to the program, called the Road Home, only 1,721 have been told how much grant money they will receive. And just 22 have received access to the cash [emphasis mine], which was provided by federal taxpayers and is being distributed by the state.

In some of those 22 cases, the grant amounts were far less than the value of the property:

Michael M. Homan, a professor of theology at Xavier University, is among the few who has been told how much he can get to repair his badly damaged house in the Mid-City neighborhood. But Professor Homan thinks the amount he was offered, about $64,000, is too low.

That is because the program assigned a prestorm value to his house of $146,000, less than he paid for it in 2002 and about $40,000 less than the appraisal when he refinanced his mortgage the next year. So he has appealed, and is hoping that his grant will be increased. Because he writes about his experiences on the Internet his results are being anxiously watched by other applicants.

Much of New Orleans still lies in ruins. Federal and state programs can only help if you have access to them, and the amount and pace of funds flowing into New Orleans isn’t helping those who need it most.

I urge you to take a moment and contact your representative in Congress about the pace of funds flowing into the Gulf so that those who want to return, can.

Election day marks the 435th day since Katrina hit. This is what the White House would like you to believe New Orleans looks like:

Image caption reads: President George W. Bush stands with Fredy Omar outside his newly built home Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006, in the Musicians’ Village, where the President and Mrs. Bush hosted an outdoor luncheon for approximately 50 Habitat for Humanity volunteers in appreciation of their work at the 9th Ward home site. White House photo by Eric Draper

The reality on the ground is something entirely different:

The note I received with these images reads:

Sue,

I thought you might want to see these pics I took on Wed. This is a school not too far away from us that is sitting… untouched since Katrina. Every room is open, so we just walked in and started shooting. The squirrels and rats have taken over and are running rampant throughout the school. I wasn’t fast enough to get a shot though. There is also a huge water leak in some pipes that is gushing water… and feeding the rodents.

I’m not sure what the rest of the country is hearing about New Orleans. I have a feeling that you are being misled about the progress here. There are many schools, buildings and homes that are in this condition. Entire neighborhoods are abandoned. Just thought you should know. Please pass these on. Thanks

You can see the whole shameful set of Katrina images here.

When I vote next Tuesday, this is one of the things I’ll be thinking about. How about you? What will you be thinking about when you vote?

Today, life in New Orleans is improving, but much work remains before the area can be thought of as “recovered”. Most importantly, the area needs leadership, entrepreneurship and new visions for rebuilding, not political junkets and pandering pundits.

They also desperately need the funds to pay for reconstruction – while the area was promised over $110 billion of federal money, less than 50% of those funds have actually been distributed, mostly to the no-bid contractors overseeing waste removal.

Most urgently, only 37% of the businesses approved for SBA recovery loans have actually received them. In New Orleans, the eclectic mix of small businesses and restaurants were the economy – continued delays in funding their recovery will only further slow reconstruction.

Today’s anniversary can’t just be about photo opportunities; it must be about leaders taking clear, bold steps to create forward momentum.

Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, a project of the Institute for Southern Studies, has published “One Year after Katrina” (pdf), a 96-page report that reveals the state of Gulf Coast rebuilding on the anniversary of the storm. Through statistics, status reports, in-depth investigations, and profiles of community leaders, “One Year After Katrina” highlights the challenges ahead for a just and sustainable renewal.

The report analyzes over 250 indicators and reports on 13 major issue areas, including Demographics, Housing, Economy, Schools, Healthcare, Arts and Hurricane Readiness. There is also a list of organizations working on Gulf recovery efforts.

The clean up has begun. Although few residents have returned, those of us who have, are piling all our damaged belongings onto the street. The clean up crews have done a great job of scooping up our possessions and hauling them away in huge trucks. They are using bobcats and bulldozers to pick up the trash and we quickly learned that there is no need to neatly put things in garbage bags and place them neatly on the curb. The bulldozers come and run over the pile a few times and make a huge mess before scooping it all up and hauling it away. At least it’s gone. We also learned that these guys are FEMA subcontractors who are being paid by the cubic yard. The more they pick up… the more they earn. A win win situation for everyone. Except for maybe the taxpayers in the rest of the country, but we’ll discuss that later.

The other question is… Where is all the trash going? As far as I can tell, they are piling much of it up along Ponchartrain Blvd. The pile is several stories tall and is massive. As I drove by on a sight seeing tour, I saw a large yellow machine with a claw grabbing and moving trash while another machine pushed it to another pile. I’m not sure what they where doing but they looked busy.

I drove not far from my house through the Lakefront area which was devastated with 10 feet of water. It was heartbreaking to see these nice homes destroyed but still standing. On most houses the water line was just above the front door. All their possessions were destroyed unless they stored items in the attic. I heard the story of a woman who lost everything but was standing outside washing the sidewalk and obviously still in shock. All of the business is still closed and only a few owners have returned to clean up the mess.

I read in the Lafayette newspaper that New Orleans was “up and running”. This is simply not the case. The only section of town up and running is the French Quarter. With plenty of visitors not by tourists but contractors who have moved to town.

The streets are littered with signs proclaiming hurricane clean up and demolition, sheet rockers, roofers, etc. Unfortunately most of these carpet baggers are now living in what is now called “Tent City” in City Park. These contractors are charging us 5 times the normal rate for their services. No thank you, I will wait or do it myself. Most of these people are unsavory characters who carouse in the French Quarter at night then drift back to Tent City for a quick nap. We can hear them kicking the beer cans down the street at 2am on their way back to City Park.

The Red Cross has also been great by providing lunch kits, cleaning supplies, ice and water. If you want a hot meal you must drive to Metairie (a suburb). Metairie is a completely different world. Just on the other side of the infamous 17th Street Canal. They have full power, gas, water and most businesses are open. Only a few sections of Metairie were flooded with 4 feet at the most.

One can certainly tell the difference between the New Orleanians and the rest of the world. We are all filthy and tired from the heavy labor of cleaning out our houses, ripping out sheetrock, etc. We then drift into Metairie for a hot meal or hot shower. Meanwhile the other half of the world (the Metairians) look clean and refreshed. They walk around in starched and ironed clothes, polished shoes. I saw some guy washing his car. The nerve of some people!

Unfortunately we still don’t have electricity or gas service. Some say it will be weeks even months before repairs are made and service is restored. At least we have running water. They say you can drink it but I wouldn’t take the chance. I always used bottled water anyway.

So in the meantime, we are living still living in the trailer in Lafayette. We drive into town for 3 or 4 days at a time. We clean and toil all day and sleep with a friend in Metairie at night. In the morning I take coffee at a local cafe’ in Metairie, before heading back into New Orleans for another day of cleaning. While I am at the cafe’, I can’t help but scowl at the people with starched pants.

Katrina | Hurricane Aid | Orleans Parish | New Orleans