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A chorus of voices from the storm

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published September 5, 2005

New Orleans blogged as Katrina blew in. New Orleans blogged days after the monster hurricane left the city in ruins. And the rest of the world watched, and read, mesmerized.

"Listening to reports of windows blowing out ... most frantic calls about downtown hotels, where a number of windows have blown out. Guests huddling in halls. Water blowing in through windows, leaking through ceilings," Jon Donley wrote at Nola.com, the site run by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The paper itself couldn't publish for days. Its staff eventually had to be evacuated. Yet, through its Web site, the paper provided a perspective on the story as it unfolded.

Others did, too. Through blogs, or Web logs, people posted harrowing and heart-rending accounts of the devastation. People from other areas pleaded for information, any tidbit would do, on family and friends caught in the storm.

Blogs have grown up. Early on, most were simply personal diaries posted online, not taken all that seriously. Over the years, they have evolved into much more, from politics to business to disasters.

Unlike the days after 9/11 when the Net slowed to a crawl because of the surge in online traffic, the Net has held up well after Katrina. And this time, it was more than just traditional news outlets providing the information.

"We need diesel. We'll find some. We have people depending on us and we are not going to let them down," wrote Michael Barnett, crisis manager for Intercosmos Media Group Inc. in New Orleans on Tuesday, which managed to keep its Web hosting business going with a generator.

For the outside world, it has been a giant case of rubber-necking. For those caught in the storm area, survival comes first. With no power and phone service, local use of the Internet dropped to a fraction of normal, according to comScore Networks.

"From a hotel room in Houston, I sit tortured in front of the TV hoping to see a shot of their building or a face ... What I want to know is - will my students be alive," wrote teacher Diana Boylston, feeling guilty that she evacuated but left her students.

In the best of the online world, people organized to raise money for relief efforts and find volunteers. Indeed, one poster asked if there were a better way to organize all the information.

"I don't have access to the news, so I don't know what you are seeing. Let me just tell you that this is a public health crisis," wrote Dr. Richard Bradley, a professor at the University of Texas Houston Medical School as posted by Eric Berger on his Houston Chronicle blog, one of the best resources during the storm.

In the worst of the online world, scammers sent chain letters promising donations for every one forwarded, fake sites were set up purportedly to raise relief aid but more likely were identity theft rings, even hurricane spam that linked to products such as Viagra, according to the Scambusters.org Web site.

In the silliness of the online world, posters poked fun at some of the inevitable bloopers that will occur on live TV during stressful disaster coverage, such as a spat between a CNN meteorologist and anchor, and a man cursing a Fox News anchor.

Did blogs compete with the endless TV coverage and reams of newspaper stories? Probably not. Did they make a difference? I think so. Sure, by week's end, some had disintegrated into the predictable political shouting matches.

But most of it was raw, emotional, unedited, unfiltered. It wasn't pretty, but it was real.

"Hey!!! I hope you can see this message. We are in Tunica and have been trying to reach you and hope all is well. We will try to reach you ASAP. Love, Ronnie and Michele," a post Friday by Ronnie and Michele Bond at hurricanekatrinasurvivors.com.

- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or 727 771-4328.

[Last modified September 3, 2005, 09:35:03]