Bad Winds Bring Out The Good In People

Please help Gerard Braud, a professional communicator who has suffered from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but wishes to help others by communicating on-site. As he just stated to me when I called him at an emergency center, "We have a million people who cannot get the information they need. We need to do something ingenious here."

Gerard is ready to plant himself where he can focus on crisis communication and information sharing in the areas where everyone else is busy dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane. We need to get him in, and so pass this information along so that someone helps him!

Gerard has two ways to be contacted now: 1) text message at 504-908-8188, and 2) temporary email (his regular site is down) at gbraud@spamarrest.com

Here is what he wrote on the official blog of the International Association of Business Communicators (which you are encouraged to pass along to other bloggers):

(Aug. 30, 2005, 8:47 am)
HELP. Please, please, please help. This is Gerard Braud. I have evacuated safely from New Orleans, but now I am trying to return home to offer my services as a communicator. Specifically I an trying to get to Covington, Louisiana to help in St. Tammany Parish. The problem is, there is no way to get information to anyone in an official capacity who can get me in to help. I need an official police or emergency vehicle to get from Destin, Florida to Covington, Louisiana. Only official vehicles are allowed on the interstate.

As with most disasters, everyone is busy handling the crisis and no one is communicating. I have a broadcast camera and computer editing in my car. If I can get in, I can drive back out to places with power to get this information out to citizens who need it. ONE MILLION people are trying to get official information and there is NO SOURCE FOR IT. One Million people will be HOMELESS for week and don’t know it yet. I have the tools and the know how. I just need a way in.

If you know anyone, ANYONE, who can help, we need you desperately. I need someone at the Federal FEMA level who can cut through red tape and show interest in my offer to help lift some of the communications burden.

I am currently camped out at an Emergency Operations Center in Florida, where they are trying to help me facilitate my offer.

If you see this posting, please contact me at 504-908-8188 (text message) or gbraud@spamarrest.com.

My e-mail is not working. I will look for your postings here.

Because the TV networks are showing the same footage over and over, and only a few dramatic interviews, my goal is to gather official information that I can bring back out to TV and Radio Stations, as well as websites, so other evacuations have real info. Official government websites are down because the servers are only based locally and there is no power–there are no phone lines.

We need to think outside the box. I need brain power and the networking capability of this global organization for us to do something BIG.