Hurricane aid... online information

As if you needed additional visual aids as to the impact of this hurricane... Check out this satellite photo from NASA. Absolutely stunning!

I was a little bit surprised this morning when I went to FirstGov expecting to see a easy to find link about where people could help and didn't find it. Actually it was there, but you had to go searching for it and it was two click in. Given the stunning nature of this still developing tragedy, it seemed that it deserved a higher profile. (To be honest, I have not been a big fan of FirstGov -- but I'm not a big fan of portals.)

FirstGov ususally does a pretty good job keeping up with that stuff... and I would cite the information the site posted following the tsunami. So I was actually surprised when I clicked over there this morning.

But FirstGov has come back. They have raised the visibility of the Hurricane Katrina Recovery page.

The unfolding story is just stunning. In terms of government sites, NASA's Stennis Space Center is closed. NASA has posted information on its Web site.

Poynter's Al Tompkins, who lives in Florida, does a remarkable job providing a variety of hurricane links. Today he provides links to some charities. Yesterday he had links on surviving after the storm.

Other interesting tidbits:
Tulane University, my sister's alma mater, which was scheduled to start classes tomorrow, has essentially posted an emergency blog to keep its community updated.

And while we are at it, we have heard through reliable sources that John Ortego, former director of the Agriculture Department's National Finance Center and one of the stars of the federal IT community, is OK.