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Responding to Hurricane Katrina

[This message reached my in-basket as a member of the IEEE Computer Society.  Because of its useful details and affirmative qualities, I am reproducing it in its entirety.]

Special Message from IEEE-USA President Alphonse on Hurricane Katrina

IEEE-USA COMMUNIQUE TO U.S. IEEE MEMBERS ON THE KATRINA DISASTER

2 September 2005

DEAR U.S. IEEE MEMBERS,

The United States is currently facing one of the greatest natural disasters in our history. We empathize with the pain and suffering of tens of thousands of Americans in the Gulf region including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. And we worry about those IEEE members in the affected areas of Region 3 (Southeastern U.S.) and Region 5 (Southwestern U.S.). They are all very much in our hearts and minds.

Now, the focus is on delivering humanitarian aid to the affected areas, and the greatest needs are financial. On behalf of the IEEE's U.S. membership, I am pleased to announce that IEEE-USA will contribute $5,000 to the American Red Cross to support Katrina relief efforts. IEEE President Cleon Anderson, Region 3 Director Bill Harrison, and Region 5 Director John Meredith join me in encouraging U.S. IEEE members, who want to make personal donations to relief or reconstruction organizations, to give to any of the organizations identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), listed online at: http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm#donate.

Further, IEEE-USA will make available Professional Activities Committee (PACE) project funds to organized groups of U.S. IEEE members in Regions 3 and 5 requesting funds to support local volunteer recovery efforts, especially to help sustain local IEEE activities and volunteer networks in the weeks and months ahead. For information on how to obtain IEEE-USA PACE Project Funds, contact Scott Grayson at s.grayson@ieee.org; or go to http://www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/pace/funding.asp.

I know that many of our U.S. IEEE members are looking for opportunities to volunteer their time and skills. FEMA is currently advising that no one go to any of the affected areas unless directed by a voluntary agency. FEMA has an ongoing need for engineers, but only volunteers who have registered and completed agency training will be deployed on its disaster response teams.

The American Red Cross also has a continuing need for engineers who are trained in disaster response and who are ready for deployment. There may also be opportunities to volunteer in your community, as local personnel are dispatched to participate in the relief efforts -- and as evacuees begin to move from the affected areas to other communities. For more information, see: http://www.redcross.org/donate/volunteer/.

The IEEE and IEEE-USA also support Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) in its worldwide recovery and rebuilding efforts. EWB-USA has chapters in the Gulf Region that will be involved in rebuilding. For more information, go to: http://www.engineerswithoutborders.org/.

For members in the affected areas -- or members who know those affected -- we encourage you to consult FEMA's Hurricane Katrina Resources Web page, which provides instructions for evacuees, how to apply for assistance and flood insurance, and information on returning home after a disaster. Please see http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm.

In addition, on 6 September, IEEE-USA will join with representatives of the engineering, design and construction organizations, which comprise The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), to share information on our respective efforts -- and to discuss possible coordinated responses to devastation caused by the hurricane. For updates on this and other IEEE-USA efforts to support Katrina relief and reconstruction, see http://www.ieeeusa.org/about/katrina/.

Finally, as many of our members and other engineering professionals are currently involved in the efforts to restore power, communications, water and sanitation to the affected areas, IEEE/IEEE-USA communications staff are responding to media queries on what engineers can do to alleviate pain and suffering. For an overview of the role of power engineers in addressing emergencies, see the IEEE-USA TODAY'S ENGINEER feature story issued today at http://www.todaysengineer.org. For a November/December 2002 article from the IEEE Industry Applications Society on "Utilizing Disaster Recovery Project Management to Improve Readiness and Response Time," go to http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs/xplorefiles/xplore4005.pdf.

In closing, this human tragedy reminds us all of the fragility of life and the importance of community in rising to challenges. I know that we will rise to the challenge here, too -- as Americans, as engineers and as IEEE members. I invite your suggestions and feedback by replying directly to this message.

MOST SINCERELY,

Gerard A. Alphonse

President, IEEE-USA

_________________________________________

IEEE-USA

Building Careers & Shaping Public Policy

1828 L St., NW, Suite 1202

Washington, DC 20036

+1 202 785 0017

http://www.ieeeusa.org

posted by orcmid at 9/02/2005 02:45:01 PM