Tracking Gustav On the Net

Quick note for those who want to track Hurricane Gustav. Not sure if the name Michael Barnett rings a bell, but it should. He was the guy who started a live journal diary to record a few experiences during Hurricane Katrina only to see it blow up into much, much more (read history here). During Hurricane Katrina he was the only blogger to stay online, most notably through his live journal blog Interdictor. Carrying his torch forward, the good folks in the Zipa Datacenter in downtown New Orleans are the only bloggers on the internet that can say they have done this before, so keep an eye on the Gustav Bloggers.

Last time they did an amazing job coordinating IRC channels, offering audio for local police scanners, running a web cam from downtown NOLA, and generally became the place to be online. Yea, some of the old IRC logs are still on the internet from 2005, I even found good ole "Galrahn" in the logs. I kid not when I say these folks are up to the task, and will be who to watch if the worst happens.

Also noteworthy is a Gustav Wiki, which we find to be a very interesting way to record lessons learned in real time for natural disasters, potentially a very useful source depending upon update quality. Admittedly, what we already see is excellent.