For Immediate Release
September 16, 2011
Contact
Rob Williams
HigherMind Mediaworks
802.279.3364
rob@highermindmedia.com
Visit www.mrvhurricaneirene.com for timely flood relief info.
Two weeks ago, in the wake of tropical storm Irene’s devastating flooding in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, local residents organized a MRV Flood Relief initiative. What began as a self-organized volunteer effort to match needs and help offered in our communities, using telephone, handwritten posters, and a Mad-River-Valley-Hurricane-Irene Facebook page created by the Chamber of Commerce, quickly grew into a coordinated project based in downtown Waitsfield’s Masonic Lodge. Now, two weeks later, in an effort to more effectively provide daily coordination for ongoing flood relief efforts in 10 central Vermont towns, Mad River Valley flood relief headquarters has launched a new open source web site.
The site URL is www.mrvhurricaneirene.com.
Open source web designer Teresa Langston, a Mad River Valley resident who runs a custom Drupal CMS Web 2.0 business called Net-Spin, volunteered to design the web site. The new open-source web site will more effectively allow for coordinating daily sharing of information about needed supplies, volunteers, and “work parties” for businesses and homes cleaning up after tropical storm Irene across 10 Mad River Valley town. The new web site cross-references and integrates information with the Facebook page, so Facebook-only users can continue to access flood relief information.
Both the Facebook page and the new web site site are open to public participation and will be managed by flood relief HQ coordination staff.
The HQ land line telephone number is # 802-496-6089.
The site URL is www.mrvhurricaneirene.com.
And, as always, flood victims without telephone or Internet access, as well as willing relief volunteers, can walk into Flood Relief HQ to seek the information or support they need.
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Self-organized community resilience…this is a great example of people taking responsibility with love and compassion. We have turned a disaster into perhaps the most powerful and positive experience the Mad River Valley has ever seen and now we know that we can and will take care of ourselves during this disaster, and the next one.
We Are Vermont Strong and we are not waiting for the feds or other bureaucrats to “lead” us or “save” us.
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i don’t have a website. what i do have is a lot of paperbacks and hardcovers that i want to donate to libraries, schools, etc. to help the towns that were flooded. in april and may our development had 11 or 12 houses that ended up with flooded basements. i was one of the fortunate ones. i had a sump pump (which quit working, unfortunately) and most of my stuff in the basement was on racks and shelves. but… we had to empty the basement because the sheetrock and insulation got wet and had to be removed. i had been planning on having an on-line used book store but that dream has gone up (excuse the pun) in flames (or should i say water). i have to move the books out of my garage and shed before winter so we can get to the snow blowers and also park the car and store summer stuff. as i am a senior citizen and don’t drive only when necessary. i am not able to drive to deliver these. if anyone would like to come and take some books or find someone that could help i would be so grateful. i really don’t want to see these books end up in a landfill. my phone number is 802-872-2831 and i live in essex jct., vt.