Semper Paratus

Back in August and early-September of 2005, during those harrowing Katrina weeks, The Austin Chronicle desperately tried to stay on top of breaking hurricane and relief news. We cobbled together an Evacuee Services page from scraps of what our servers and personnel could handle.

These days, we have blogs. Today we launch In Case of Emergency, a blog effort to stay prepared – for times in which public service cannot wait for a weekly print edition.

Two days ago, the National Hurricane Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) placed serious bets on a Texas coast landfall for Hurricane Ike sometime this weekend. The projected track of the beast currently churning through Cuba, exposes a vulnerable gulf coastline, with a range of possible dangerzones stretching from Southwest Louisiana to Northern Mexico.

Louisiana and Florida declared states of emergency earlier in the week, and yesterday Texas Governor Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration as Ike barrels northwest.

Austin is situated but a few hours from the coastal region. Safely enough inland, we are a logical staging area for statewide relief efforts. On a personal level, many of us high and dry (…) in the state capital have friends and loved ones living on the coast. Coastal concerns are our concerns.

Just last week, Austin opened doors to a number of facilities and resources for anticipated Hurricane Gustav evacuees. Fortunately, the fallout from Gustav was relatively minor, and evacuees made it safely back home in a matter of days. Back in 2005, Austin played a major role in providing a safety net for thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Our town came through in a pinch.

Watch this space for updates as Ike inches towards the Texas coast. An access link to In Case of Emergency will appear on the front page of our website in times of need. Be sure to check out our list of Resource Links in the righthand column alongside the blog posts. Hopefully, all our efforts are pre-cautionarily for naught, and no one will ever have to actually use the resources amassed within.