I've had a policy since September 2005 of tracking and talking about what's going on in New Orleans every place I make a public appearance - even at my events on Internet marketing.

In fact, I put on a special marketing workshop this past November in New Orleans for some of my clients as a fund raiser. Part of the workshop involved briefing my clients on current conditions there.

Since this is a video discussion, let's consider this question:

What would have happened to the people of New Orleans had there no been video and live video news?

I think it's safe to say the death toll would have been many, many times than what it was.

The vicious idiots in charge of FEMA, Homeland Security and other government agencies responsible for rescue and relief efforts would have gone on patting each other on the back for the "heck of a job" they were doing until the corpses piled as high as the Superdome.

So I say "thank God" for video. Video, and Internet video,  can still play a roll  in helping get the word out about this and other travesties.

(Maybe if video had existed in the 1940s and someone had been able to sneak footage out of the concentration camps, some of those victims might have been saved too.  Who knows?)

Anyway, what has happened in the last year plus since this government-induced disaster?

Some numbers:

* 102,000 families are still living in FEMA trailers (which by the way were sold to US taxpayers at THREE TIMES their retail value.) And that doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of people who are living in other cities and states, unable to return to their homes.

* As of November 1, of the $10.4 billion granted by the federal government to rebuild Louisiana, only 18 - yes 18! - of the 77,000 homeowners who have applied for rebuilding aid have received any.

* Many New Orleans public schools still do not have drinking water for the children - this in a tropical climate - and private contract security guards outnumber teachers in many schools.

From a 12/6/06 article in the New York Times:

"People are being left to fend for themselves, while being hampered if not prevented, from fending for themselves." Raymond A. Jetson, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps."

What does all this have to do with Internet marketing?

Thoreau once asked: "What's the use of a house if you don't have a tolerable planet to put it on?"

I ask what kind of a country are we if we throw our own injured citizens to the dogs when we have all the resources needed to help them back on their feet.

What can you do:

1. Educate yourself  -  Don't buy the party line that New Orleans brought its problems on itself. If that's true, do we intend to leave people in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami and other places subject to catastrophe in the rubble if they suffer a reversal too?

Fact: Katrina didn't damage New Orleans, the collapse of the federal levees did. The levees weren't even breached by flood waters. They crumbled because of poor construction by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Fireman from the high vantage point of an office building filmed what actually happened to the levees - and when - and were ordered not to show the video to anyone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwMvC5QU194&mode=related&search=

2. Talk about it - The average person thinks New Orleans and the Gulf are back to normal and everything's fine. It's not. It's an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe and who's suffering the most? The young. The elderly. The handicapped.  Working people at the bottom of the economic ladder. It's a national disgrace.

(I don't have the space to go into it here, but Big Oil is culpable as well. They've wreaked tremendous ecological damage on the bayous that used to modify the effect of storms on the region. They've also skillfully managed to keep there role in the catastrophe out of the news media.)

3. Visit New Orleans - The core area of interest to visitors with its incomparable food and music is back online. Go, enjoy yourself, spend and tip lavishly - especially in locally owned businesses of which there are many.

The people who are back in New Orleans are the ones who want to be back there. They are bloodied but not bowed.  They're brave, resourceful folks who love their city and are dedicated to restoring it.  Make no mistake,  the city is a traumatized place, but it's also the home to a positive and creative energy the kind of which you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else in our mall and suburbia-based nation.

Bottom line: New Orleans is an important American city - historically, culturally, economically - and for the rest of us morally.

"Am I not a man? Am I not a brother?"

This slogan appeared during the movement to abolish slavery. We need revive it as it applies to New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf.

When you make your trip to New Orleans to see for yourself...

For music: Frenchman Street. Half a dozen smoking music clubs on one block. No cover charge. Just throw something meaningful in when they pass the hat.

For food: It's hard to go wrong.  Ask the locals for their secret spots. They'll tell you with pride.  The web's a good place to start researching.

By the way, the IAOC's own Steve O'Keefe is a peerless resource on the wonders of the city.

After two months in limbo, I will be packing up and heading back to New Orleans tomorrow...   more »

At noon today, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) issued a news release cancelling the trade organization's 2005 International Conference due to the potential impacts of Hurricane Wilma to host city Miami, Florida. The PRSA conference was scheduled to start tomorrow and run through Tuesday, October 25. Wilma is projected to reach Miami sometime on Sunday, though forecasters have revised their estimates of the timing and strength of the hurricane several times in the past two days.

As late as 9:00 p.m. ET last night, PRSA was still holding out hope for a favorable turn in the forecast. PRSA President and CEO Judith T. Phair said in a written statement "we are teaming with local officials to identify safety triggers that will guide future decisions." One of those triggers was the declaration of a state of emergency. Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency on Thursday and this morning the PRSA cancelled the show.

I was scheduled to present a workshop at the PRSA Conference but had to cancel due to complications from Katrina. The PRSA did the right thing to cancel in time for everyone to evacuate if necessary. We all remember hearing about convention visitors stuck in New Orleans who later ended up evacuating after eduring days without electricity or running water. The PRSA Board put safety ahead of the organization's finances, which are sure to take a severe blow courtesy of Wilma.

The PRSA is going to need our help in the coming year to recover from this set-back. If you have suggestions for what we can do to assist the PRSA, why don't you post them here and we'll see what we can do to make them happen?

In Sympathy,
STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC
and still a Katrina Refugee...

Wal-Mart's response to Hurricane Katrina is the best PR campaign I have ever seen -- because it's not a PR campaign. It's people taking action -- in their own self interest and out of genuine concern for human suffering -- deeds, not words.   more »

Two weeks ago, after a pre-Rita reconaissance of New Orleans, I put together a list of items returnees would need and started contacting Red Cross shelters and administrators asking to have these items available for people coming back to the Crescent City (see post dated September 17)...   more »

Our fellow PR blogger BL Ochman turned me on to this and it is terrific.

An LA Times op-ed blasted The Red Cross earlier in the week here.  

The Red Cross responded on their website with a clear, dispassionate response here.

They demonstrated a clear understanding of the power of the Internet and their ability to contribute to the conversation. Bravo.

When New Orleanians see a Mardi Gras float coming, they holler, "Throw me somethin', mister!" A parade of refugees is about to return to what is left of their homes in New Orleans. Is there something you can throw to these passing krewes...   more »

I just returned from two days in New Orleans: two days with no running water, no electricity, and almost no one offering help...   more »

I relocated to Richmond, Virginia, yesterday to visit with family and assess the possiblity of relocating here. These are issues all Katrina survivors are dealing with now. I'm hoping for a new phone number and mailing address soon, which I'll post.

Two more responses to aid requests have come in. From Joseph E. Farren, Director of Public Affairs for CTIA - The Wireless Association, comes this reply:

"Please be assured that the wireless industry is doing everything humanly possible to not only restore service in impacted areas but also provide displaced and stranded residents with access to critical telecommunications services.   We are working around-the-clock with federal, state and local officials in New Orleans to make this happen as soon as possible.   Our thoughts and prayers are with you and every person affected by this horrific storm."

I have asked Mr. Farren to please *quantify* the nature of CTIA's efforts: how many phones are being sent, where are they, who is distributing them. Pre-paid cell phones are still desperately needed in the area.

I received a call from Mike Militana, in PepsiCo Inc.'s cutomer affairs department to inform me that Pepsi has already shipped 9000 cases of 1-quart Aquafina water into the area and another 12,000 cases of water are being prepared for shipment. Pepsi lost a major bottling plant in Harrahan, Louisiana. PepsiCo food and water aid is being distirbuted by Second Harvest, among other relief groups. PepsiCo is matching employee donations to relief agencies and has upped their initial $100,000 donation to the Red Cross to $1 million for the Red Cross and $1 million for the Salvation Army.

The water crisis has eased in New Orleans, but obviously water will be needed for some time to come. I thank PepsiCo for providing numerical details about the level of their assistance.

STEVE O'KEEFE
IAOC Vice President
New Orleans Refugee

Today, I sent the e-mail, below, to Hank McKinnell, CEO of Pfizer, Inc., and Loretta Ucelli, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Pfizer, Inc.:

I am a Tulane University professor, Vice President of the International Association of Online Communicators (IAOC), and a refugee from New Orleans. I am writing due to an MSNBC news report on Monday, September 5, interviewing a nurse who just spent the last week ministering to the sick and dying in New Orleans. In his interview HE SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR NEOSPORIN to be dropped onto the streets of the Marigny/Bywater district on the riverfront in New Orleans.

Pfizer is the manufacturer of NEOSPORIN. I am hoping that you will do everything in your power to see that NEOSPORIN reaches the people of New Orleans TODAY. I know from your track record with Tsunami aid that you will help the people of the Gulf Coast, but I hope that you will make an extra effort TODAY to see that the relief workers getting into this area are carrying extra NEOSPORIN for distribution as best as possible. This is a time for heroics. Please do something and then tell us what you've done so we can post it on our blog.

Thanks For Your Efforts,
STEVE O'KEEFE
New Orleans Refugee
Executive Director, Patron Saint Productions, Inc.
Bywater Tech Center, 538 Louisa St, New Orleans, LA 70117 USA
Voice: (504) 947-4994   Fax: (504) 947-4984   Cell: (504) 715-3051
Web Site: http://www.IAOCblog.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is your company or organization doing something to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina? If so, could you post here about the measures you have taken? I can help get information about your offers or efforts to people in need in the area.

Thank You!
STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC
New Orleans Refugee

I am a refugee from New Orleans, safe with my family in Nashville, Tennessee. As near as I can tell, we have suffered only minimal property damage due to the Hurricane Katrina. I have been blogging the hurricane at the sites mentioned in a previous posts. Online communicators have helped provide the minutia of block-by-block reporting, ferrying information from those who rode it out to those who evacuated. We are ferrying messages of dire emergencies and we are getting aid for people who need it. If you can bear the heartbreak, you can follow some of these threads at the news blogs shown previously.

Everyone is asking, "What can we do to help?" New Orleans needs two things right now: WATER and POLICE. If you are employed by a beverage manufacturer or bottler or distributor, you should lead with your brand *immediately* and get water airlifted to the overpasses of New Orleans no matter what it takes. If you are a CEO of Coke or Pepsi or Budweiser -- or you know someone who knows the CEO -- please get the corporate jet fired up and drop pallets of bottled water onto New Orleans. Without this water NOW thousands will die. I realize this is asking for something beyond reason, but if you are in PR with a beverage company I implore you to insist on immediately transporting water to New Orleans by whatever means necessary.

Houston has agreed to house our refugees. Dallas has agreed to educate our children. San Antonio has opened its gates and hearts to 25,000 displaced. Your city, your state, needs to step up, too. If you are in government relations, help your largest employers to coordinate giving. These people will need clothes (JC Penney, Levi-Strauss, Nordstrom?), they will need automobiles (Avis, Enterprise, Ford, Toyota?), they will need gasoline (many of the dead in Mississippi and New Orleans could not afford to buy gas to get out because the hurricane hit at the end of the month). Prepaid cards are wonderful aid for individuals; donations to the Red Cross are wonderful in aid for all of us; and finding a way to get water into New Orleans NOW would be the most marvelous, life-saving gift of all.

From Nashville, Tennessee,
STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC
New Orleans Refugee