[Here's a related page in the 'Ask Anything Saturday' wiki.]

Nationally... Visit ChristianEmergencyNetwork.org.  [See White House article re its founder, Mary Marr.]

Also... Listen in to THIS RADIO INTERVIEW WITH PASTOR CHARLES DAUGHERTY, CEDAR RAPIDS.

News, Announcements, Needs & Volunteering re Indiana Flood Disaster Area...

• We will try to keep IndyChristian.TV as up-to-date as possible.... as well as this wiki-page in which others of you can participate. [Call Neil, 317-490-1255 for assistance posting here if needed.  We are also now gathering a citywide Christian 'Communications Team' to help for future events & emergencies.]

   

• Ike Randolph... Director of the Indiana Office of Faith Based & Community Initiatives... is the governor's point-person re disaster relief.  [stay tuned for his updated info via email re special needs -- Pastors, please pass the info along to your congregations if you will.

• Merlin Gonzales... Director of Faith Hope & Love citywide initiative, is another key point-person among our 'driven Christians' in the metro area.  Here's the behind-the-scenes working-pages of FHL teams.

   

• Jeff Cardwell... 'People Helping People Network' here in the area, is on-location in Franklin... serving as a quasi 'command center'.  And here is Jeff's personal site with lots of governmental info re the current disaster efforts.

   

• IN 211... a year-round number of call in times of need.  Visit their site for current disaster-relief information

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• City of Indianapolis 'Front Porch Alliance' (Doug Hairston, Director) urges people to primarily give donations -- for rapid & flexible effectiveness.  Organizations wishing to provide volunteers should sign up at http://www.davvis-in-marioncounty.org

• John Ball, Director, Marion County Emergency Management Agency

• Official State of Indiana website with updates daily... and audio-reports from the governor

Stray thoughts & links for future development...

• HCRN.info.... Kevin Cox (no relation, but I wish)... statewide (and beyond)... Emergency Management guy.... get to know him.
• Hope City Podcast -- Jim Carter & Kevin Cox, (Indiana) Hope Crisis Rescue Network.
• Good Works Indiana -- the statewide initiative of the Office of Faith-based & Community Initiatives.  Our friend Ike Randolph now heads that office and is responsible for Disaster Relief.
• Front Porch Alliance -- is the citywide initiative of the city's Faith-based office.  Our friend Doug Hairston now heads that office.  It's new, so we'll have to see what develops, and how we can support them.
• 'Ask Anything Saturday TV' is potentially LIVE at any moment, if called upon.  [Otherwise, it's filling time with reruns/videos.]  If people knew it was an available source of info during an emergency, that could be very helpful... especially since it's focused on NEIGHBORHOOD solutions.
• Lisa Collins... (see Facebook profile page) -- an Emergency Management student affiliated with the CityReaching movement.
• Communications (Indianapolis) page... includes a 'Vital Vine' concept for a citywide phone-tree (or Twitter-tree, for that matter... LOL).  Also see our MEDIA CENTER wiki-page.
• Christian Emergency Network... at the moment largely just 'praying & communicating' in emergencies.... is an affiliate of Mission America Coalition.  [Here's one of their key pages.]
• DEVELOPING E-CAPABLE CHRISTIANS... for just such a time as this?   Especially consider the value of a WIKI as a centralized knowledge-base which is so easy it can scale quickly & effectively... say in the case of an emergency.   And if so, wouldn't it be important that driven Christians make sure they're capable & ready to help expedite such a wiki for their city & neighborhood?  And think about it... all the willing & ecapable Christians across the country suddenly could participate in solutions, without having to channel everything through potential-bottlenecks within the government response system.  Or even PRIOR to an emergency, more ecapable Christians participating in a wiki could help enhance the overall system by connecting great hearts & minds, and by offering great ideas, suggestions, etc.  Obviously local churches could be very helpful in an emergency... but again has potential-bottlenecks within their system.  Wikis can help work around some of these traps.
  • Obviously this foresees internet-access -- which may not always be the case in an emergency -- but remember that someday soon, cell-phone access to the net may be an everyday thing.  Or even in a worst-case scenario, whatever forms of communications first-responders have, may be INDIRECTLY linked to the internet (and thus the wiki).  Example:  Designated neighborhood contact drives to the nearest internet-access, and uses the wiki.  Or ham-radio operators ( Ham and Internet Access )/CB operators have access to the wiki.
  • Emergency Management needs a layered strategy (hi tech over lo tech to no tech) to meet any possible so-called "fire sale" scenario.  All systems have flaws.  People do find them.
• Organizing Using A Wiki -- This could be a helpful presentation at BarCampIndy!   [or part of my 'Pay Attention' presentation]
• "Twitter, Facebook Called To A Higher Purpose" (InsteDD)
• InsteDD.org -- secular, but very innovative, well-done collaborative approach... down to the neighborhood by neighborhood level.  We (The Church) could learn much from being more astute and adept in the use of such tools.  Our IndyChristianGeeks may take up the discussion shortly.  [ht:DrThomasHo]
  • IndyChristianGeeks took this under discussion during our 1/25/2008 lunch/podcast...  [discussion notes to follow...]
• First Alert Texting --
• City's Emergency Text-alert system --
• Andy Harris is a key contact at City of Indianapolis... working among other key neighborhood contacts.  Our Faith Hope & Love teams are building an increasing relationship with them, finding great win-win scenarios for the city... church-neighborhood by church-neighborhood.
• Indy ChristianVolunteering.org -- currently is not adapted to emergency situations, but could be in the future.
• Leavener -- Fishers, IN Crisis-Mgmt ministry -- Rusty Kennedy, etal.
• SAVI.org -- The SAVI GIS system (hosted by IUPUI's Polis Center) is great -- and have data needed during an emergency.  SAVI is providing an increasing set of data re 'Social Assets & Vulnerability Indicators' for our metro area.  [And we are interacting with their techs -- and would someday like to help do training of our churches and neighborhood leaders re how to easily use this system.]
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Keywords:   Emergency emergencies disaster relief help assistance

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