[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Wacky idea, borne of seeing a guy on the news just trying to let his family know he made it to Houston:

There's no shortage of cable channels with airtime to spare. Ditto the ability to add programming to XM & Sirius. How about somebody start rolling tape on the people in Texas, and the other shelters.

No interviewing, no polticizing, no grandstanding, just straight up name/neighborhood/location i.d.'s from the evacuees & maybe what relative(s) they're trying to let know they're alive. 60 seconds per person max maybe. Tape 'em, air 'em, loop 'em & let volunteers start compiling the lists. Do it all privately, off to the side, don't take up trained volunteer time with it. It'd give (IMO) at least some feeling of "trying" to the evacuees, something for them to do instead of just worry, it'd be at worst a well-intended attempt at putting some minds at ease, and it might just succeed. Something better than nothing.

To be fair, a ton of websites have been set up for this reason from WWL to Craigslist and other sites that are usually for other stuff.

SI