Cynthia Fuchs Epstein briefly describes in a September 13, 2005, letter to the membership various developing and ongoing activities of the ASA officers and Executive Office relative to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Disaster Experts

Social scientists knowledgeable about disaster effects, preparation, and recovery, as well as social and political contributions to disaster severity are available to the press to interview.  [8/05]

Share Your Efforts

Send an email to relief describing briefly (200 words max.) what you have done to aid victims of Hurricanes Katrina/Rita or to otherwise assist in the recovery process.  ASA
will collect submissions and post a link to summaries here.

Read the personal story of Ole Miss sociologists who brought a caravan of supplies to the Mississippi Coast.  [9/05]

Read the personal story of a University of New Orleans professor.  [10/05]

The Chronicle Katrina Update

The Chronicle of Higher Education features announcements from colleges affected by the hurricanes, and from associations and government agencies.

For information on how to help victims of the October 2005 Pakistan Earthquake and/or make donations, consult this list of nongovernmental agencies.

A Department of Education program allows you to help schools that are providing assistance to students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The Corporation for National and Community Service's Katrina Resource Center helps groups connect with organizations and projects in need of service.  Register at the Center under "Companies, Organizations, and Nonprofits. . . " to receive a call from AmeriCorps*VISTA coordinators.

Make a monetary donation to assist victims of Hurricanes Katrina/Rita and learn about volunteering to help at the Network for Good, an organization dedicated to resources for nonprofits.  There are links here, too, to help locate displaced people.

Offer Office Space or Assistance to Displaced Colleagues/Students

Send an email to relief with your name and contact information as well as a brief description of office space or housing (include details such as room size and accommodations (e.g., phone, Internet access), and ASA will post this information here.

Other Science Organizations' Efforts

The Society for Research in Child Development provides a summary of hurricane relief resources. This includes resources to help displaced scientists, students and faculty, children and families, as well as resources pertaining to research and volunteer opportunities.

See a AAAS summary of what various societies are doing to assist the scientific community affected by Hurricanes Katrina/Rita.

Assistance to Foreign Students/Scholars

The National Academies provide informational assistance to displaced foreign students and scholars/researchers.

Census Data

The U.S. Census Bureau has posted maps and other resources, as well as extensive hurricane-related data on housing, people, transportation, economics.

Population Reference Bureau

Sociologist Rogelio Saenz's October 2005 article, "Beyond New Orleans: The Social and Economic Isolation of Urban African Americans," outlines demographic indices of isolation of African Americans in U.S. Metropolitan areas and the implications for reducing African Americans' risks in future disasters.

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts provides continuing database subscriptions for students, faculty, librarians, and researchers not able to access via usual methods.  Subscribers displaced by Hurricanes Katrina/Rita should visit CSA's special webpage to register.

The Social Science Research Council's essays on Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences.

New high- and moderate-resolution grids of U.S. census data for the Gulf Coast states facilitate analysis with geophysical and spatially explicit social or health data for research and recovery purposes.

NSF Hurricane Research Grants

New "rapid-response" funding from the National Science Foundation will support teams studying the impact of Hurricane Katrina on people and social systems. [12/20/05]

Hurricane-related Research Registry

ASA is compiling a registry of sociologists doing research on the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita or related events. Send contact information and very brief details about your scholarly work, or proposed work (to private or public funding programs), to Lee Herring in the ASA Communications Office.

Federal Legislation & Policy

hearing on social science research on disasters, which included a sociologist witness.  [12/05]

The proposed Ready, Willing and Able Act, introduced in the U.S. Congress in July 2005, is designed to ameliorate many problems that contribute to devastation from natural and intentional disasters, tapping sociological reserach extensively.  [8/05]