Last night, around 6pm EST, I started asking around Twitter to see what people were doing to help out with Gustav efforts. What I found were a lot of links to how people could find information about Gustav, but not very much in the way of active efforts to provide a means for disseminating actual requests for help.

As an example, Twitter is a pretty big echo chamber and a simple request can get lost, even in targeted searches. As I couldn’t find anything else and my cohort was having trouble finding an official means of SMS communication via the Red Cross, GustavTracker was born.

I don’t know if this is the right way to address this problem, but I’m trying to do what little my nimble keyboard fingers can. This morning, I also came across a Gustav Information Center Wiki and it seems they’re doing some similar work. I’m currently in the process of trying to collaborate with them.

In the end, I fear it’s simply too late to get the necessary information made available. However, if you would like to help, please pass on the information about GustavTracker for those in need of something that the web community might be able to assist with.

It should be noted that the Red Cross has the @safeandwell Twitter account that ties in to the official Red Cross Safe & Well List, but trying to find information relative to this channel was an exercise in futility.