Dear Dr. Carroll,
Your letter of concern about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the ACS web site asked for suggestions about how ACS members can help.

• I have posted the following on the American Physical Society web site for Katrina (http://www.compadre.org/katrina).
  High school seniors need your help. We are trying to open a branch campus of the Mississippi public residential high school for math and science, the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
  ( http://www.msms.k12.ms.us/index.html). It would be open to seniors who were in AP-type classes before Katrina and whose schools have been severely affected by this storm. These students would be dual-enrolled in high school classes and at Mississippi State University (MSU). This would allow them to have laboratory sciences during their senior high school year. Approval from the Director of MSMS, the Provost's office at MSU, and the MS Dept. of Education has been obtained.
• Financial help: contribute to the Larry Croft scholarship fund at MSU College of Arts and Sciences (http://www.msufoundation.com/giving/outright) .
  
• Other help: volunteer administrators, teachers (sciences, mathematics, english, history, foreign languages, etc), or others (dorm RAs, cooks, bus drivers, physical education, physicial plant, etc). Please e-mail Prof. Mark Novotny, man40@ra.msstate.edu (office 662-325-2688, cell662-418-2688).
  

We are looking to serve in a residential setting hundreds of affected high school seniors for the remainder of the school year. If you think this request is worthwhile, please let the members of ACS know about it.

Thank you.

Mark A. Novotny
Prof. and Head
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Director; HPCC Center for Computational Sciences
Mississippi State University. P.O. Box 5167, 125 Hilbun Hall,
Mississippi State, MS 39762-5167

We appreciate your comments describing ways ACS can help our members, families, students, and institutions affected by the devastation resulting from the recent hurricanes. We continue to encourage members to donate to groups that can provide immediate disaster relief.

Since our last post, ACS has taken some additional steps targeted toward longer-term needs.

• Creation of a taskforce. Chaired by Board Member Eric Bigham, the group includes members with extensive knowledge of the expertise in our Local Sections, Division, and Committees. It is focusing its efforts on understanding the longer-term needs facing colleges and universities and other institutions in the region.


• Member communication. We will send one e-mail to all members describing the Society’s response, and we will post updates here. Within a few weeks, we hope to have a list of priority actions for ACS to implement, perhaps in connection with other scientific societies and nonprofits.


• ACS Legal Assistance Network. As a first step by the new ACS Legal Assistance Network (see ACS Comment, C&EN August 29), initial legal monitoring specifically related to Katrina is available through the website of the Chemistry and the Law Division.

Hurricane Katrina has damaged the basic communications infrastructure in the affected areas. ACS has created this blog to help link those within and outside the region affected by the hurricane. We will post information regarding the safety of our members and their friends and family, assistance offers or requests, and any other relevant information.

This blog was created because our members have informed us of their inability to contact friends and family members. You can post information by clicking on the comments link below.

We have created a separate blog to collect observations related to Hurricane Katrina from our members, their families, and friends. We encourage you to use that blog to describe/express what you have seen.

ACS has taken a number of additional steps to respond to the devastation wrought by the hurricane. ACS members were urged in the September 5 issue of Chemical & Engineering News to donate to relief organizations; both the Publications Division and Chemical Abstracts Service have taken steps to assist institutions and individual customers of their products in the afflicted regions, and a number of ACS divisions and local sections are providing services or offering the expertise of their members to assist students, faculty, or others in need. ACS is making additional use of its volunteers and staff to review ways to assist with the more long-term issues facing the affected colleges and universities, and other institutions, in the region.