My Hattiesburg

Hurricane Wilma

The National Weather Center is now tracking Tropical Storm Wilma off the coast of Mexico heading north towards the Gulf Coast, likely Florida. We have a map of the current track at the link below.

Hurricane Wilma

My Hattiesburg Support Groups

I’ve had an idea in my head for several weeks about support groups on our web site. Just another way to extend the services of the web site to help others in Hattiesburg through a community-type effort. You can read more about it by clicking the link below.

My Hattiesburg Support Groups

New map

I’ve put up a new map of Hattiesburg on the web site. It includes tabs that point out important locations in Hattiesburg to visitors, as well as, residents. If you’d like to suggest a new location, you can add it on our forums here.

Hattiesburg Map

Hurricane Rita

If you’d like to keep up with the track of Hurricane Rita, just click the link below. The picture will automatically update as soon as the National Weather service puts out an advisory (which is who everyone uses to get updates on the hurricane) This is now the 3rd strongest hurricane on record so all we can do is pray for all those in it’s path.

Hurricane Rita path

Site Updates

A few announcements about things going on here at My Hattiesburg. First, we encourage all members of our forum to take our Hurricane Katrina Local Impact survey. Our visitors can take this survey by simply registering in our forums. This survey is completely anonymous and all members of the forum can view the results.

Second, we have new pictures up of Hurricane Katrina’s impact on Hattiesburg in our magazine section. These pictures were sent in by various members of our site and show just a little of the incredible amount of damage that the storm did to the area.

Finally, I’ve added a Hattiesburg jobs page to the site. This is just to help all of those that might be moving to Hattiesburg or already in the city to find employment. It lists the top 3 employers in Hattiesburg, along with some online job sites that have several opportunities for job seekers available. Please let me know if you have any other online links of jobs found in the Hattiesburg area to add to this list.

On a side note, I’d like to thank noway and other members of our forum by helping people from all of the world locate loved ones during Hurricane Katrina. Many people wrote in thanking everyone involved for putting their mind at ease since they could not communicate with family or friends in Hattiesburg during and after the storm.

Hattiesburg Real Estate Section

I’ve just completed a complete upgrade of our real estate system so that local agents can list homes for sale or apartments for rent in the Hattiesburg area. There will be a small fee for this, but it can be convenient for those without a web site or want to give a little extra internet advertising to certain homes or apartments. To see an example listing, click here. If you would like to list your Hattiesburg real estate with us, please use the contact us form to let me know.

Katrina Victims Donate and Volunteer List

As most of the world knows, this hurricane affected a lot of lives, and the impact is still be felt by thousands of people. Hattiesburg was hit very hard and many are without food, water, and electricity. If you’d like to donate to the victims of the this natural disaster, I’m posting the list of safe charities given by CNN. One thing I hate to see are people that try to gain from this by creating fake charities and sending spam emails to try to play on people’s emotions. Don’t click links sent to you by someone you do not know. Sometimes the web site can look just like the real one, but in fact, your giving money to criminals instead of victims. I encourage everyone to go to the web sites by directly typing the names in their browser or by clicking links on sites you know and trust. On a side note, the Our Hattiesburg project’s focus looks like it’s changing to help the victims of this hurricane located here in Hattiesburg. Please post your feedback there on what you think we can do to help. Here is CNN’s list, all of these should be safe to donate to.

Network for Good

American Red Cross — (800) HELP-NOW

Feed the Children — (800) 525-7575

Salvation Army — (800) SAL-ARMY

Florida Hurricane Relief Fund

America’s Second Harvest — (877) 817-2307

Catholic Charities USA — (800) 919-9338

B’nai B’rith International — (888) 388-4224

United Jewish Communities

Union for Reform Judaism

Church World Service — (800) 297-1516 ext 222

MercyCorps — (800) 852-2100

Noah’s Wish — (530) 622-9313

North Shore Animal League — (877) 4savepet

Operation Blessing — (800) 730-2537

Episcopal Relief and Development — (800) 334-7626

Habitat for Humanity — (866) 720-2800

The United Way — (800) 272-4630

Humane Society of America — (888) 259-5431

ASPCA — (866) 275-3923

Lutheran Disaster Response — (800) 638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service — (800) 348-7468

Water Missions International — (843) 769-7395

United Methodist Committee on Relief — (800) 554-8583

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation — (877) 387-6126

Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Samaritan’s Purse — (800) 665-2843

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee — (800) 55-CRWRC

Food for the Hungry — (877) 780-4261 ext 2506

Northwest Medical Teams — (800) 959-4325

World Relief — (800) 535-5433

Adventist Development Relief Agency — (800) 424-2372

Southern Baptist Convention — (888) 571-5895

Save the Children — (800) 728-3843

International Medical Corps — (800) 481-4462

American Friends Service Committee — (888) 588-2378

AmeriCares — (800) 486-4357

International Aid — (800) 251-2502

International Medical Corps — (800) 481-4462

International Orthodox Christian Charities — (877) 803 4622

International Relief and Development, Inc. — (703) 248-0161

International Relief Teams — (619) 284-7979

International Rescue Committee — (877) 733-8433

Life for Relief and Development — (800) 827-3543

MAP International — (866) 627-4483

Mercy (M-USA) — (800) 55-MERCY

Operation USA — (800) 678-7255

Quarters From Kids

Relief International — (800) 573-3332

Relief International — (800) 573-3332

USA Freedom Corps — (212) 348-8882

World Concern — (800) 755-5022 ext. 0

Moveon.org: Hurricane housing

There are also several threads going on in the Hattiesburg news forum started by people looking for loved ones. As well as, a thread about information for people doing a search for loved ones to help them with this frustrating task.

Hattiesburg News

Looking for loved ones?

Our Hattiesburg Charity Project

We’ve begun taking ideas for charity projects on the forum. The idea being that since we have a large group of people here, why not organize something for the greater good of Hattiesburg. Many people would like to donate to charity, but don’t know how or where to do it. We could centralize this so that not only would you know how to donate, but have several options upon which to decide. The site could take projects on a case by case basis and submit them to our online community. If approved, then we do whatever we can with whoever would like to volunteer their time or money to the project. An example of this is already up. If you have suggestions or would like to help, please click below.

City Council Meeting

Thanks to “justme” on the forums for letting us all know that the next city council meeting open to the public will be on Tuesday, July 19th at 6 PM on the 2nd Floor of City Hall. We encourage all of our members to attend these meetings and voice your opinion in the upcoming council decisions such as the reappointment of Johnny Dupree’s staff, including the Chief of Police and Chief of the Fire Department.

The City Council will meet on Monday and Tuesday of next week, but the only one open to the public is the Tuesday meeting. According to Tully Mars, “The City Council meetings typically take place on a Monday and Tuesday evening. The Monday meeting is usually longer and more in-depth. Each agenda item is discussed and acted upon. The Tuesday meeting includes a public forum and essentially a ratification of the actions that took place during the Monday meeting. This is an oversimplification of the process but that’s it in a nutshell.”

Hurricane Dennis

We have several discussions going on over in the Hattiesburg news forum about Dennis. Emergency contact info, available shelters, as well as updated information about the storm.