For Immediate Release
October 6, 2005
Code Amber Contact: Bryant Harper 877-770-7264

Mandeville La, October 6 2005 -- On Sunday, August 28 we had to pack up our home and the Code Amber office and leave Mandeville at 5 AM due to the impending arrival of hurricane Katrina. At the time it looked like the storm would make a direct hit on New Orleans, which is about thirty miles south of Mandeville, with lake Ponchartrain between the city and us.

We are fine and we are some of the lucky ones. Our home suffered no damage and we will were able to return on September 15th after power and the other services we need were restored. Again, we are some of the lucky ones. Hundreds of thousands of people in southeastern Louisiana are not only displaced, they are homeless and will be for many months to come, as I am sure you are already aware.

Thanks to our volunteer network, and especially Jared Rimer, Code Amber continued to function and publish Amber Alerts in a timely manner. Our servers are located in San Antonio Texas so there was never any threat to the Code Amber web sites or our ability to continue our mission of providing Amber Alerts to the public, the media and corporate partners. Jared handled all of the Amber Alerts from Sunday August 28 to Thursday September 1 when we were able to get the traveling office back up and on line. Since then Jared has worked tirelessly to continue to "carry the ball" for Code Amber while we got the office back on it's feet. Thank you Jared!

For those of you that don't know, Jared has been volunteering and helping Code Amber for over a year now. In addition to covering Amber Alerts, Jared also maintains many of the Code Amber web pages including our Friends page. Jared and his friends, who also volunteer, provide 24/7 monitoring and notification of new Amber Alerts across the US and Canada.

We have been back for about three weeks now and things are returning to something approaching normal. Our office here in Mandeville did not suffer any structural damage but our high-speed Internet connection has been up and down so we have used dial up to stay on line as the cable company gets all of their services repaired. Our office phones and cell service has been spotty as well. If you have tried to call our office or toll free numbers you probably got a "Hurricane" message or "network busy" message. The good news is that phones are getting better and the high-speed Internet access is fairly stable now.

We apologize for any difficulties these service outages and interruptions may have caused you if you have tried to contact us the past five weeks.

Code Amber has the people and structure to continue to operate in times of crisis like these and will continue to do so.

Code Amber exists because of the support of the web community and we thank you for that.

Now however, there are hundreds of thousands of people that have lost their homes and jobs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, and they could use your help. The Red Cross has distributed almost One Billion Dollars to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. If you can spare even one dollar we encourage you to donate to the Red Cross they are here on the ground helping people everyday with shelter, food and cash for living needs. Please donate if you can.

Thank you for your continued support.
Bryant Harper
Founder
CodeAmber.org

About Code Amber Based in Mandeville, LA, Code Amber LLC is the largest broadcaster of Amber Alerts on the Internet. With its Java script ticker, desktop ticker, and XML feed, Code Amber reaches millions of users. Code Amber is utilized by all major network broadcasters including on-air and Internet sites. For more information, go to www.codeamber.org.