What we saw in the wake of the Katrina disaster was a large number of people needing help or wanting to help in the days and weeks following the devastation. And the frustration of these people trying to access one or two web sites that were flooded with users and unable to support this immediate and overwhelming need.

The best thing you can do in times of emergency is provide as many outlets as possible for getting information out -- television, radio, newspaper, phones, web sites and RSS feeds.

The beauty of an RSS feed is that is "pushes" information out to a large number of servers throughout the world. Should a portion of the country be unable to function on the web, the content that you have pushed out still resides in other areas for users to view and act upon.

By subscribing to RSS feeds, you will have access to real-time information without overloading the actual news sites with requests. These sites can then operate more efficiently and through use of the RSS feeds, you can too. From one spot you can monitor multiple news and information sites for the latest breaking information.

Your Tendenci site offers RSS feeds to interested parties. If people are counting on you in times of emergency, encourage them to subscribe to your RSS feed!

For more information, see How to set up an RSS Feed from a Tendenci site.