TODAY: Singapore girl survives Rita

Seven days before her wedding, blogger caught in the Houston frenzy

Some bloggers find themselves in harm’s way; crazier ones put themselves there

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Technorati Tags: blog, hurricanekatrina, Singapore, TODAY

CALLING HOUSTON: THE UNINVITED WEDDING GUEST

Singaporegrrl, (singaporegrrl.blogspot.com) a blogger living in Houston, was scheduled to be married next week.

As you can imagine, her plans were somewhat altered — she spent the most of last week packing up and “watching Rita”.

In tones of bewilderment and agitation, Singaporegrrl wrote: “Bloody hell. Singaporegrrl has never experienced a hurricane nor does she want to experience one. Especially not seven days before her wedding. Seven days, people.”

Preparing to leave her house for another shelter, she said: “The city seems to be freaking out. It took me half an hour to find a gas station that had gas today … it’s like the bloody apocalypse.”

I eagerly checked her blog for updates, and thankfully, on Monday, there was a post on how Houston was spared most of the storm’s wrath. While things were still chaotic, plans for her wedding were more or less on track.

She reported: “So now, I’ve had time to recover from the stress of the flipping hurricane.

“I can now focus on the task at hand and that is the fact that I will be getting married … The folks are on their way to Houston as I type this. A thousand and one things to do this week.”

On behalf of those of us who have been following her site, congratulations, Singaporegrrl! We’re looking forward to reading about your wedding.

WHEN BLOGGING BECOMES A LIFELINE IN CALAMITY

Yes, any major event, especially a threatening hurricane, is blog-worthy material (visit blogsearch.google.com to see the slew of blog sites documenting the storm). Newsrooms weren’t immune to the hurricane either.

From BoingBoing (boingboing.net) comes a story of how a local newspaper in Lake Charles, Louisiana, opened a blog account so that its journalists could continue to file stories from wherever they had been evacuated to.

Lake Charles was one of the towns hardest hit by the storm and the newsroom at the Lake Charles American Press (temporary site at american-press.blogspot.com) suffered a power failure on Friday. The paper was quick to open a blogspot (www.blogger.com) account.

Choppy, but up-to-date news reports continue to be churned out by reporters and eyewitnesses who send in their accounts via email.
Swiftly-produced reports dispelled inaccurate reports or rumours — such as those of highway overpasses collapsing — and even now continue to relay instructions from the local authorities as to whether residents can return home.

RISKING LIFE AND LIMB FOR THE SECRET BEHIND ‘CODE 11’

It was a different kind of high water and no one was hurt when blogger Sausage of Haro Singapore (harosingapore.blogspot.com), happened to be at Wisma Atria last week when a commotion broke out.

He recounted: “Security guards were shouting into walkie-talkies and going ‘Code 11. I told you all it’s a Code 11 already and no one is doing anything’.

“Was a fight going on inside Wisma Atria? What was the secret behind Code 11? I had to investigate … ”

Armed with a camera and a keen sense of observation, he investigated and found a section of the basement was flooded, incurring the ire of security staff as he snapped photographs as evidence.

“I stood there and snapped and snapped because I had to document the truth about what happened here today!

“Suddenly, I heard: ‘OI! OI!’ “One of the skinhead guards was pointing at me. I got scared because he was dangerously close.
“I was risking my life to take these photos. Like the war photographers in Time magazine.”

Sausage continued: “He stood next to me. I was too close to snap a picture of him. I was really scared because he was taller than me.
“Was he going to beat me up?

“There was a big crowd gathered behind me. I didn’t know if they were on my side or going to do the Singaporean thing and lend ‘eye-power’ instead.”

So he beat a tactical retreat — but not without pondering: “Was I too close to uncovering the truth behind Area 51?”

Mr Miyagi aka Benjamin Lee has been entertaining readers at miyagi.sg for over a year. As a blogger, he finds that even getting caught in the rain is something to write about.