Helping out before the locusts arrive!

As I write this a Nor’easter (named Athena by the Weather Channel) is dumping “waffles” (at least according to Jim Cantore) of snow on the Northeast—just a week after a hurricane named Sandy wreaked havoc there. My heart goes out to those who still don’t have power—or intact homes—in that area. You all have seen the pictures (or lived through it!): blocks of Queens burnt to the ground, boats on Staten Island in people’s houses, the Atlantic City Boardwalk in tatters, and homes on the Jersey shore destroyed. Now imagine it all covered in snow. As New Jersey Gov Chris Christie so eloquently put it: "I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next."

In fact, excuse me while I digress a moment, the whole scene does remind me of a dystopian climate change novel—trilogy actually. As soon as I heard about the impending winter storm , I thought of Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy: Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting. In them, in the very near future, a major east coast city gets hit by a tropical storm, practically drowning the infrastructure, and then it gets covered with a near arctic winter. Sound familiar? Only, in the books, the city is Washington DC, and winter at least had the good grace to wait a few months.

Anyway. I’m guessing the denizens of the Northeast are going to be needing even more help to recover from Sandy + Athena and any locusts or pestilence that follow. You’re probably familiar with the major relief efforts, such as the Red Cross, etc. The YA community, as usual, also has at least one really good fundraiser ongoing. Check out YA Highway’s KidLit Cares auction for Sandy relief.

Also, if you’re interested in helping rebuild libraries in the New Jersey and New York area, check the ALA’s Helping United States Libraries After Disasters.

Please feel free to list any other publishing, library, or school-related fundraisers below in the comments.

Stay warm!