I got a note from ESRI letting me know that they are helping local and federal government agencies prepare for Rita. It seems that everyone has learned much about what happened after the devastation of Katrina and I think everyone is being proactive with Rita.
ESRI’s online information will be updated to ensure people know they can request help for Rita in addition to Katrina. The infrastructure is already in place thanks to Katrina, so we’ll just add the appropriate links as they come in. The storm viewer will include Rita data as soon as it becomes available. Most of the data on the viewer will not need to be changed, and people can use it to study the area for potential impacts. The USPS delivery zone data, FEMA data, and satellite imagery will be updated as it becomes available. On the viewer, they set the extent of the Southeast U.S. Current Storms bookmark to show Rita and her track.
They best thing to do is probably bookmark the ESRI’s Hurricane Maps and Help page and subscribe to their RSS feed making sure you are up to date on how you can assist government agencies and private organizations that need help in responding during the 2005 hurricane season.