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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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Hurricane Gustav National Weather Service

Also see: Jackpedia: Hurricane Gustav to get/post vital information.

News is coming in on organized ways to donate to help the victims of Gustav (and presumably incoming hurricanes that may yet do damage). The state of Mississippi has set up the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund, where you can donate money or volunteer. In addition to the state, it brings together FEMA, MEMA, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sent out the following text message today to all supporters, asking for donations:

“Barack asks that you give to the Red Cross: give $5 by texting GIVE to 24357 or give more by calling 1-800-435-7669.”

Please post other donation efforts you hear up below.

Previous Comments

You can also donate on the front page of Obama’s site right now. I also heard them announce a donation site during the RNC yesterday (watching on C-SPAN), but I don’t see it on McCain’s site, and don’t remember what it was. Anyone have it? Please post if so. It’s great to see both campaigns try to solicit money for hurricane victims. That’s much better than them rushing down here for face time.


I want to thank Barack and the Democrats for making sure every greedy and desperate republicans of any power was out there working to make sure they didn’t screw up this time with Gustav like they did with Katrina. They were even willing to call of the republican Farce on Minnesota to make sure Fema, et al, performed well this time. Republicans didn’t care during the Katrian fiasco and and spent too many man hours having to lie and blame others for destroying Fema after Clinton had builted it into a remarkable and ready agency. Thanks Donna for telling us where we can donate.

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.