Those in the media who are part of preparing for — and covering — local community emergency response to a national security or natural disaster should take a few minutes to check out a great service that received $340,000 in Knight Foundation  funding today. 

Recovers.org was started to mobilize the community after a tornado struck a small town in Massachusetts. “Our focus is putting recovery tools into as many hands as possible,”  co-founder and CEO Caitria O’Neill said in an e-mail today. 

OTB had asked O’Neill if local media organizations could take the lead and ask for a local recovers.org site to be set up, or whether “official” local governments and organizations typically are the catalyst for a site. It’s typically the latter, for obvious logistical reasons.

“Only one site per community can be launched (you can imagine the nightmare 7 relief sites would cause),” she wrote. “But the site, ability to post hyper local information, and ability to march aid with need, can be used by any organization helping structure the recovery effort.  …Media companies could provide a lot of support for an area trying to find resources.”

The website and tools “ensures that heightened news attention translates into donations, volunteers and more,” Knight said in a release about its grants.