Meet Hurricane Bear

Have you seen Hurricane Bear? He’s the costume bear that bizarrely walked on camera during news coverage of Hurricane Ike in Galveston, and various versions of this video have been viewed on YouTube nearly one million times.

The first time I saw the video I thought “Oh great. Devastation everywhere and what people are paying attention to is a goofy bear!” But then when I checked again I saw that the apparent “official version” of the Hurricane Bear video had added a “Donate at redcross.org” message to the bottom of the screen about halfway through.

So… now I think I’m kind of a Hurricane Bear fan. Think what support we could raise for hurricane survivors if everyone who watched that video donated just $5!

Hurricane Bear also has a myspace page and an official website that encourages Red Cross donations while also selling Hurricane Bear shirts, mouse pads, and of course… teddy bears.

3 comments

  • Oh… if I only had my external hard disk handy! I’ve had a Hurricane Bear since Floyd in 1999. He’s a non-Ty Beanie Baby, with gray fur and a lighthouse on his chest. He’s known to sit on my shoulder or my head when I’m the shelter manager. There’s a picture of me at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. during Hurricane Isabel of HB sitting on my shoulder. If I remember when I get my hard disk back, I’ll share the picture on Flickr.
    I also have Butterscotch The Flood Cat, another beanbag stuffed animal. He’s named after a cat we rescued while on vacation, and was a gift just before I deployed for flooding in 2006. A number of mental health folks looked at me strangely when they realized I had a stuffed animal with me.

Comments are closed.