Apologies for the multiple posts, but I think this is important enough to warrant a follow-up.
I send out a public challenge to each and every one of you reading this to make a donation to the American Red Cross, if for nothing else, think of it as a small effort to assist the Red Cross in their efforts to establish emergency communications in the region. Of course, the donation will go towards all assistance efforts in the wake of Katrina, so rationalize it however you will. :-) http://www.redcross.org/ Click and donate. - ferg -- "Fergie (Paul Ferguson)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: And via Slashdot: [snip] "In this age of cheap commoditized consumer electronics and advanced mobile technology, why can't all the people of a city make contact during an emergency? Cell phone circuits filled up during 9/11 attacks and in the wake of hurricane Katrina very few victims can make contact with their families, despite the fact that they have all those mobile phones. The Red Cross is looking to deploy satellite equipment From the article: to restore communications in affected areas." "Katrina made landfall in Louisiana early this morning with sustained winds of 145 mph, but veered just enough to the east to spare New Orleans a direct blow. Even so, flooding, power outages and heavy damage to structures were reported throughout the region. The Red Cross tomorrow expects to begin deploying a host of systems it will need, including satellite telephones, portable satellite dishes, specially equipped communications trucks, high- and low-band radio systems, and generator-powered wireless computer networks, said Jason Wiltrout, a Red Cross network engineer." [snip] http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,104250,00.html - ferg -- "Fergie (Paul Ferguson)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Via Reuters. [snip] Telephone companies struggled to restore service and measure the damage to their networks in Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday after Hurricane Katrina cut power and triggered severe flooding. A spokesman for BellSouth Corp., the largest local telephone company in the region, said while the company estimated about 53,000 lines were out in the two states, the actual numbers were likely to be higher. Cingular Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. said cellular service in the area had been affected as well. All three companies said power losses were the main threat to further service failures, but that flooding was hampering their efforts to reach network equipment. Entergy Corp. reported more than a million customers without power in Louisiana and Mississippi, and warned customers to expect a long and difficult restoration that could take weeks. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told television station WWL that 80 percent of the city was under water, and authorities declared martial law in some areas. [snip] http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=9512696 - ferg -- "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson Engineering Architecture for the Internet [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/
