AWESOME! -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer (509) 982-2181 Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 11:53 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Tech Samaritans
Now we're talkin'! Great job guys! Marlon (509) 982-2181 Equipment sales (408) 907-6910 (Vonage) Consulting services 42846865 (icq) And I run my own wisp! 64.146.146.12 (net meeting) www.odessaoffice.com/wireless www.odessaoffice.com/marlon/cam ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Healy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 7:26 AM Subject: [WISPA] Tech Samaritans > Found this in the Washington Post this morning......... Thought y'all > would be interested in seeing it. > > You guys are doing great things down there. I only wish I had the means to > be able to join you. I had hoped to get a bunch of surplus PCs to send to > you but due to my employer being in bankruptcy we aren't able to do that. > > Mike > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802058.html?referrer=email > > *washingtonpost.com* <http://www.washingtonpost.com/>* > Wireless Networks Give Voice To Evacuees* > > By Arshad Mohammed > Washington Post Staff Writer > Friday, September 9, 2005; A15 > > Hurricane Katrina survivor Caprice Butler had been at a church shelter in > rural northeastern Louisiana for nearly a week when she finally heard her > husband's voice on an Internet phone running on an improvised wireless > network. > > "I was just overjoyed," she said yesterday, tearing up as she spoke > outside the church in the farming town of Mangham, about 200 miles from > her flooded New Orleans home. "Words can't explain how I felt." > > If the Butlers manage to reunite this weekend, as they hope, it will be > because of a band of volunteer techies who are stitching together wireless > networks at shelters across northeastern Louisiana using radio > transmitters mounted on such items as a grain silo and a water tower. > > With few reliable communications systems in place, people and companies > from around the country are converging on the region to create improvised > networks that give survivors and emergency personnel ways to talk and > coordinate efforts. > > While local telephone and wireless networks are slowly coming back, they > remain spotty or nonexistent in some places, and fire, police and other > rescue personnel have complained about the lack of a unified emergency > communications system. To meet the needs of evacuees in Jackson, Miss., > Dulles-based America Online has parked an 18-wheel truck at the > Mississippi State Fairgrounds, a major shelter, with a satellite dish on > top and 20 computers with Internet access inside. At the Houston > Astrodome, volunteers have obtained a Federal Communications Commission > license to set up a low-power radio station and are now struggling to get > permission from local officials to broadcast to evacuees inside the > stadium. > > F4W, a Lake Mary, Fla., company, is under government contract to provide > Internet phones and online access to Coast Guard officers cleaning up oil > spills, using a portable satellite dish and handsets often deployed in > forest fires. > > The network at Mangham Baptist Church was the brainchild of Mac Dearman, a > wireless Internet service provider who was driving past the church last > week when he saw a group of parked cars, realized they were people who had > fled the hurricane and set about providing relief, including food, > clothing and online access. > > Dearman hooked up a radio transmitter near the church and linked that to a > voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone and a computer, and suddenly > the dozens of people taking refuge at the church had the ability to reach > out to the outside world. > > Mostly, they are searching for loved ones and filling out Federal > Emergency Management Agency forms to get disaster aid. > > "They just call from shelter to shelter to shelter looking for their kids > or for their daddies or their brothers because they got separated, and > they are just finding each other in the last few days," Dearman said, > adding that people were often overwhelmed when they connected. > > "They cried big tears, hugged my neck, shook my hand and patted me on the > back. You'd have thought I was really giving them something that cost a > lot of money," he added. > > Dearman is working entirely with donated labor and equipment. > > People from as far afield as Nebraska, Missouri and Indiana are camped out > in his house, coordinating equipment deliveries, searching for shelters > that need service, and then sending out volunteers to climb towers to hook > up radio antennas and set up the networks. > > "We are basically completely bypassing the phone system," said Matt Larsen > of Scottsbluff, Neb., who said he was perched on a bar stool with his > laptop at Dearman's kitchen counter. > > Dearman estimated that he had run wireless links to about a dozen shelters > near his home base of Rayville, La., but only about half were up and > running because he had run out of equipment. > > He was expecting fresh donations of secondhand computers, VoIP phones and > wireless equipment. Once he has those in hand, he said, he hopes to extend > to shelters closer to New Orleans and to Mississippi's Gulf Coast. > > "It's been a godsend," said the Rev. Rick Aultman, pastor of Mangham > Baptist Church, where about four dozen people are staying. > > © 2005 The Washington Post Company > -- > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.19/92 - Release Date: 9/7/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. 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