The message at the bottom of this page is from Mac Dearman in Rayville,
Louisiana to our WISPA email list server. He is one of our trade
association members. As you can see he is having trouble getting what he
needs to continue helping folks in Louisiana.The U.S. Government should
consider a policy of funding first in situations like this where we have
a federally recognized trade group (501c6 non-profit) and then task us
with providing proper documentation and accounting to back up funding
later. People need our help right now. Along with Mac's message I have
copied excerpts from the Washington Post and New York Times telling the
story of what we are doing in Louisiana. We need money right now. If you
cannot fund us then please fund someone to continue doing what we are
doing. People need our help.
Here are quotes from the Washington Post and New York Times:
The Washington Post:
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802058.html>
Wireless Networks Give Voice To Evacuees (September 9, 2005)
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.”
…
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.
New York Times <http://www.radioresponse.org/wordpress/?page_id=22>
(September 18, 2005)
When Katrina hit, (Radio Response’s Paul) Smith and other
volunteer communications enthusiasts rushed down to Louisiana.
In Rayville, his team of techies clambered up a local tower to
blast WiFi signals 50 miles through the countryside; their
signals reached refugees clustered in church basements with
computers but no Internet connections. “We’re trying to make
sure families can contact each other, and get online to register
with FEMA’s Web site,” Smith told me.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [WISPA] 2.4Ghz gear needed
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:16:17 -0500
From: Mac Dearman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: WISPA General List <[email protected]>
To: WISPA General List <[email protected]>
References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello list,
I am again in the position to ask direction for acquiring more gear
to be installed in the Gulf towns on the Mississippi coast. I need Aps,
CPE, Jumpers, enclosures, mounts, tape, mastic, tripods for
roofs.....etc. Do any of you know of a manufacturer that is willing to
donate these goods? If you have a supplier hit them up and give me their
name..etc
It seems like I would have some funding by now, but I guess its the
waiting game thing going on. Sooner or later FEMA is going to have to
come across with the doe!
Thanks
Mac Dearman
Maximum Access, LLC.
www.inetsouth.com
www.radioresponse.org
318-728-8600 - Rayville
318-303-4229
318-303-4231
318-450-4349 - Monroe, La
318-303-4227 - NOC
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