In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, traditional communication lines were interrupted, damaged, or in many cases, completely destroyed. This left hundreds of thousands of people without a means to communicate with family and friends to let them know they are okay. In addition, the men and women heroically working to rescue people and provide them shelter, food and comfort have had their ability to communicate hindered as well.
Thankfully, groups have volunteered the time and resources to establish wireless connections to Internet that are allowing displaced victims of the hurricane to contact loved ones through email and phone calls over the Internet. The Washington Post highlights some of these efforts in its September 9, article, "Wireless Networks Give Voice To Evacuees."
"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.'"
Similar scenes are playing out all across the effected areas of the Gulf Coast.
"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."
But in this particular church in northeast Louisiana, it is one man and a small group of volunteers that is making it all happen.
"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."
Though tough times remain ahead, for many just finding their loved ones is priority number one.
"'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."
According to the article, Dearman and the group of volunteers from across the country are working entirely with donated equipment. They spend their time coordinating equipment deliveries and searching for other shelters in need of their particular expertise. Dearman's plans to expand the network to areas closer to New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.
But, for the people who have benefited from his help, it has provided a much-needed peace of mind.
Read more about the unlimited possibilities of community Internet, visit What’s At Stake.
