Feds give out free phones to Katrina evacuees [Textually]

There's a small but real chance that we might be hit by Hurricane Rita. If that happens, all the work we've done will probably be knocked back down to zero, and we'll have to pick up the pieces.

We've finally been able to get some people from the community into the computer lab we set up to sign up for FEMA's Disaster Aid or to look for their family. I won't pretend we've had the numbers through here that I was hoping for, but between those here and the communications support we've been able to provide to the medical clinic, I at least don't feel like it's been a complete waste of time.

There were, of course, far too many volunteers in here checking their email and blogging and generally fucking off. In fact, that was a main point for much of my stress last week: I felt like I had spent thousands of my own dollars to come down to New Orleans to build an internet cafe for adventure tourists volunteer. That's been a lot of why I haven't been blogging, as well. It just didn't feel appropriate given the work to be done.

The guys from Radio Response showed up a few days ago and have been—to a man (and one woman)—fantastic. They gave me a lot of needed perspective on my priorities down here, as well as what the role should be for me in this community project.

We had a report of DSL from a few folks, but haven't yet been able to find a person willing to let us throw up antennas on it. I suspect that we'll be able to locate someone soon, but the DSL service is spotty, even where it operates. But because there is a trickle of internet upstream available in the neighborhood, Radio Response and I agreed not to bring in the point-to-point teams to provide multi-megabit connections to Algiers. With other areas completely destroyed, it doesn't make sense to use the equipment and manpower here when it could be better used elsewhere.

Of course, with Hurricane Rita possibly on the way, we may be up a creek anyway. We've been making heavy use of Verizon's EVDO infrastructure and I confirmed with them today that we are coming off their actual towers here, not the mobile COWs. That's good—that means we should retain at least some internet connectivity unless the storm takes it down.

Right now I'm still trying to find DSL service to use in Algiers, but we also are having to make secondary plans to prepare for a possible hurricane hit. It sucks especially for me right now, because my girlfriend Susie was going to come down and help tomorrow, but now I'm not sure if I want her to fly into New Orleans only to have to hide from a hurricane. We'll have to make that decision tonight and I'm not looking forward to it.

I missed my flight out this morning on American Airlines from Houston. I called them about an hour after the flight left and I was told there was nothing they could do for me. I explained I was a relief worker in New Orleans and asked if they could make a special case, but they told me I should have known better and to suck it up. They're right—I should have called them. If only I hadn't been so busy doing other things I might have been able to call them and try to move it out. It's depressing, but it's yet a few more hundred dollars to toss into the great big hole in my savings that this trip has become.

And just so it doesn't sound like I'm trying to coyly ask for donations, I'm not. There is a chance I may get reimbursed for some of my equipment, vehicle, and travel expenses, but right now I'm not going to go broke, and there is much greater need than helping me. Don't worry—If I fear missing a rent payment or something like that, I'll definitely pipe up.

So on the whole, I'm doing pretty good. Mostly now I'm spending an hour or two each day working on technical things, then hauling around food and water with everybody else. Once we know what will happen with Rita, my tech responsibilities will mainly consist of packing gear in boxes and getting it to higher ground.

This has been a wrenching experience, but the people I have met from both the community and the volunteers have helped make it worthwhile. It's not that my faith in the goodness of humanity has been restored, but that it has been clarified. It's still an awful, horrible world, but there remains a few people whose selflessness and just plain goodness seems to persevere despite its statistical uselessness.

I guess I probably should have put this on my personal blog, but suck it up, nerds.

I'd like to thank all the people who continue to provide both technical and emotional support. Specifically, Justin D'Onofrio and his pal (whose name has already slipped my mind and I can't find in my email) who drove a truck full of laptops and other computer gear down from New York City just for us to use, then turned around and drove right back. Their donation completely changed the tenor of our operation and put us in a space to deploy more internet labs, as well as build some decent EVDO router machines.

Head over to Phonescoop for all the details.

Some volunteers came down with a low-power FM station, a hundred feet of coax, and a makeshift antenna. What they didn't have was a tower. I was going to strap a pole onto the chimney of the house we're staying in, but another volunteer named Jackie said she was pretty handy with a Skill saw and would be happy to rig something together.

About 8 hours later, we lofted this home-built antenna tower onto the top of the roof and begin broadcasting 94.5 FM, a station the radio operators are calling 'The Battle for Algiers' (which has a political connotation that I have not had the time to grok).

After the sun set, I walked a little ways down the street (but not too far, because of the curfew), listening to scratchy, mono sounds of John Coltrane beaming our from an community radio tower built from the salvaged lumber of destroyed homes. With the helicopters overhead, it felt like a lull in an 1960's American war in our own streets that never happened.

Legally, the radio operators are pretty sure that under a State of Emergency, the FCC allows low-power stations to operate. I've been asking them to verify this in a way that we can refer to when the Natl. Guard or police inevitably come knocking on their door, but if you are a radio operator familiar with the FCC emergency guidelines for LPFM, please feel free to send me an email at joeljohnson@gmail.com with an relevant information I can pass on to these folks.

Picture by Bradley Stuart, Creative Commons, non-commerical.

EVDO coverage works fine—brilliantly, in fact—which made it painfully simple to bring this house online. The problem is, when we leave, I'll have to take my card with me. (It's been our connection too many times to go without it.) We're trying to get at least another card procurred with service that we can leave here. While we expect power to come back online in Algiers within the next couple of days, there's no way to know if the DSLAMs and other telco equipment will be operating in the neighborhood to provide DSL. For now, it appears that EVDO is the best option.

We've got those 10 AMD 50x15 machines that we can deploy, but we're still looking for monitors. (It's funny, because in my head I was thinking we could just go into a school or something and steal them, until I got into town and realized we're here to help people rebuild their community. I can be so retarded sometimes.)

I think we've finally got a good place to do some work. There's some question as to how many people are immediately in the Ward, but I know the people that are here say they haven't signed up with FEMA yet, so that'll be job one. Then, we have to get a hold of the laptops and monitors necessary to leave in a semi-permanent installation.

I'll keep you guys in the loop on what we're doing, tech-wise. Oh, and I should add: Algiers is not under mandatory evacuation.

Also, I forgot to thank Divya and [Name Not Written Down So I Forgot It Like a Douchebag] for the water donations last night. We are drinking it right now and will be able to chip in to Malik and Co.'s supply.

If you're in Houston we really, really could use your help (or if you are a corporate agent outside of Houston, we could use your help, too). I'll list what we need after the jump (preview: it includes a bitchin' van, preferably with a wizard on the side).

Okay, so right now my deployment team consists of me and Jacob Appelbaum. We have a tentative two-stage plan (plus a bonus meta-plan).

Part 1

Tomorrow night we're heading to the Astrodome to help a community group establish a low-power (read: normally pirate), FCC-approved FM radio station to broadcast public service information.

Now these folks have the FM transmitter ready to go (and all the necessary paperwork) but have been told by the administrators of the Astrodome that they will not be allowed to broadcast unless they can personally provide 10,000 Walkman-type radios (I presume that means with headphones) for personal refugee use. I know that sounds like a lot of bullshit, but that's what they told me. I will confirm the details of this bizarre requirement myself tomorrow night.

In the meantime, if you are a corporate or retail outlet that has the ability to provide a large quantity of FM radios and/or batteries, please contact me immediately so that I can begin to help them negotiate this requirement.

So that's the first thing.

Part 2

This isn't set in stone yet, but I'm currently negotiating a supply drop with the employees of DirectNIC, the last operating ISP in New Orleans. (If you haven't heard of these guys, I wrote about them for Wired News here.) They are currently operating under the mandate of the Governor of Louisiana, who has asked them personally to stay online. We're going to try to help them do that, by delivering supplies, followed by the establishment of wireless communication throughout the downtown New Orleans area.

To do this, we'll need the use of a vehicle from the Houston area. I know that's a big request, but that's what we need. If you can provide that (and I can probably pay you from my pocket a reasonable fee) then please let me know. We also need immediate access to the following (with more to come as requests from the DirectNIC folks come in):

* A chemical toilet (it's apparently getting pretty raunchy in that building; 27-stories only allows so many fresh johns).
* Diesel fuel. (I Know, it sounds crazy to me, too, but they need it and it's worth asking, because you guys are resourceful.)
* People to assist transcribing radio feeds to text on irc.freenode.net #interdictor-help (ability to type would be great).
* Various other supplies. DirectNIC is compiling a list of things they need that should be sent to me in about 24 hours.

This part isn't set in stone, but should be soon (especially if someone can provide a vehicle; especially, as noted, one with an air-brushed wizard on the side [you know how we roll {d20s}]).

Part 3

Lastly, we need a big fat wildcard asterisks of gear, including old laptops (with good batteries), walkie-talkies, basic electronics components (there is an excellent list of supplies here, and food/water/basic sustenance needs. It is my intention to stay as self-sufficient as possible, while remaining as safe as possible—we don't need another hero (we don't need to know the way home).

If you're in the Houston (or even Austin) area and can contribute to our teams, we'd really appreciate it. I'll be posting updates of some of the things going on here on Gizmodo, as well as pictures taken by Jake or me.

And if you'd like to join in with the CUWireless division of the Part-15 group and are a qualified engineer, please let sign up. If you're in Houston, we'll try to add you into our immediate group.

None of my Gizmodo emails work anymore, so if you need to contact me, feel free to use any of the contact info on JoelJohnson.com.

Talk to you guys soon. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I think we're doing a good thing here.

Update: 1:19AM EST: I just remembered one last thing. If anyone has access to antibiotics and/or anti-infectious disease vaccines (or knows where we can get them in the Houston area), that would be a great thing for us as well, because I really, really can't hang with bleeding from my eyes or brain.