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Hurricane Relief - What Would You Bring?
andyring asks: "In a few weeks, I will be going with a group from my church down to some of the hardest-hit areas in Louisiana and Mississippi to volunteer in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. We will be there six days, and have 10 people going so far. At this point, I don't know much more than we'll be in either Slidell, La. on the northeast shore of Lake Ponchartrain, or Pass Christian, Miss., right on the Gulf Coast near Gulfport/Biloxi. Not knowing what we'll be faced with, and having somewhat limited room for supplies, tools and equipment (probably a U-haul trailer), what would you bring on a journey such as this? Any Slashdot readers between Lincoln, Neb. and the New Orleans area interested in contributing to our effort, such as donations of equipment/supplies/tools/etc?"
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I'd check out the Red Cross website or something. Or perhaps you could check this out, some good ideas there.
Lets see... Hammers, Nails, Chainsaw, good old handsaw, axes some saw horses stuff you dont need electricity for.
Personally I'd bring...
Food
Water
Shelter (canvas tents, large)
Tools (Tarps, gloves, hand saws, hammers, crowbars)
Large Commercial-grade trash bags
Cheap duffle bags / backpacks
Bicycle(s)
All your favorite Linux distros so you can "secure" all the Windows machines you find.
Nothing interesting to say...MUST...NOT...REPLY...ohtheheckwithit.
Duct tape.
You'll need a brick wall to bang your head and a baseball bat might help with federal officials. I volunteered, I rounded up some donated equipment for wireless ISPs who flocked to the area, and they totally got the run around from FEMA. A group of twenty five traveled to Kelly AFB on their own dime to lay in a phone system for evacuees and SBC had done the deed two days before they got there. FEMA coordination indeed!
If you're doing bricks & mortar stuff you'll probably get a lot further, but the technology relief stuff is just a joke - its going to be total pork barrel for the Haliburton sized companies of the world.
Good luck!
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
Everything you will need for 12 days, plus everything you will be bringing on top of that to help out. This includes food, water, shelter, fuel, a spare tire for the U-Haul, etc..
The very worst thing you could do would be to arrive there and become part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
It might also help if you got an invitation from officialdom, with some idea of where they think they need to put resources first, so that you maximize your value, and have written official sanction to even be in the area you can show to the guards at the blockades.
-- Terry
Comfy shoes implies to me your typical sneaker/running shoe. Bad idea. You may be stepping in alot of debris. Things that can be sharp like glass, nails, and so forth. You'll want a sturdy set of work boots. Perhaps even steel toed shoes. Bring a hard hat as well for the same reason. You'll do them no good if you get injured trying to help them out.
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**insert favorite profound quotation here**
Don't forget a radio. From what I hear the Freeplay lifeline radios are great.
They do not require any batteries, picks up AM, FM, and Shortwave, designed to withstand "harsh conditions", and is powered by solar and/or wind-up. That and if you purchase one they automatically donate another to the Freeplay Foundation to help orphaned children in Africa.
Next step up would be to have a ham license so you could talk back. Although...in an emergency I'm not sure how strict the FCC would be if you didn't have one.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
Don't bring your bibles. These people need real actual help, they don't need folks coming down there with ulterior motives trying to convert them.
Don't you think maybe there are some folks over there who already are Christians and would like a copy of the bible to replace one that was destroyed?
Worksites are dangerous. I can only imagine the carnage if you set loose a bunch of weekend warrior office workers with power tools and hurricane-damaged buildings. Make sure you have someone experienced in the type of work to provide a full daily orientation, along with tool and worksite safety training, and supervision to ensure that you don't injure yourselves. You don't want to add to the problem by becoming a burden on local medical resources, rather than helping out as you had planned.
You need some idea of what you'll be doing before you can properly plan. Will you be clearing damage, and demolition? Then you'll want chainsaws, chop saws, wrecking bars, etc. Will you have electricity (generator or powerlines), or will you want to bring as many gasoline powered tools as possible. But most importantly, you need some people who know what they're doing. Plan your work. Prethink each task before starting it. Stop and think (Exxon safety slogan) during each task.
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rice, soy sauce, ramen noodles/soup packs, pre-sweetened drink mix (Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, Gatorade, etc.), shovels, rakes, and hoes.
I was down there helping my brother and family, and here's some things I would suggest:
Those are the things I used the most often when I was down there. Most of all, don't approach the coast with a feeling of dread. Unlike what the media has portrayed and focused upon in a few areas in New Orleans, the attitudes of the people there are upbeat and industrious, if a little haggard. The physical destruction is as bad or worse than portrayed on TV, but the "people" situation is much more positive. Mississippi Coast'ians (I'm one of them) are survivors.
BTW, thanks for the help on behalf of those directly affected (I live several hundred miles inland and so wasn't affected). FEMA is doing a fantastic job, but the job is so large that churches and other volunteer groups are needed to fill in the gaps. For instance, my grandmother had an Indiana church group clean out several pecan trees that were down in her front yard last week. We couldn't find an available crew to hire for it, and they just showed up out of the blue and did it for her! It really makes a difference.
BTW, parts of Slidell should have power now, and I know Picayune has full power (15 mins. from Slidell on the MS border). If you need accomodations, check with First Baptist of Picayune, and they may be helpful. I noticed from their website that Beatrice in Nebraska is the adopted "sister city" of Picayune for the disaster, so you may can use resources from both those cities if you need it. Beatrice Link
You're not only doing God's work, but that of a fine American. Thanks.
And bring your Bibles. Be prepared to share the hope that is in you with these people. Feed them, clothe them, give them shelter, and heaven forbid you neglect their spiritual needs.
God bless!
Sorry, but that is simply wrong. It takes little training to clear debris, cut trees and limbs, rip out sheetrock, etc. Yes, you could get hurt, probably just minor cuts and bruises, but it's not much different then cleaning your yard, just on a larger scale. Just don't crawl under downed trees or get near power lines.
I'm not pointing you out with this statement, but the notion that it takes an "expert" to help people is a bad one, IMO. The American way (at least down South, still, and probably in the Mid-West) is to roll up one's sleeves and get to work without waiting for the "authorities" or Uncle Government to arrive.
The original poster will do fine; he will help several families, learn about an area of the country he may never have seen before, learn new skills, and gain a lot of intangibles from the experience. But be a hindrance or liability? Nah...
Neither do you, certainly not one of this size, or you would know people need all the help they can get.
Can you use a hammer? Great, then you can frame a house.
Can you use a shovel? Great, then you can help clean the two feet of mud out of some peoples' houses.
Can you talk to people on a phone? Great, then you can help relay calls to relatives in different shelters or shore up the help lines at utilities' or relief orgs' call centers. You see, most people who really need to can't go to www.fema.gov or the like.
Can you spare some plastic containers/chest-like things? Building materials? Cleaning supplies? Shovels, axes, chainsaws, drills... no clothes please, by the way. We've got quite enough.
Do you know how to build/fix any part of a house? If you do, could you show me and others?
Could we have some jobs? You don't have to be Halliburton to bring business down here.
We need long term help, especially. Medical care, jobs, schools, houses, neighborhoods. The Military just get people off their roofs and make sure they don't starve or kill each other. The Red Cross if for emergency relief, and who knows if they'll share their overly large (70%) share of the donations. FEMA is for, apparently, acting as a political lightening rod and blaming Ray Nagin for everything.
Anything will do. People that "know what they are doing" are doing a shit job of it. People who have seen whats happening and just come down to do whatever they can have done the best job. By far.
Death and danger are my various breads and various butters.
if you seem to help people "to convert them" you're only bringing a bad testimony, like Jehova's Witnesses who seem kind in the beginning, but at the first sight of rejection they run away.
Some christian hints:
For people who believe in God / Jesus, and are in doubt (repeat: IN DOUBT), you can tell them that it was God / Jesus who brought you there. God acts thru kind acts of people. But I'd say it's wiser to let them draw their own conclusions.
It wasn't God who brought the destruction to the people - but the ineptitude of people in the government and those who decided to build a city below sea level. Global warning is the result of greedy men (i.e. sinners) polluting the air, so this makes a good defense against the idea that "God destroyed their houses in his wrath etc etc".
But then again, I'd recommend you to keep silent about this, unless you want to be seen as another one of the bible thumpers out there.
Tolerance (specially towards those who reject christianity) is the sign of a true christian, because Jesus helped the heathens, and was merciful with all.
St. Francis of Assisi, said: "Preach the Gospel. Use words if necessary". The greatest way to preach the gospel is to do what Jesus would do: Love and help those in need. Remember St. Paul's words: If I have the gift of prophecies, but no love in me, I'm useless.
If possible, don't mention christianity at all. Just mention the name of the community if you're asked. Remember what Jesus said: Do not do good deeds and proclaim them over the skies. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand does.
Make sure to get at least a tetanus shot. You may also want to begin your hepatitis A and B vaccination sequences soon enough before you go to make sure that they provide some resistance. also, bring some sturdy gloves (leather), bottled water, and food. Just make sure to get those shots.
If you don't have a generator (and even if you do), power inverters can be real useful... These things can take 12Volt powr and provide 110 for things ranging from laptops to power tools. This means that they can run off of your car's battery and generator. Xantrex (formerly statpower) is who I know, but there are now many other similar suppliers of these things... They start at about $40, and can be found at places like Radio Shack. They're invaluable when you're mobile/remote/stranded or just plain out of mains power (to steal the british saying).
They range from a tiny 75watt unit that can plug into your accessory outlet, and should handle most chargers and laptops to units over a kilowatt that will probably need to be wired direct to your electrical system (presuming that it's even robust enough to drive the monster at full load).
Once you've got that, I'd also suggest a couple of jell cells, for running things that want mains power when you're in places like a hotel room with no power (you can charge them off of the vehicle power during the day). I wire mine with a 12-volt accessory plug (make sure to put a fuse on it). You can often get them out of small dead UPSs.
You can use them when you're mobile, and after you've placed your larger generators where they're most needed. I first came up with the idea in my tree-hugging days when I needed to charge a video camera battery at a logging protest and the only power I had access to was an RCMP vehicle.
If you haven't already thought of it: communications equipment, including hand-radios. I wouldn't presume that cell phone service id reinstated wherever you're going.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, so I went thru a handful of nasty hurricanes, including two Cat 5s. Here's what I would do if I had to spend any time in a disaster area like that:
1. You want it, you carry it. Assume there is nothing available. That means stock up on asthma medicine, painkillers, contact lenses, whatever it is that YOU need. This is before you worry about what to bring to others.
2. Footgear: Ideally you should be wearing sturdy waterproof footgear, boots if possible. Sneakers are a no-no. You can easily twist an ankle stepping over debris, and a nail will pierce thru your sneaker soles as if it is not even there. Plus you don't want to get your feet wet in that kind of environment. Carry extra socks and foot powder too.
3. You can't carry too many batteries or too many ziploc bags.
4. Carry some wet wipes, these are very handy and can be used for many things. Get a couple packs with something like aloe vera and a couple with clorox, lysol, etc.
5. Flood areas, especially in the south, have terrible mosquito control issues. Repellent sucks but still beats the alternative.
6. Unless you have solid housing arrangements, that is, unless you know you are sleeping at an air conditioned room, find a mosquito net. Sure, it will be hot as hell, but I would rather be hot and without bug bites.
7. Fluids! Unless specifically arranged for, you have to assume there is no drinking water available. When Hurricane Hugo struck Puerto Rico in 1989 I had to drink warm coke for about 5 days. We had plenty of stuff to drink, but we were told to not trust water, period.
In my case the worst was the lack of electricity and potable water. Our house was hurricane-proof, so if it flooded all we had to do was hose down the walls (cement) and floors (marble), repaint and replace furniture and appliances. That means that once the flooding receded we could go back to clean the house and make it habitable again instead of having to stay at a shelter and risk getting sick.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
This is in response to your comment but largely addressed to the submitter -- maotx, please don't take the "you" personally in all of this. :)
It's my feeling that every geek should get their ham license. It costs $14 and it's good for 10 years. The study guide for the technician license is published by the arrl and it's called "Now You're Talking". Given that most geeks already know ohms law and how to handle simple wavelengthfrequency conversions you've almost passed right there. Beyond that there's a lot of really obvious stuff ("Why should you wear a hardhat and safety glasses when helping someone work on a tower?" "Er. To protect my eyes and my head..." ). The exam is given in a multiple choice format -- any answer which includes the phrase "control operator" is correct.
Even if you know jack-shit about radio you'll come close to passing just by picking the "correct-looking" answer off the test. SAT style guesswork. Large portions of the exam can easily be gamed: they publish all of the questions, right answers, and wrong answers which will appear on your exam. The hardest part (unless you're really good at rote memorization) is probably memorizing the beginning and end frequencies of each of the bands. This is easy to game because of all of the answers which will appear on your exam only one of them will have the correct width for the band. AA9PW has practice exams on his website. Try it and you'll be amazed at how close you are to passing right now. A single night of study will bring you up to a passing mark.
Don't try and skip on the exam and operate without a license. If you're seriously putting together a convoy to go into the area you can easily get a licensed operator to come in with you and handle any radio contacts on your group's behalf. If you don't know a ham then look up a local club on the ARRL -- or call a local fire department or hospital and ask for the contact information for the local ARES/RACES group. Odds are one of them would love to go down with you -- and will be an extra set of hands. The HAM you get to go with you will probably have a lot better emergency equipment than your group will -- and will have already spent a lot of time drilling for emergencies.
73 DE KE7EWX
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
I agree with the parent post. I am a volunteer in our state's Emergency Service organisation, and I can think of a couple more things you might need.
You haven't clarified what exactly you'll be tasked to do (rebuilding/helping the refugees, cleanups etc.) Still, I'll chip in with a few more suggestion, keeping in mind all you have is a trailer.
- Blankets: handy for a lot of things.
- Plastic Tarulins (and a roll of the heavy duty plastic sheets)
- Some ropes (the synthetic tie down ropes get a couple of rolls, and some hauling ropes (sythetic or natural fibre ones)
- Lots of (gaffa? or duct tape) very handy.
- Brooms and rakes.
- Spare boots and socks (unless you can obtain them locally)
- A ladder, I would recommend a Folding ladder: can be made into a step ladder or a long one.
- Drinking water containers (and water if you can, minimum 4 litres per person per day since you'll be "working" in a hot/humid place)
If you restrict the trailer to only equipment, you'll have a decent amount of essential tools/supplies for tasks in disaster areas. I'm assuming for a group of 10, you'll be going in a convoy or at least a bus. Keep personal gear in your cars and spare the trailer for equipment and tools.
One piece of advice I'd give you though. Working in disaster areas is not easy, especially when you are dealing with people who have lost a lot. Although it is easy to "say it", try not to get overwhelmed by the scale of things. Concentrate on your immediate tasks, and forget everything else while doing it. Also, it may not come naturally, you should appoint a "team leader" if you don't already have one. Makes running jobs much more smooth.
Good luck,
I'm down here in the middle of this mess. I've been helping with rescue efforts. The rescue efforts are over. The relief efforts are, for the most part, over as well.
If you want to help us, the best thing you can do is make sure the media's prototypically-short attention span doesn't waiver from the fact that this area needs help... big help.. not some church group handing out towels.
What we need are people WATCHING THE MONEY that's being spent down here. That's where we need the most help. If we don't get it, New Orleans is going to end up like Iraq... with billions given to politically-connected special interest groups and no substantive infrastructure or improvement. That's the legacy the current administration is doing in the wake of an ADD populace who isn't paying attention.
What we need most are people who are paying close attention to what the feds are doing. The people of the Gulf Coast can deal with things. If you REALLY want to help, be active politically, and insist that taxpayer money goes directly to local communities instead of Halliburton. Right now, a shitload of federal money is going to Halliburton, just like it is in Iraq.
Don't come down here. Get on the phone and call your representatives and demand that the resources dedicated to this area are not squandered away in a plethora of no-bid contracts. That's what's happening now. Everything else is paltry compared to this.
If you really want to help, that's what you need to do. If you want to go on some goofy, fuzzy, feel-good, field trip that won't make any significant difference, go ahead with your other plans. But I sincerely urge you to seriously consider what I'm saying. I cannot stress how important it is. WATCH THE MONEY LIKE A HAWK!! We are going to get screwed if the American people don't pay attention!