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A Technology Report From A San Diego Fire Shelter
netbuzz writes "Retired journalist and mobility expert Jim Forbes is among the quarter-million San Diego-area residents driven out of their homes by the horrific wildfires. Forbes has taken the opportunity to 'fire blog' from his shelter and discuss via e-mail with Network World how his personal technology and the shelter's wireless networks are holding up under the strain. 'The shelter set up a dedicated computer room with an 802.11 a,b, and g network which worked like a charm. Lots of people brought notebooks when they left their home, so there was a whole lot of IM traffic in and out of the shelter. The local cell networks were subsumed by traffic early in the day so people were texting friends and loved ones a lot."
In the article he talks about his wireless Skype Phone. These things are really nice to have around. I have one at home since I don't get any cell reception there. I forsee that in 5 years all cell phones will just have this built in though.
It might look funny from an external point of view, but when you stack hundreds of people in shelters for days, morale soon becomes a concern as big as logistic. Giving them a way to get independant information and communicate with the rest of the world and their families is a cheap but effective way of reducing the stress of the refugees.
how are the gas pumps doing through all this?
The ones that are not in areas under fire are fine
is there a gas shortage?
doesn't appear to be one; could be because so few people are driving
are they jacking up the prices on the highways?
you mean just over the past couple of days? no, but they're chronically jacked up anyway
is al gore going to relate this to global warming?
it is likely
is manbearpig responsible for it all?
quite possibly
I'm curious to read the after action reports - no more so than the folks living this nightmare. I'm curious to see how the local ham community participated in all this.
Using texting for 'Health and Welfare' messaging via WiFi at a shelter is great and the shelter folks are to be applauded for making that work so well! Such communications has traditionally been - at least augmented - by the amateur radio community. Was there still need/a place for this? Where they reachable by those dozen or so people who don't have texting cell phones or WiFi clients? Did the hams setup the WiFi access, coordinate it or what did they do?
Who knows - maybe now the SSB and CW enthusiasts will finally have to learn how to deal with TCP/IP, CAT5, WiFi and texting - in spite of the Jay Leno message race results.
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
Yeap, you're just a giant asshole. Putting out every single wild fire isn't necessarily good policy, but neither is letting people's houses burn down.
The firefighters know about fire management, and that in places like Yosemite the forest gets too thick when you try to put out fires too frequently. The Southern California fires are different though....they are largely grass fires, with grass that has dried out during the long summer. In addition the warm Santa Anna winds heat things up and push the fires along. So letting the fires burn one year will have little effect on the fires of the next year.
We help those people out because we feel sorry for them. Basically, if you can look at someone's house that burned down, and expect them to just live in the street until they can find somewhere else to live, you have trouble empathizing with people and should get some help. Don't matter if it's their fault or not; I done enough stupid things in my life that I can forgive someone else for doing the same.
Qxe4
actually, it's more a side effect of the fact that the shelter operators need/want it to run the shelter! The has been a lot of work done on "how do we keep email up during disasters" - everything from broadband, to mesh networks, to satcoms, to sending email via ham radio (both on VHF packet networks and long distance HF links) - with the ham links, as soon as the traffic gets nto a radio outside the effected zone, the packets get routed onto the internet
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
That's true in much of California as well. Lots of mountain ranges. Right now, Arrowhead is burning. They get plenty of snow. Last year, maybe it was Big Bear (lots of snow). Maybe next year it'll be Silverwood. All three mountains, right next to each other, at the very North-end of the L.A. Basin.
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