Hurricane Maria: Summary of communication status - and lack of

Tue Oct 3 01:59:11 UTC 2017

This is great to hear Nicholas.

On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 5:55 PM, Nicholas Harland <nharland at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Sean,
>
> Thank you for all of your updates. I am just catching up on them because I
> only recently got back from the virgin islands. I am one of those
> volunteers working in the USVI. St John specifically. We are building out a
> wireless network, and had our first hotspot up in Cruz Bay 4 days after
> Maria, with connectivity to NPS/FEMA/Red Cross/St John Rescue/Fire/Police
> just a few days after that.
>
> If there are technical minded and physically able bodied people would like
> to join the effort on St John, even just for a 1-2 week rotation, I would
> be happy to discuss what we need in terms of support and can make all
> arrangements on the island for housing etc. Getting some relief and fresh
> minds in would be a great help as our team is primarily St John residents
> who have been on the island through both hurricanes and have had to deal
> with their own personal situations while also trying to get internet up
> where it's needed.
>
> St John was hit directly by Irma, infrastructure was completely destroyed,
> but it's a very small island and so the humanitarian situation there is
> much more stable than Puerto Rico, but many of the resources that were
> assisting on STJ are now rightfully being diverted to SJU. You could expect
> to sleep somewhere that has a generator running overnight, have access to
> refrigeration/freezer (though cannot open fridge during day). Food/water
> situation is fine there, we have a beach volleyball game on Sundays, more
> generators are appearing on the island and some businesses are opening.
>
> Regards,
>
> Nick Harland
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 24, 2017 at 2:13 PM, Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 24 Sep 2017, Mike Hammett wrote:
> >
> >> There are a bunch of WISPs waiting to go rebuild, but waiting for the
> >> clearance to do so.
> >>
> >
> > I'm not sure what clearances they are waiting for.  If they are already
> in
> > Puerto Rico, self-sufficient, and respect curfews and other emergency
> > responders, they should be able to start local restoration and recovery
> > activities.
> >
> > Several local ISPs and communication providers have announced open public
> > WiFi hotspots outside their Puerto Rico offices during non-curfew hours.
> > I've also seen reports from individuals volunteering on the Virigin
> Islands
> > setting up internet access.
> >
> > If they are not already on the island, most Puerto Rican airports and
> > ports are still closed to non-military or relief activities. There is no
> > U.S. mail or freight service. Only one airport was open for limited
> > commercial flights.  They will need to bring everything neccessary to
> > support themselves, including food, water, shelter, etc.
> >
> > Managing volunteers who want to help is difficult in all disasters.
> Unless
> > they have training how to survive and take care of themselves in such a
> > situation, letting in outside well-meaning volunteers sometimes become
> > additional people who need to rescue.
> >
> > WISPs already on Puerto Rico or U.S. Virigin Islands, with resources for
> > recovery and restoration of communications; can contact the FCC
> Operations
> > Center, (202) 418-1122, FCCOperationCenter at fcc.gov
> >
> > http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017
> > /db0920/DA-17-913A1.pdf
> >
> >
>