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I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

houstonchronicle.com

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Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#31

Post by wolco »

wnissen wrote: post #4

Why don't we have people doing this dispatch professionally? What are FEMA and the Red Cross doing if not helping coordinate emergency response when the normal channels are overwhelmed? Don't get me wrong, this person, and all those who aid the rescue efforts, is a hero. Don't the people who do this deserve to get paid and have resources for dealing with PTSD? And don't the victims deserve organized, professional res…

If you are waiting for FEMA to save you your chances of survival go down dramtically. Chances are a neighbour or an average person will be there over a federal agency.

The Red Cross is a different story altogether. During the last few crisises they were caught asking for money but never spending it but kept up asking for it. Charity hording for lack of a better term means other smaller locally based charities don't receive the support they really need.

Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#32

Post by sixothree »

aaroninsf wrote: post #7

The part of this story I don't understand myself, is how so many people had bandwidth to download and use an app, in an environment in which I would have assumed both power and the cell network–especially data–were limping or just down. The implicit question is, what percentage of people in the disaster zone did, and did not, have a channel out through this app? Does this story represent the 10% case or the 50% case…

Right. I know of people who lost power and cell phone coverage.

Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#35

Post by tjohns »

beamatronic wrote: post #33

We need ham radio hardware with an iOS interface

It exists. Off the top of my head, Flex SDR radios can be fully network controlled via iOS:

http://www.flexradio.com/amateur-products/flex-6000-signatur...

There's other options as well. But I'm not sure how that would help here?

Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#36

Post by lukejduncan »

When Katrina hit, I remember finding the blog of a guy who had a company doing custom websites in New Orleans on the front page of hacker news. He stayed there through the storm and after, and I remember sitting in the undergraduate library at Wayne State University fighting back tears reading it. This had a similar affect on me. Very powerful story.

It wasn't clear to me, but I'd love to learn more about the tech powering this app. Is it open source? Is it somehow decentralized?

Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#37

Post by joshdance »

lukejduncan wrote: post #36

When Katrina hit, I remember finding the blog of a guy who had a company doing custom websites in New Orleans on the front page of hacker news. He stayed there through the storm and after, and I remember sitting in the undergraduate library at Wayne State University fighting back tears reading it. This had a similar affect on me. Very powerful story. It wasn't clear to me, but I'd love to learn more about the tech po…

I remember the same blog. He talked about fuel running out, posted pictures from the high rise etc?

Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#39

Post by maxerickson »

manacit wrote: post #11
wnissen wrote: post #4

Why don't we have people doing this dispatch professionally? What are FEMA and the Red Cross doing if not helping coordinate emergency response when the normal channels are overwhelmed? Don't get me wrong, this person, and all those who aid the rescue efforts, is a hero. Don't the people who do this deserve to get paid and have resources for dealing with PTSD? And don't the victims deserve organized, professional res…

There are absolutely people doing this professionally for organizations like the National Guard, US Navy and other responders https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/08/28... There were even wings from New York and other states who went to Texas just to assist: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/08/31/harvey-helicopter-res... According to the first article, "We haven’t deployed this many people since Wor…

There's also the question of spending resources on mitigation instead of response.

Try to direct development to less vulnerable areas, require flood control planning ahead of building construction, stuff like that.

Re: I downloaded an app and was part of the Cajun Navy

#40

Post by jofer »

aaroninsf wrote: post #7

The part of this story I don't understand myself, is how so many people had bandwidth to download and use an app, in an environment in which I would have assumed both power and the cell network–especially data–were limping or just down. The implicit question is, what percentage of people in the disaster zone did, and did not, have a channel out through this app? Does this story represent the 10% case or the 50% case…

Keep in mind that power outages in Houston were pretty rare and localized. Cell phone towers had power and the vast majority of homes had power (even a lot of the ones that were flooded, before it was explicitly cut off to flooded areas).

There were just a _lot_ of stranded people and not enough boats.

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