September 2005 Archives
Please feel free to call me if you need anything, but I'm hoping I can push this stuff down and out by tomorrow so I can start planning for a return to NOLA.
It sounds like the mesh project is definitely going to happen, with or without me.
I almost forgot to post about this, but I'm out having a beer so consider this a stub.
There is a woman in Algiers who is taking in local dogs who needs some more kennels. I think we should get her some, as she's already sent 100+ to no-kill shelters outside ยจ [Text was trunc'd]
[Continues] of Louisiana. I don't actually have her name, as her card doesn't say it, but she's available at K9Kitten@cox.net or at (504) 442-3647. I don't know when I'll be heading down there again, but if you know anyone who can procure kennels, I'm sure she'd love the help.
Once I have some idea of my return, I'll work on trying to get something together for her.
And I can't wait. Jeff Moe, a volunteer with Radio Response, is working to secure a bunch of mesh networking gear. We're going to light Algiers up like whoa. Details as I get them.
There's no way to leave without it feeling like a betrayal.
Last week in Algiers, we were planning to send supplies and medics to Texas or Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Rita. But Friday night, some folks in Algiers started to get pretty freaked out by the storm, even though to our knowledge the worst had passed New Orleans by. Still, teams of volunteers went out into the stinging rain to shovel our storm drains that had obviously not been serviced in months, if not longer. A lot of silt and detritus surely washed into the drains during Katrina, but not the thick, viney weeds that caused a lot of the backups. We pulled some covers off storm drains and shoveled out three or four feet of mud from the bottom, but could still not unclog them. I put an arm into one and still couldn't find the bottom of the muck.
Fortunately, the fear of the storm was unwarranted in Algiers. Strong wind and occasional bursts of rain were all we had to deal with, and by Saturday morning I was ready to roll out in my rental van to the west as part of a volunteer first response team. We had a boat, supplies, and medics, and I was ready to do some hands-on helping.
The work from the night before, however, slowed our timetable, and it soon became clear that there wasn't going to be any work to be done for at least 24 hours. I made a tough decision and prepared to leave Algiers for New York. I felt like if I didn't leave in that lull, I wouldn't find another good time to leave for weeks.
So we left Saturday around noon, traveling around Lake Ponchetrain and up towards Shreveport, driving through the tropical storm remnants of Rita. It wasn't the wisest thing I've ever done, but once we decided to leave, it seemed like we should just keep pressing forward until we got to some sort of civilization. Gas was scarce, but we made it to Austin in about 12 hours; up highway 49, then over on various small highways.
I was able to schedule a flight out of Austin. The rental van, which had been picked up originally in Houston, was dropped off at a Capp's rental office in Austin, even though you aren't supposed to be able to do that. (I told them, truthfully, that when I was to return the van before, the entire city of Houston was evacuated.) There was a tiny ding in the dual loading doors on the side of the van—so small that I couldn't see it when they first pointed it out to me. Considering how much Capp's worked with me I probably won't contest it if they try to send it to my insurance, despite the fact that it's nearly invisible and that I don't recall ever hitting anything with the door.
American took care of my ticket screw-up for me. Without getting into the details, I essentially found a customer care person who did what customer service should always do: take control of the situation and make it work. I thank her and American Airlines a lot. With as much money as I've blown on this trip, saving a few hundred dollars might make a big difference.
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I think we made a mistake going to New Orleans. My intention in heading to the Gulf Coast was to help wire up shelters and help evacuees get onto the FEMA website, as well as help them navigate the needlessly numerous 'lost family' websites. Instead, we ended up heading to an area that was mostly vacant, I think in part because it seemed more glamorous and in part because we were told there was a desperate need for communications.
But even though it was a misstep, I think it worked out. By leaving the Radio Response folks to their own devices, I found a community leader in Malik Rahim who was working hard to strengthen a community that is in dire, immediate danger of being strewn around the country. I didn't help many people in an immediate sense—although handing out food and water and supplies to those returning to Algiers was a great thing—but I did help support the medical clinic and help others get the word out (both indy activist media and mainstream media). I didn't get to help people in shelters and I think I'll always regret that, but I did get to help lay the ground work for a community to rebuild. I am trying to keep that in mind as something more than consolation, but instead as an opportunity to do something with longer-term results.
There is a lot of work to be done in Algiers and there will be many struggles over the next few months. Algiers is one of the least-affected areas of New Orleans from an infrastructure standpoint, and will be the first area to return to a semblance of normalcy. Many New Orleanians will move to Algiers from other wards and parishes, and much of the poor, predominantly black community will be forced out. Rather than making Algiers yet another community flipped by the cycle of gentrification, maybe there is a chance to both bring new money and resources into the community without driving out the citizens and culture that makes Algiers what it is.
I want to say that I have adopted a city, but it isn't true. What I've adopted are people like Malik Rahim, Scott Crow, and Suncere Ali Shakur who are people that I trust to do the right thing to help guide the poor and displaced community in Algiers in a positive direction. If they don't lose hope in the people of Algiers, I will try not to, either.
That may sound fruity, but it's important to me now to delineate my commitments. There is a very real chance that the poor community in Algiers will be forced out—or may not return after Katrina at all. I hope that I can do what I can to entice them to rebuild their community together into something better than it was before.
The next step seems to me to be setting up internet connectivity wide and far in Algiers. I'm going to start talking with folks from Radio Response as well as civic leaders about deploying a wi-fi network (possibly some meshing gear) to cover the entire area. It's sort of a big band aid, but there's a lot of money in Algiers, as well as a lot of need. If Algiers is going to be used as a staging point for the rebuilding of New Orleans as Mayor Nagin has said, we might as well do it right.
Anyway, big ideas for now and I've seen how rarely those work out. For now, I'm looking forward to spending a few days at home with Susie, drinking good beer, and playing with my dog. I've got a lot more to say about what I experienced and learned through all this, but that's for another time.
I'm flying out today for New York (hopefully). I'm just fine, but I've got to get back and get my life and finances in order. I'll definitely be posting some more thoughts soon, but for now I just wanted to let everyone know I'm safe.
Want to be able to post on the move. Thx to Mark/space for copy of missing sync.
So we've decided to hole up in Algiers, hoping that Rita will not hit us directly. We do intend to bug out if the storm track changes drastically, but for now it appears the direct hit will still be heading to Texas.
It is possible that the Mississippi will flood the levees in Jefferson Parish, or top the levees here in Orleans Parish to flood the streets. If that happens, historically we should expect about 3 feet of water. Our houses are elevated enough that they should stay dry at 3-4 feet.
FEMA, last I talked to them today, is taking off. The Red Cross left yesterday. The National Guard is pulling out of Algiers to head to Gretna, which worries some of us who aren't quite sure that the NOPD in the area are looking out for us. I'm not an anti-authoritarian-type, really, but these local cops haven't been paid since before Katrina. The Natl. Guard officer I spoke to today said he's a cop in another state and is worried about the behavior of the NOPD. We asked them to stick around and keep an eye on us, but they said we were on our own.
I really think we'll be fine. The Common Ground group is fully of dirty hippies and the like, but the last thing they're trying to do is antagonize the authorities. In fact, FEMA, the Natl. Guard, and the volunteer public service workers from out of state have all been very great to the Common Ground workers, doing a pretty good job appraising us of the overall pictures (or what little bits they know about).
We may try to deploy some of our resources to Texas if we think we can do any good, but right now I've made a commitment to the people of Algiers and New Orleans and I'm going to try to stay here to help them. If the levees break again north of the river (or even south), I'm not sure what sort of response there will be.
Please don't forget us. The devastation in Texas will likely be major, but we need both the support of our friends to continue to work here and the eyes of the rest of the world to keep potential renegade forces in line.
As the hurricane picks up here in NOLA, I will continue to try to provide more updates. We've already got most of the hatches battened down, so there's not much for me to do except watch and wait.
I just put up a big update on Gizmodo. It's sort of a combo of tech info and personal info, and I probably should have made it here, but I felt like I owed it to those guys to post something because I said I would, and I figured anyone reading from here wouldn't mind a link.
Anyway, it's all crazy and I'm about half-nuts, but I'm going to stay another two weeks and see if we get hit by this next hurricane. I don't think we will, and hopefully after this current wave of fear passes, I'll be able to get more of my work done.
Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco subsequently inked a contract with the firm after talks between FEMA and the firm broke down. Kenyon's original deal was secured by the Department of Homeland Security.
FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals [RawStory]
"Spent 4 hours scouting this morning. The director of the Red Cross - Hattiesburg turned us away. She said Microsoft had a trailer onsite for the workers to use, but not the evacuees."
Last night we got a bunch of calls from disgruntled evacuees at the Astrodome who were extremely upset at their treatment in Houston. They are saying that police are arresting them for the most minor of infractions and refusing them to do simple things like wear their shirts on their head to protect from heat (probably in fear of some sort of gang symbolism). While on the phone, other volunteers here said that they could hear "lots of people yelling in the background" this morning. There's no information about troubles there in the Houston Chronicle.
We were told by one person that they were loaded on busses to take them to sign up for new housing in Houston only to be left in a strange area while the busses left them alone. That's not the sort of mistake that should be made two weeks after the evacuation.
General unrest is to be expect at this point, but if you've been in the Astrodome in the last 24 hours, please feel free to leave a comment appraising me of the situation.
So much happened today I'm not quite sure where to begin. I'll take the easy way out.
I woke up covered in sweat, which is typical down here with no air conditioning. I'd covered myself twice in bug spray during the night, so I awoke relatively bite-free. I had missed the morning meeting, but actually listened to it from the next room where I was sleeping (I didn't want to walk in halfway through). There wasn't much for we tech guys to do without new equipment as far as planning went—especially while we're still waiting on equipment—so no harm.
She won't say it, but we have been running Malik's wife Sharon ragged. She's been cooking, cleaning up, fielding phone calls—everything—and having up to a half-dozen journalists in her kitchen, hunkered over laptops, was starting to get frustrating, I'm sure.
Fortunately (for us), the next door neighbor has decided to leave town, leaving Malik the key to his half of a duplex. Out of respect for his remaining stuff, we cleared out his front room and are trying to keep everything super clean. That does mean we can't sleep on his bed, sadly, but I'm working on calling him and offering him a bit of money for rent. To be able to sleep on a bed instead of the floor would be great.
On the plus side, this house got power today, which means we got central AC. I suppose the bills are still in this guy's name (and we'll have to work that out later), but for now it feels great.
But before we got our AC, I drove over to the medical center to see if they had any folding tables free. They didn't, however, which means I had actually use a Skill saw to cut wood. Not only that, I then used that wood to create something that isn't a dick joke. A couple of sheets of plywood and some two-by-fours later, I made us a couple of desks to use in the media center. Once we get all the computers online Wednesday (when a French org is dropping off 9 monitors to go with our AMD machines), I'll put up pictures. I will be very, very proud, and you will have to commend my resourcefulness in strange times and fearlessness in the face of manual labor.
This afternoon, right before a visit from Naomi Klein & crew, we lost our Verizon uplink. That sucked a lot—not only did we lose internet for ourselves and our immediate neighbors, we had another EVDO card coming in from another worker today that would be useless. Jake and I scrambled to find an alternate uplink before the curfew, but even though we had power back we couldn't dial up. I called a few people to see if they'd help me blog a few short things, but we resigned ourselves to going through the nearby affluent neighborhood to see if anyone would let us piggyback off their DSL or cable modems.
Fortunately, we regained connectivity just a couple of hours ago, so we're back in business. Tomorrow we can wire the medical center and begin helping the low-power FM station get online. I scavanged some materials from the street that I should be able to rig into an antenna tower for all our transmissions. I'm looking forward to building that tomorrow.
It's finally starting to come together and there's tons more work to be done. I'm sorry this isn't very interesting writing, but I'm just too brain dead to do more than journal our progress right now.
We're starting to get a little snippy with each other, but a lot of that was when the internet was down. Never get two geeks into a place with no internet.
There is a huge variety of police and military presence on the ground. That's to be expected. But the large number of private security forces is disturbing, specifically those operating through Blackwater. Even leaving aside the legal and political questions of what it means to have fully-armed, American-funded mercenaries operating as security against American citizens, it should also be noted, that of all the security forces on the ground, the Blackwater 'troops' were by far the biggest dicks.
We got yelled at some by police and official-types who wanted us out of areas where they were operating. Herding media isn't really their job, but they weren't rude about it (just brusque). The Blackwater employees, on the other hand, were phenomenally unpleasant.
Jake has a lot more to add soon, I'm sure, but there's a serious question as to the authority of these mercenaries. And why they are such cocks.
We're currently in the city proper, taking pictures of the flooding and broken buildings. The city is open to members of the press, but the police (in all their various forms) are not very amenable to our presence or questions. The SAR teams seem to be going block by block, clearing out the homes and marking each street as checked.
We met a man in the Marigny district who has chosen to stay. He had nothing good to say about FEMA at all, which isn't a unique sentiment, but had perhaps a bit of extra merit coming from him, as he was a 30-year veteran of fire and rescue services—including large-scale diaster planning.
All of the journalists we're with have been conducting interviews, filming video, and taking pictures. We'll have a lot more information to ccommunicate once we get back and can start putting it all together. I took some video with my iSight, but I doubt it will hold a candle to the stuff that Athony is getting.
I think it's amusing that Jacob continues to assert that the it smelled like death while entering the swamp. It is a swamp.
I'm standing in a morning meeting with a group of volunteers who are working to set up the medical clinic. The big topic of the morning is the story of an LPN named Bobby (who isn't here) who was apprehended by the Red Cross while providing medical relief. The Red Cross (working with armed troops from FEMA [we think]), seized Bobby's medical supplies from his truck because someone from the Red Cross decided that he was stealing the necessities—specifically, the pharmaceuticals.
Problem is, Bobby's supplies weren't from the Red Cross, but instead from private donations. Many of the pharmaceuticals were for residents in New Orleans who have a prescription, and one of the other medical volunteers is licensed to dispense prescription medicines.
Not only did the Red Cross seize the pharmaceuticals at gunpoint (while detaining Bobby somewhere until after the curfew), but they also took the remainder of Bobby's supplies, including bandages and the like.
That is the story as told by four of the local non-Red Cross medical volunteers.
Here is Jacob's take on the information.
Here is GNN's take on the same story.
Update: Anthony Lappe from Air America just recieved a call from the Red Cross media relations folks who said they were unsure why Red Cross employees would have been at a military checkpoint. They offered the possibility that the people who detained and de-supplied Bobby may have been military medical personal and not the Red Cross. More to come soon from Anthony at GNN as soon as he posts, but I just wanted to qualify the story as much as I can as it happens. Managing the rumor mill, etc.
Update 2: According to Bobby Lee Huss (the person detained), the supplies were both from the Red Cross and seized at their request.
Jacob was kind enough to write up an updated list of equipment. If you can ship this stuff to Baton Rouge, we can probably use it. No worries if you can't, but the more we have, the more we can deploy. We expect to deploy everything we brought with us from Houston, save perhaps the big Wi-Fi antenna (but you never know).
Also, Verizon, if you'd like to loan me an activated Samsung i730, I can give it back to you when I'm done.
Jake and I drove into Algiers today at the request of 'Malik,' a Muslim Rastafarian activist who is currently helping the area to coordinate rebuilding and medical efforts. They've set up a medical center and community center, but haven't had the ability to get online and register with FEMA, so that's step one.
It's sort of weird, because these guys don't have power, but plenty of natural gas and water. We walked up, turned on my laptop with EVDO, and instantly brought a neighborhood online. Sort of ridiculous, but needed.
Reports vary between 50 to 3,000 people in the Algiers area. The grid is already up near Malik's house, and we expect it to come online here before Monday. If we can get these guys a permanent internet uplink here and the medical center, the next step will be to teach someone how to use the AMD machines to get online and register so they can help other people.
Algiers is ready to be repopulated, it would appear. The mandatory evacuation doesn't apply here, the streets are peaceful (but empty), and there are plenty of military around. Malik says that Algiers will be the staging point for the rebuilding of the rest of the city. If we can help get some internet infrastructure in place, hopefully we'll be of help.
We're going to go out and visit the medical center tomorrow. I think we've got the equipment, minus some monitors, to make this happen.
I think we might actually have something good to do here finally.
But for now Malik and his wife have put out a great big spread of rice and beans and chicken and I'm absolutely starving, so I'm going to stop being rude and have a bite to eat.
I get stressed a lot—I'm high-strung and neurotic. But I am feeling stress in a totally different way down here, and it's just strange. Today was much harder than yesterday, with a lot of command decisions to be made, a lot of quickly changing information, and some personal issues that really took me down farther than they really should.
It just feels far too early in all this to be this wound up. I'm trying hard to just take it all in stride, realize that freaking out won't do anyone any good, and move forward. It's just such a mess of information. I am quickly beginning to see part of why it has taken so long to get people organized in such a crisis. And we're just in Houston. In the affected areas, I bet it will be ten times worse.
We may very well have an amazing opportunity to help a few thousand people get back on the grid. I really hope it works out, but there's so much in flux about every opportunity we are presented with, we're just going to be forced to make a choice and stick with it. I'm a 'mull things over' type of person, so this is taking a little getting used to.
So far I've kept up my freelance responsibilities, albeit more slowly than I had hoped. My cash reserves are going fast, though, so I am looking forward to being paid soon (don't quite know how I'll get those in the bank, but I'll get to that at some point). I have thought about it, and once we get some real work done—something I can point to and say 'your help did that'—I won't be asking for money. I'm keeping good records of my expenses and stuff, though, because at this rate I'm going to wipe out my savings entirely, and if I feel it makes sense, I won't be too proud to accept help. But right now I'm scared shitless this is going to turn into some nearing-30 adventure vacation and until I can prove otherwise, I'm prepared to let myself pay a financial cost for an immature decision.
Also, someone I met down here that I really clicked with ended up calling me, more or less, a bad writer and a poor journalist, while implying that was to be expected because I was part of the 'mainstream media.' (This was because of my Wired News story today.) I've never been The Man before, and it's taking some getting used to. If nothing else, it is making me reconsider how I interact with the people involved in the stories I am trying to report.
I also learned that when people ask you how old you are at the end of a conversation, they aren't doing it because they are actually want to know. It's a nice trick. I'll use it the next time I want to belittle someone for no good reason.
He called the Oak Brook Apartment complex in Houston (Link to GMaps) and was told they have an open apartment. They then asked if he was a felon. Danny had a conviction in 2001 (I didn't ask for what) and told them he did. He was told that he would not be allowed to move in because they did not accept felons.
I'm at a loss. If this is a Houston-wide issue, it will affect many people—people who have commited a crime in the past, but are now on the street, having served their time. If this is the individual policy of the Oak Brook apartments, then I think they're making a big mistake.
I told Danny there wasn't much I could do, but that I would write about it. At the moment, I don't really have much of a chance to confirm or disconfirm if this is an official policy at FEMA. I did call Janet at Oak Brook Apartments. She confirmed this is their policy.
Details today about our next steps.
Okay, Jacob Appelbaum and I have teamed up with the CUWireless folks to establish an initial presence for the FCC/FEMA Part-15 groups. I'll be in Houston at least tonight and hope to be leaving Texas for Louisiana by tomorrow.
Please see posts on BoingBoing and Gizmodo for more details at the moment.
More details soon.
Update: First trip fucked. More details soon.
My latest piece is up for Wired News. I'm very happy with how it turned out.
It was a lot of work to put together the story when the people at Zipa and DirectNIC were so busy (and I started to feel some of what battlefield reporters must feel; the whole, "This isn't nearly as important as what you are actually doing, but could you answer some questions?" thing.) I really appreciate the two Mikes and their friend Teri (?) for helping me out last night with the facts, etc.
I think the story turned out well mostly because it's, you know, an awesome story. These guys are in the middle of a fucking war zone, with no help in site because of continual fuckups/miscommunication by city police and Natl. Guard. (And I'm not trying to place any blame on the guys on the street. They aren't getting the support they need.)
These guys at Zipa/DirecNIC are going to be SysAdmin folk heroes. As an ex-hosting company sysadmin myself, I was (and am) totally captivated by their tenacity. I don't know what the situation is like down there for journalists, but if they can resecure their OC3s from BellSouth, I may try to go visit them in person for a longer piece.
