I am sitting in a Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle just north of New Orleans (north of the lake). It is about 9pm local time and I am "minding the store". This is a very high tech communications vehicle with among other things satellite internet.

I am at a food distribution and logistic support area. It is secure with a police presence. There is a large semi-trailer with a kitchen. I think they are feeding 16 shelters. Food and water roll in and out 24 hours a day.

I have direcTV and the situation is about as depicted on CNN. Confusing, scary, heartbreaking and very surreal. I had 4 hours warning. Left my camper and Gloria in California and did a fast run, driving the ECRV from Sacramento CA to Baton Rouge LA.

The job is a technical challange. We have been installing temporary low band (47mhz) mobiles as base units at several kitchens. Tomorrow we do another. Ham radio is being used a lot. We have a 50 foot tower on the truck and will mount a mosley ta-33 jr and a tri-band (6-2-70cm) vertical on it in the morning. We have deployed several laptops and VOIP phones using the T1 grade satellite internet connection. Much more techie stuff to be written about later.

Personal gear is minimal. I have been in three ECRV's and sleep mostly on the floors of various buildings. My thermorest(I think that is the brand) has been great. Better than a hard floor. Used a space blanket (tyvec type) for several days and that worked OK, but the lack of ventilaion caused me to sweat a bit. Managed to scrounge a blanket this morning.

Food is great. Nice to be at a kitchen. We keep two cases of MRE's and two cases of water in the truck. we can be moved at a moments notice to anywhere.

Sorry this is such a disjointed report, but I am doing work stuff at the same time. Just switched from the large generator that supplies the kitchen to the truck generator. The kitchen generator (huge thing) is overloaded and we keep loosing their power. Then the satellite connection drops, loosing all the internet sessions and VOIP calls. VOIP (Voice over internet) works great. Now running on the trucks generator, but low on diesel. Not enough to run all night. Will shut it all down in an hour or so. Hate it when the fuel tank gets low. There is no fuel to be purchased here and if we have to leve suddenly, we won't get far.

No cell or other phones here. No power, no nothing. We are just on the edge of the destruction zone so the roads are in good shape. We are about 1/4 mile from the interstate so the trucks can get here OK. Feels funny to be sitting in air conditioned comfort, playing ham radio, using the internet and making satellite phone calls. When I step outside, I enter a different world.

All is well for me. Probably be here until the 19th. Normal Red Cross tour for my skill is 3 weeks. Probably go back to CA for awhile, then back here someplace.

This is truly a disaster in evey sense of the world, I am making notes and will try to write about it all later.

To see the truck I am operating, check www.ecrv4712.org

nomad

Looking forward to it!

Also, in addition to the big stuff, I'd be very much interested in your day to day ETS-type activities. Being a flashaholic (addicted to flashlights <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ), for example, anything you'd care to share about how / when you're using whatever you're using would be very cool. Any other equipment related reports (like the thermarest), etc.

Other than donations, is there anything a non-ham radio computer geek can do to help remotely? I know I'm not the only full time software person on here, and I'd like to help with more than money. Not sure what that means, though.

Thanks for the update and good luck. We wish you well. Paul

Keep safe, thanks for link to your vehicle. PM your way.

Dave

Ron,

Very cool vehicle - wish ARC had even more of them to station down there thru the gulf coast region. Look forward to hearing about your experiences and "lessons learned".

Tom

Nomad, thanks for the great post. I'm a licensed ham and computer geek and also would be interested in how I can help. I could conceivably deploy to the area as I have time available, but I don't have equipment to provide and I'd need my expenses covered (travel etc). I don't consider myself to be much of a comms or operations expert though. I'm mainly a software developer. So most of what I can do, can be done remotely.

Great report, and cool vehicle. Keep safe and when you're back home, rested and settled, would like to hear how others can approach our local red cross units to begin volunteering. May be too late for me to help on this effort, but unfortunately, there will always be a time in the future when some other group is in need.

Good Luck,

Michael

Nomad,

Sounds like your keeping your head straight when everything else is twisted. Hang tough but loose!

Just a few low piority requests. If you get a moment, see if the 8 KW generator under the hood is an Auragen. What size tank is in the ECRV?

I replaced my OEM diesel tank with a TransferFlow 65 gallon tank to double my range and or run time of my 5 KW Auragen.

Thanks

Generater is Auragen. Good unit except for RFI. We can not run HF when using Auragen. I understand that lots of folks have tried to fix this problem without success. It is a real 8kw and we often power buildings with it. But the RFI is a real problem for us.

Don't know tank capacity, but driving from CA to LA cost over $100 per fill-up.

busy busy busy... been doing lots of repair on transport truck radios and running around Louisana putting up "temporary" low band base systems. Duct tape rules...

Today headed for bougalusa(spelling) LA. only contact from there is by sat phone, although I think there is a ham that has been trying to set something up. Not much ham activity. Most are trying to get their lives together. But those that are able to participate are doing a great job. There are several nets that are supporting various governmental (police rescue etc) and doing it very well.

Some repeaters active but most are down. We use ham radio a lot and it will continue to be useful for months. But there needs to be more of it. I could use several ops to go in delivery trucks when traveling out of the reach of our low band stations. We could use the exsting repeaters to extend our range. Right now we have several trucks "going it alone" into bad situations. No police escort, no radio. Just two women that are willing to make the drive, trip after trip after trip.

We will probably be leaving this site soon. Ordered a portable satellite internet system to replace our truck. Soon as it arrives we will be off for a new assignment.

nomad

Not much time to write. Very busy. We are now entering the area south of NO. Unable to enter city proper yet as it is under water. Areas south of NO are mostly wind damage. Lots of people there. Found about 500 yesterday. They have had only military in the area so far. We are first red cross. Deploying our medical people to Harvey area. Too far from our big (40,000 meals a day) kitchen to transport warm food so they will get packaged stuff. MRE's and heater meals (which I eat daily).

All sorts of reasons why people stayed thru the hurricane. Spoke with a VietNam vet that got out of the hospital after major surgery just before the winds hit. Could not be moved without skilled medical help which was not available. We were the first folks they saw in about 14 days. His wife said they were very scared and would have left if they could have gotten help. we heard the "would have left if we had gotten help" story many times. I guess the governmental agencies said they would provide busses etc but they never came. I hear that Amtrack provided a train which eventually left NO empty cause the transport to the train never happened.

Looks like the medical people will be setting up shop south of NO and the remainder of the services will follow. But we are running thin. It is not only the level of destruction which is severe, but the geographical area which is so great. There are just not enough resources for the task at hand.

Nomad