Message From Louisiana

Communications are an important part of any relief effort, and ISPs can play a significant role in the massive relief effort for victims of Katrina. The Hunt Brothers of Franklinton, La. are asking for help for nearby Bogalusa—and for New Orleans.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 2, 2005]

Plenty of ISPs are taking part in relief efforts in Louisiana. We have so far only contacted the Hunt Brothers of Louisiana LLC (the same Hunt brothers as those on this regulation page).

W. Kevin Hunt posted the following request to the ISP-CLEC list:

"I need some Houston DIDs for disaster relief."

We asked him to tell us more about his story and he text messaged us:

"I've slept 4 hours since 6 AM Monday morning so I'm little loopy and having problems being coherent. We have an electric co-op in Franklinton, La. that is using 6 of our VoIP handsets for communications. We are working on procuring generators for Franklinton, La. and Bogalusa La. Bogalusa is in dire need of help. They have no water, no electricity, nothing.

At least we have water in Franklinton, and I am attempting to get a restaurant hooked up to my offices' generator to start producing some food. Since my office and the electric company's office are the only places with generators in Franklinton, we are letting 30 to 40 power line workers sleep in our office and use it as a communications center. No one is complaining in Franklinton; we are all taking it in stride and happy to be blessed with water and good neighbors.

Bogalusa isn't faring as well and they need help. If anyone can help in Bogalusa please contact Jerry Payne at 985-516-7084. The number will probably not work 9/10 of the time but it's our only communications option until I get a location with a decent size generator that is connected to my fiber or to one of our T-1s. When that happens, I can light up enough phones to speed up this effort.

I need out of state DIDs because most long distance phone service into La. is saturated, but my providers' IP pipes are big and under-utilized, so if I can get Texas DIDs I can get a way for the rest of the country to call the relief centers I'm helping."

Separately, on the ISP-Wireless list, Jason Hunt requested:

"I am in Franklinton La., 60 miles north of new Orleans. We are also working with homeland security to get wireless equipment up in New Orleans. We have access to the directnic datacenter as we have equipment there and we do some of there engineering work. There are currently 3 people there working at the datacenter to keep it up and we have phone access to them also. We have a DS-3 from our office to their office and we already have some wireless equipment on there roof. PMP (point to multipoint) OFDM gear would be very helpful as there is only LOS to about 50 percent from directnic's office at 650 Poydras street."

You can reach Kevin Hunt at Kevin at hbcorporate.com and Jason at jhunt at huntbrothers.com. The Hunt Brothers company website is currently down.

Some ISPs are putting donation notices on their home pages. If you're considering doing this, take advice from Google or EarthLink.

And by the way, the National Geographic Magazine forecasted this disaster a year ago. Update: and here's one from in Scientific American 2001.

Update
Kevin Hunt forwarded to us the following posts to a FISPA discussion list. He wrote, "since you're the only media interested in something other than bad things in New Orleans, I'd thought I'd give you some a real view from some folks down South."

Cliff wrote:

Check this out.

CW replied:

What can we do, Cliff? I'm freaking out about the people dying of dehydration at the convention center. I spent a couple hours calling Publix and Winn Dixie this afternoon. Finally got a PR guy at Winn Dixie to call me back.

When I pressed him for why trucks weren't rolling, he said they couldn't. They just had a hundred trucks of ice turned back. They're fucking waiting on permission to drive supplies in. I begged him to tell the media that. Best I could get was he'd try to get permission from his boss.

This is ridiculous. I can't believe trucks can't drive to the convention center right now. Reporters are saying they watched elderly and babies die of dehydration at the convention center today. Carnival Cruises is considering whether their boats could be used. Wherever the fucking Red Cross hospital ship is now, it's not due into the gulf until next Thursday. People are dying and somebody is in the way of help.

You have a better perspective from closer? I don't understand how this could be happening. There must be something we can do.

Cliff had few suggestions:

My electricity was restored last night. It was really the first time that I was able to see the news on TV. I believe that the federal government was too slow to respond. The city needs law enforcement!

Assholes are creating/prolonging their own nightmares and those of the innocent by shoot at the search and rescue teams, car jackings and other criminal activities.

A friend has a son who is a wildlife agent. He was performing search and rescue when he was fire on. In the line of duty, he returned fire and killed two individuals. He is very upset about what he had to do.

Refugees are here. Yesterday, a mile north of my office, there was an armed robbery. A mile south, there was an attempted car jacking. Also, there are so many rumors that are also getting out of proportion! Sometimes it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction.

However, there is no doubt that people are suffering, and that it will be a long, hard time before this area resembles any normalcy again. I think, that is part of the reason for not allowing the trucks through. The city is not safe. Also, water is still everywhere and rising with the tides.

Everyone knew that this "could" happen—I don't think anyone really thought that it ever "would."

I never thought that I would be seeing images of a place so close to me that look like they were taken in a third-world country that has had political fighting and been neglected for years.

I will let you know if I learn of anything more that I can share.

Thanks for your continued concern.

Later update
The story you put up is helping tons of people find us and then us to find their relatives or at least to give them comfort in letting them know most homes are still standing. We have received around 30 request such as the one below, and are sending employees as we are able to try to find the relatives/friends and allow them to use our communications to let the worried ones know they are ok and to tell them what they need. All such as the email below [not included; it's private] are very appreciative. No one can call anyone in Franklinton or Bogalusa yet so to the outside world it is as the cities have been erased.

— End