[CWN-Summit] Katrina relief

[Harold Feld]

Some of you have probably already been in touch with Sascha and 
others.  I wanted to update folks on this list about what is going on.

Friday, the FCC had a conference call about how the license exempt 
providers can help restore critical facilities in the area devastated 
by Katrina.  Part-15.org is taking the lead on organizing responses 
from individuals and small organizations willing to send volunteers 
and equipment into the zone.

It has been a real mess so far.  The commercial folks have no idea 
what to do with the non-commercials.  Also, Part-15.org is being 
overwhelmed with the scope of the crisis, the difficulty in 
coordinating with federal and local authorities, and the number of 
volunteers coming in.

I've been working with Sascha and Paul today and I know they are very 
frustrated with the inability of part-15.org to tell is where to 
go.  But there is something of a chicken and egg problem here.  they 
need to get everyone to fill out their forms to coordinate with 
authorities who will go in where.  But people are not sure what to 
commit to the effort and whether they can usefully volunteer without 
knowing where to go or what they can do.

I would urge people to use the part-15.org process for the 
moment.  If you can, please self-organize teams using the forms 
provided and await instructions on where to go.  If we cannot get 
clear instructions from part-15.org in another day or two, we will 
start working with other folks in the impacted area to run a parallel process.

I also hope people will use this list and other lists to 
self-organize.  If we can assemble our teams and describe our 
capacities to Part-15.org, they will hopefully be able to deploy us 
swiftly.  I know Paul has been working on this in Chicago today and 
has pulled together a team of folks and possible funding, even 
without knowing from part-15.org where to go.

This is not the way I would want to do it, and a project for the 
future will be planning our own emergency response.  But for now, I 
think we should work with the current structure and avoid (a) giving 
up in frustration, or (b) trying to route around it at this time.

Harold Feld