Post Hurricane Frustrations - Darkroom Printing

An aspect of disaster relief that is often overlooked is the assistance provided by amateur radio operators in providing emergency communications for both emergency situations and the passage of health and welfare messages. There were several emergency "nets" in operation as soon as the hurricane hit and some still remain on the air. Amateurs in the southern U.S. were in the best position to provide this service and many hams in the region were on the air for very long hours making contacts when there was no other means of communication available.

 

However, atmospheric conditions do not always cooperate and there were times when stations in Texas could not hear those in Louisiana,

although both states came in loud and clear in Ontario. This was the case last Friday when a call from University Hospital in New Orleans

to the net control in Tyler, Texas, did not get through. I had been listening to the activity and broke in to relay the message from the hospital to net control. The hospital was looking for a Red Cross contact in Ohio. A short while later the hospital was evacuated.

 

In the overall scheme of things mine was a very small contribution, but the assistance provided by the many amateur radio operators to the overall relief effort was quite considerable.

 

John, VE3PMA

I agree that Al's post was unnecessary. But Trevor, how many times, in one thread, do we have to read that you contributed? Thank you for that, but I think one notification was enough.

Look! LAY OFF AL! Too many otherwise good people are listening to rumors and opinionated news services. In Blighty where authority is from the top down it is difficult to understand that here authority is from the bottom up. Jefferson Parish had hundreds of school bussed that could have evacusted those without transport but left them in the parking lot and now they are up to the windows in water. Adjoiing Placquemines Parish commandeered their school busses and used them for evac before Katrina even made landfall. A kid from somewhere appropriated a school bus, filled it with neighbors and drove it to Houston. These are the kind of things you don't hear about on the BBC.<div></div>

Al, first get a UPS backup (made by APC) for your PC NOW!!! Your computer's power supply will get trashed by the fluctuating power which in turn will trash your CPU and memory (ask Fotogratz about power fluctuations and his Mac). Ask if you need help picking out a model.

 

You southern's should also be thankfull for the Yankee help, we know alot about restringing power lines (we get lots of practice after ever Noreaster and ice storm up here).

 

Gerry

Thanks, I'll look into that gizmo for controlling power fluctuations to the computer. I have a photographer friend here in town who's really into computers and I'll check with him. It's been about 12 hours now since the last momentary outage and the lights seem pretty steady again at last. I'll probably make an attempt at doing some serious printing tomorrow. It's one thing to make some contacts or 5x7's on RC but 11x14 DW fiber I want to be perfect, especially at what that stuff costs these days.

 

The out of state power company guys were a most welcome sight when they rolled into town, spread out through the neighborhoods, and got us back up and running! They were out there from first light until too dark to see every day. We understood that when they left it was because the need was greater elsewhere, and Florida Power & Light has about finished up with the remaining pockets that lacked power. I guess those guys will be working 10 to 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for several more weeks. We should all extend our thanks to them.

I don't think Al is a bad guy here.

 

I can understand the overall frustration people can feel when someone seems to be uncaring. The whole world saw the poor response, the terrible conditions, and the either incompetence or indifference to the plight of those caught by the storm.

 

Kudos to the Coast Guard for doing such a wonderful job from the start and to all those who volunteered even if their efforts were turned away.

Volker, you should attend to more credible news sources (re false allegation about American refusal to accept help from Europe).

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216370.stm

 

Harry, the President is literally the Commander in Chief. He's got tremendous emergency power when he's man enough. Europeans bought the illusion that he was a cowboy, they naturally assumed he'd do his job without blaming others (local government, state government, federal employees, al sharpton etc etc etc). Europeans were mistaken. Americans didn't expect more of this man.

 

It's normal for American individuals to pick up the ball and run with it, exactly as you described. We're good people, like people everywhere. But it's shocked most of us (many polls) to have confirmed the President's lack of personal character.

John Kelly:

"But it's shocked most of us (many polls) to have confirmed the President's lack of personal character."

 

You have no idea what you are talking about!

For you to politicize the relief efforts with your own myopic slant is disgusting and your ignorance is astounding.

Henry, to my shame I voted twice for that louse. I'd have preferred a man with normal intelligence and personal character, such as Dole, Gore, or Kerry, but I chose Bush. It's not "politicizing" to recognize Bush's ignorance and lack of guts. He's definitely NOT the worst of a bad lot, he's the worst of a good lot.

Trevor, I can understand your frustration, but if you think about it, how is Al's post different from just about any other post on p.net? How can any of these people's photographic questions or concerns have any validity after Katrina! Well, despite whatever catastrophes may occur, life has to go on.<p>In my younger days as a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross, I was part of the relief effort for the victims of a tornado that hit the city of Barrie, Ontario. It has been many years since, but as I recall the ultimate goal of any relief effort is to get people back to their normal lives. Everyone's contribution is valuable and no one should be belitted for their concerns. I applaud Al for his efforts to assist his neighbors and for trying to get <i>his</i> life back to normal.

The rumor used to be that his younger brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, was the one being groomed for a run for the presidency. He's a personable and intelligent guy, interested in the environment, and for the most part doing a damned fine job as governor. Between the situation in Iraq and the belated federal response to the devastation in our gulf coast states I can't see anybody named Bush getting elected for anything for a long, long time.

Katrina will have a long term effect on life in the USA overall. I can't get any roofer to come to my home to give me an estimate to replace the roof. Can you imagine what will happen to home repair or construction when the rubble is removed and houses atre built in the hurricane ravaged areas. You won't be able to find building material or labor for quite some time.

Since he's next in line after Cheney (vacationing in Wyoming or Greece, depending) this is an interesting set of statements from Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert:

 

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/il14_hastert/katrinastatement9_1_05.html

"Well, despite whatever catastrophes may occur, life has to go on."

 

Yes. I remember getting momentarily enraged when some store clerk started chatting about the weather when my father was in a coma and dying. It was then I realized that donning sack-cloth and ashes and expecting applause is a rather self-indulgent act.

Al, <br> This may even impact beer sales of Anheuser Busch! ;-)

<br>

"I can't see anybody named Bush getting elected for anything for a long, long time."

even mexico sent troops! ( hope the ship makes all the way to new orleans).

Why would Mexico need to send troops? Perhaps to divert attention from the invasion of their unwanted poverty stricken excess population in the four border states. That would not be the first time, (and probably not the last) that the criminally corrupt government of Mexico attempted to regain the Southwest to cover the rapine of their governing class against their own people.

Bushe's legacy: The stupid war in Iraq, out of control fuel prices, and the disgraceful relief effort after Katrina. This president never accepts responsibility for anything. Perhaps the worst president the U.S. has seen?

Al

 

Thanks for the post. I know you know your darkroom problems are secondary and that you did what is the best anyone can do: help his neighbour.

 

As for the rest of the flaming, ignore it. Sticks and stones can hurt.. etc.

 

Others of my fellows in the Loss Prevention Engineering business who live in storm and EQ prone areas have generators with good fuel supplies, chain saws, medical supplies, water and food rations, boats walky-talkys etc..

 

After Threee Mile Island, the first line in the NRC inquiry was: This was a predictable outcome of a known deficiency". This appplies 100% to this catastrophe. The nature and magnitude of the event was known and even measured years ago, but due to "The Bureaucracy" having priorities for other people and activities, it was ignored. This is known in those circles as "benign neglect".

 

Another dictum we live by is: "Loss Prevention is a before-the-fact- management function". This applies on a personal level as well as societal.

The mayor and city fathers of New Orleans knew at the time of advising evacuation of the city that a significant segment of the population did not posess the personal means to leave their homes for safer havens. The fleet of several hundred school busses was available for appropriation for this purpose. This was not done. The entire fleet of the City's public transportation system was also available for appropriation. This also was not done. Instead the school busses were left at their parking lot and were flooded. The neighboring Placquemines Parish is reported to have utilized their school busses for evacuation. At this time we do not know what happened to the public transportation system but it appears from aerial photos that they were abandoned by their drivers when the storm became too intense for further progress.<p> The Louisiana National Guard was available for instant mobilization but the state administration did not dispatch them to the planned locations. Delay by the state administration prevented the triggering of responsive action by federal authorities. <p> That the city and its environs were below sea level and subject to potential flooding has been known for generations. The vulnerability of the levee system has been known for decades to city, state, and federal agencies, yet they were constructed only to withstand category 3 forces due to budget considerations and political squabbling and all three government levels. <p> It is silly and pretentious for outsiders to pontificate and pass judgements based on the news sources when they are fragmented and incomplete, and in many instances used to further questionable agendas. It is sensible and reasonable to direct ALL efforts to recovery and alleviation of the mysery and suffering. Charity and good will are paramount. Recrimination and vengence will accomplish nothing. There will be time for blame when the current distress has been alleviated and cooler heads prevail.

<i>It is silly and pretentious for outsiders to pontificate and pass judgements based on the news sources when they are fragmented and incomplete, and in many instances used to further questionable agendas. It is sensible and reasonable to direct ALL efforts to recovery and alleviation of the mysery and suffering. Charity and good will are paramount. Recrimination and vengence will accomplish nothing. There will be time for blame when the current distress has been alleviated and cooler heads prevail.</i>

<p>

Amen brother.

Al, here's what I have in reserve for emergencies. I keep a deep-cycle marine battery (from Auto Zone)charged up in the basement. I use an AC inverter, which you can get in Auto Zone, Kmart, Walmart, etc., to convert the 12V to 115VAC. Then I plug the power supply of my laptop into that. An AC inverter with a sufficiently high wattage rating would run a desktop just as well.

 

As long as the phone line is up and running, I can be online with the power down. I in fact did this in July 2004, when our power was out several days following a big storm.

 

The advantage of this over an uninterruptible power supply is that the storage battery has a much higher capacity, allowing many hours, perhaps days, of operation. And, it will also buffer the AC line power fluctuations. The voltage from the battery charger will fluctuate with the line voltage, but the battery will keep the voltage constant going into the inverter.

Thanks, Rob. That's something else to look into. Only s few scattered neighborhoods in South Florida lost phone service, and all the cell phone towers stayed up and running. Thirteen years ago when Andrew came through here it was a much different situation. A lot of the phone lines were down and and most people didn't have cell phones yet. A lot of us boaters and fishermen were used to listening to the government weather channel on our VHF marine radios and we started carrying our hand-helds around both for monitoring the weather and communicating with other people. It's really against regulations to use them that way on land but I don't think anybody would get arrested for calling the Coast Guard that way to relay a 911 call to the county fire/rescue in an emergency.

 

I went to Radio Shack and made up adapters for charging the VHF, and later my cell phone, straight off either the boat or truck battery. The cigarette lighter socket in my truck is only "live" when the engine is running. A couple of alligator clips, a length of wire, and an accessory socket (essentially a plastic cigarette lighter socket) for a few bucks solves that problem. Another thing handy to have is some sort of multi-outlet extension cord, the more outlets the merrier! The plaza where the local Starbucks is located had power long before many houses did, and there were far more people wanting to charge their cell phones than electrical outlets there.

Dear Trevor,

 

I can't help but notice that over the last few months you have exhibited some major mood swings, and a tendency to lash back. It worries me.

 

Al being Al, whom I percieve to be a charitable person at heart, did not vex me with his posting. Whet really got to me this morning, was a report in the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) that two US Navy heliocopters, after completing a mission to provide spare parts and supplies in the New Orleans area, responded to requests from the Coast Guard to engage in life savings missions. The copters were out of direct radio contact with their home base at Pensacola FL, and so provided aid without authorization. The managed to rescue 110 people, under circumstances that were, at time, hazardous. Their reward, upon returning to base, was a reprimand from a staff officer (Commander, equivalent to Lt Col) that they were not authorized to perform humanitarian missions. One of the pilots was removed from flying status and put in charge of the kennels to collect pets of victims. As a retired Air Force officer, I am amazed at the Navy destroying an opportunity for positive publicity into one that makes them look like bureaucratic buttheads at this time. When I was on active duty, I tried to live by the Officer credo that stated, "An officer cannot stand idly by in the face of injustice or emergency. An officer must act!" In the Air Force, this usually got translated into, "Do something, even if it's wrong".

 

In addition, I think that race did not play a role in the response to the emergency in New Orleans, other than the fact the poor and powerless tend to be black. The operative factor was "poor and powerless". There is a lot of blame to go around.

 

As a former meteorologist and a early user of weather satellite info, it is obvious that Katrina did not sneak up on New Orleans, as did the storm that hit Galvston 100 years ago. The wheels hould have been in motion days before the storm hit. Even with perfect preparation, the damage to lives and property would have been immense. I think it would be criminally insane for Bush to try to force through his tax breaks for the super rich at this point; no doubt he will try becasue I percieve him to be callous and clueless.

"Harry, the President is literally the Commander in Chief. He's got tremendous emergency power . . . ". . . I'm quite aware of the President's duties as well as his powers under the legislation that was enacted by a bipartisan Congress. My concern has been the lack of effective response on the part of the local and state authorities who are delegated "first response" powers under that legislation. <p> It is difficult to understand what Al might have done to abrade someone's nanny sensitivity. The concern of the original thread was just how various members were coping with the hurricaine situation. Some were in the direct line of action -- others on the sidelines anxiously awaiting word of friends and loved ones. Al has probably experienced more hurricaine fury than any other of our regular contributors, and it is fitting that he relate his impressions and experience. Is it possible that his posting of his own physiognomy, distorted ala 15mm WA lens, has evoked envy on the part of others who might have been upstaged? Well, such concerns are understood, however unjustified, and Al's impressions will always be welcome here irrespective of my agreement or nonconcurrence. <p>