Helping Nerds in Need: Responding to Hurricane Harvey with Tech & Wi-Fi

Hey,everyone, wanted to share what we were able to accomplish in Rockport, Texas after Hurricane Harvey devastated the area. 

I have a tech non-profit that we deployed to the affected area to provide a temporary link to the internet. They had no phone service or connectivity when we arrived. The last thing anyone thought about was grabbing their computers, tablets, or chargers when they were evacuating. Combined with the loss of power and all telecommunications, it made for a pretty rough time for the residents of Texas.

As nerds, we knew we couldn't jump out of choppers, build houses, or cook for 5,000 people, but what we could do is provide some connectivity using our resources, partners, and some effort.

Cambium donated a PTP 650 link and some e500 radios for our use and we put em in our Classroom on Wheels. and headed up there. Local service provider VTX Broadband let us use an 80-foot tower on wheels for the link, and Rockport WiFi provided us with a POP to connect into. 

ALl in all is was an experience that I will never forget. We didn't know how much help we would be, but we FEMA was requesting people to FAX in basic information to get their applications started and when Texas Workforce was providing emergency unemployment benefits if you could apply for em online, we saw people being pretty happy we were there.

If you all ever need pointers or help to do something like this, please don't hesitate to ask for our help

-d

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This is great. Thank you for all that you are doing to help people. Let us know if there is anything we can provide.

Way to go guys! What an admirable effort and positive exposure for our industry.

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