Comerío
Today we transited to an area called Comerío that was hit very hard.
Folks drive many miles to get resources, or just drive to a high point to connect to cellular.
Army Hippo vehicles were on site providing fresh water
Same drill, set up a location to provide communications support.
Folks that haven't spoken to loved ones or needed to connect to FEMA for assistance really appreciated the help. Below one lady with her kids was at her wits end. I just handed her my phone which has WiFi calling enabled and made the call to FEMA for her so she could finish her claim and get her mother's started. She is one of thousands of folks that desperately need to communicate their needs.
Make no mistake about it. It's hot here, folks are out of their comfort zones without power, freshwater, refrigerated food and most of all communications.
On several occasions I've taken folks into the van(2017 Roadtrek CS Adventurous designed into a mobile research laboratory) to cool off, hand them a cold bottle of water from the fridge, have them relax and just breathe for a second while I'm connecting to what they need and provide for them personally and professionally.
There are couple of challenges with connecting many folks up through satcom. Most of these folks try to connect for the first time in a while and the first thing their phones do is try to do an IOS or Android phone and apps update. We try to let folks know not to do this, but normally it's enabled by default to go get those updates and really drains the limited spectrum. Now don't get me wrong a few folks could do updates, but it's when you have a 100 folks all connected at the same time and they all go out for updates. I'm starting to see a pattern, as soon as we open it up, boom the signal goes from 100% to 10% in just a few minutes... then we start troubleshooting only to determine its phones doing updates. I'm searching for solutions. I'd like to just put an update server in the vehicle so we can update their phones locally instead of going over what I like to call skinny pipes. So if anyone has a good proven solution for updating phones locally please email me at joseph.raetano@gmail.com it would be much appreciated.
Other issues is one of equipment, most of this WiFi equipment isn't battle tested yet and I guess I'm doing that now. I had to replace one of my rooftop antennas already because of performance issues. On another vehicle an Ethernet cable went bad on the first day and it took me all weekend to determine it was a bad cable with the help of Xavier.
On a sad note, folks stayed right up till the end of our time there to be connected. It actually kind of tore me up to leave and pulling the plug to their electronic lifelines.
I'd like to leave off on a positive note and to personally take this time to thank Richard Flores for all his assistance since we started, He's not only my armed personal protection, he's been my eyes, ears, interpreter, IT sensor letting me know when we have issues on the network, parking valet, gas station attendant and a variety of other helpful assists and last but not least an awesome photographer. Without your help things would be moving very slowly. Thanks Ricky!
Link to today's drone video
Tough day today getting there. Going up through the mountains to get to the area was a bit treacherous. There were many downed or low hanging power lines, overturned power poles, debris everywhere piled up on the sides of the road and mountains.
There are piped water mountain water accesses for folks to get water on the sides of the road.
Army Hippo vehicles were on site providing fresh water
Same drill, set up a location to provide communications support.
Folks that haven't spoken to loved ones or needed to connect to FEMA for assistance really appreciated the help. Below one lady with her kids was at her wits end. I just handed her my phone which has WiFi calling enabled and made the call to FEMA for her so she could finish her claim and get her mother's started. She is one of thousands of folks that desperately need to communicate their needs.
Make no mistake about it. It's hot here, folks are out of their comfort zones without power, freshwater, refrigerated food and most of all communications.
On several occasions I've taken folks into the van(2017 Roadtrek CS Adventurous designed into a mobile research laboratory) to cool off, hand them a cold bottle of water from the fridge, have them relax and just breathe for a second while I'm connecting to what they need and provide for them personally and professionally.
There are couple of challenges with connecting many folks up through satcom. Most of these folks try to connect for the first time in a while and the first thing their phones do is try to do an IOS or Android phone and apps update. We try to let folks know not to do this, but normally it's enabled by default to go get those updates and really drains the limited spectrum. Now don't get me wrong a few folks could do updates, but it's when you have a 100 folks all connected at the same time and they all go out for updates. I'm starting to see a pattern, as soon as we open it up, boom the signal goes from 100% to 10% in just a few minutes... then we start troubleshooting only to determine its phones doing updates. I'm searching for solutions. I'd like to just put an update server in the vehicle so we can update their phones locally instead of going over what I like to call skinny pipes. So if anyone has a good proven solution for updating phones locally please email me at joseph.raetano@gmail.com it would be much appreciated.
Other issues is one of equipment, most of this WiFi equipment isn't battle tested yet and I guess I'm doing that now. I had to replace one of my rooftop antennas already because of performance issues. On another vehicle an Ethernet cable went bad on the first day and it took me all weekend to determine it was a bad cable with the help of Xavier.
On a sad note, folks stayed right up till the end of our time there to be connected. It actually kind of tore me up to leave and pulling the plug to their electronic lifelines.
I'd like to leave off on a positive note and to personally take this time to thank Richard Flores for all his assistance since we started, He's not only my armed personal protection, he's been my eyes, ears, interpreter, IT sensor letting me know when we have issues on the network, parking valet, gas station attendant and a variety of other helpful assists and last but not least an awesome photographer. Without your help things would be moving very slowly. Thanks Ricky!
Link to today's drone video
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