Team, the "Interdictor" was a man in charge of keeping a large Internet point of presence and data center on line during Katrina. He "blogged" the entire time about his experiences. Here is a post I read on the day it happened and saved for future reminders.
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
12:47a Alpha Team Signing Off
Outpost Crystal has had a long day. Alpha Team is gonna grab a few hours of sleep. You guys are great and all your support is pure motivation to keep plowing ahead. We won't quit, I promise you. We're expecting today (Friday) to be our most physically demanding day so far. Sig and I will be pushing 18 fity-five gallon drums of diesel up a steep parking garage incline to the 9th floor generator.
Time for my beauty sleep -- if you've seen me on cam tonight (red shirt), you know I need it. ;)
5:52a Good morning, world.
Team Alpha is back online. Glad to see Outpost Crystal is still connected to world.
6:36a Cannot Confirm
One of the first things I do in the morning after my intitial security sweep of the building is check my messenger programs, email, and the comments section of this blog for the latest situation reports.
I cannot confirm the Superdome "chemical plant" explosion you guys are reporting. When Bravo Team becomes functional this morning, we're going to do a Medium Range Recon Patrol around our section of the CBD. We need to access the area for potential human threats, situational threats (burning buildings, etc.), flooding, potential evac routes, military and civilian authority presence, etc.
We bring the camera with us everywhere we go, whether it's to empty fuel into the tank or perform personal hygiene.
Everyone has secondary responsibilities. Crystal, for instance, has the secondary responsibility of organizing physical assets. Sigmund's secondary responsibility is photography. Donny's secondary responsibility is inter-team communication. My secondary responsibility is first aid. And so on.
Just because we're doing a security sweep, for instance, doesn't mean we can't also be doing something else.
Sig's got a ton more pictures to post today.
This just in: Team Bravo reports no fire visibility from the Dome, but there is smoke -- and where there's smoke...
We're headed to the roof to investigate.
BRB
10:01a The City is ON FIRE
Teams Alpha and Bravo finished the medium range recon and there are 3 separate locations on fire. We have pictures coming shortly.
During the recon, I spoke to some Federal Marshalls and NOPD. Morale is LOW. Very low. They're not seeing the military presence they say they were promised. I told those guys they can't possibly imagine how much we (the world) appreciate their dedication. I asked what civil rights the citizens have and the US Marshalls looked at me like I just fell off the turnip truck and chuckled. I asked if citizens can have guns for protection and he said if someone thinks he needs a gun, he should have already evacuated. He also said they are setting the city on fire.
The NOPD wants to know where "the two active duty brigades" were that he says they were told were supposed to arrive today. When I asked him what he would want to tell the world, he said Everyone keeps talking about the military presence in the city, and then asked me," Do you see any military around here" in dusgust.
We reconned our roof also, to get a better view of the city and took... I hesitate to call them "amazing" pictures. My city... it has been punched in the face and is on the canvas being counted out.
And yes, that's smoke you see out of the windows. The city is under a haze from the fires. Smoke and ash are floating miles away from the fires.
10:41a Cam Feed
Reset the feed. Here are the addresses:
http://old.mises.org:88/NO
http://old.mises.org:88/NO2
http://194.97.144.25/NewOrleans
The first two are being hosted by the great people at The Ludwig Von Mises Institute.
The third one is being hosted by the generous people at space.net
11:10a Wow
If you're watching the feed, it's incredible. Hard to believe the fire department is still viable. God bless them. I'm no expert on conflagrations, but I don't think they're gonna win this one. Hopefully they can contain it.
It takes a spectacular kind of asshole to set a fire in this environment.
A lot of people are asking about our fuel situation. We have some, but we need more. We have a few days worth. We desperately need more. We're coordinating now.
By the way, here comes some military on cam.
I tweaked the feed to try to help the people restreaming it.
The building you're watching appeared to be some small hotel right behind Mother's.
11:45a Cam Feed Mirrors
We are getting thousands of request to mirror the feed. Right now mises alone has 4000 or so viewers. My IMs are blown up out of control, no way I can filter them at this point. I sincerely apologize. If you want to mirror the feed, please go to the IRC chat on irc.freenode.net in #interdictor and announce your intentions to the admins and they will get you set up. Huge thanks to all of you stepping up to help bring my city's deterioration to the world.
I think it finally hit me when I was on our roof 27 floors up looking down at my city. This place will never be the same -- and I don't mean in that "can't step into the same river twice" philosophical sense. I mean in the "We won't even recognize the place" sense.
This place is completely coming apart. The hopelessness on the street breaks the heart. The old, the tired, the sick seem resigned to their presumed fate. Death.
I'm pretty much running out of words for my commentary. I'll try to stick to just the facts.
Thanks so much for the moral support, guys. I only wish we could pass it on to the people who need it more than we do.
12:00p Here Come the Troops
Just saw 2 CH-53E Super Stallion Helicopters pass by overhead, and now on cam you can see what looks like a whole batallion of troops roll toward the Convention Center.
12:19p Finally!
This convoy coming down the street is loaded with supplies. I see MREs and water and I assume ice.
Ok, so the troops used to restore order went in first and now the supplies are coming for orderly distribution (I hope).
Hope is on the way for the people at the Convention Center. Finally.
Check the cam
12:34p Pics
http://www.nola-intel.org/pictures
http://www.nola-intel.org/pictures2
http://www.nola-intel.org/pictures3
The close-ups I took of the fire this morning are on this page: http://sigmund.biz.nyud.net:8090/kat200509012/index0005.html
1:44p Heading to the Roof
We're going to the roof for pics.
Another video feed link: http://video.freevideoblog.com/no2.asx
4:27p Another Cam Feed
http://meta.advection.net/event/adv/evt20050902/0250/
(thanks to Advection.NET)
4:59p New dedicated picture server: http://www.tampabusiness.com/directnic/
5:39p Update
Ok, sorry it's been so long between real updates, but we talked to a few media outlets today and worked on getting a second OC3 operational. It's looking good, but we'll know for sure if it's going to come online sometime tonight. That will be huge if it does.
I also have been trying to get pic and feed links out to you guys, and the problem is that as soon as I post a link that site gets crushed. I think we've got it under control now.
If you were watching the cam, you saw a building burn to the ground and the military roll in and head to the convention center with troops and supplies for the people.
And let me reiterate this: Your IMs and Emails and comments are very much appreciated. We've mentioned the worldwide support the people of the world are sending to the citizens of New Orleans, and we're proud to thank all of you on their behalf. Everytime we go down to the street, we tell the police, soldiers, and most importantly the suffering civilians that the whole world is aware of their plight and sends prayers and moral support in addition to charity and volunteer support. Your voices are reaching them, and it's something. Your voices matter.
I click on every single IM I can, but they come in at a rate of 2 to 8 per second depending on what's going on. The sheer volume is more than I could answer in a lifetime, and I can not emphasize enough that I appreciate each and everyone and it is very frustrating for me that I just physically cannot respond to each and every one of you. You'd be surprised what goes through your mind in a situation like that -- I've thought that maybe I need to get some kind of IM response team in place, but then I realized that was stupid. I'm just going to have to do my best to let you know your support is appreciated by everyone here at Outpost Crystal. The thing is, I don't have the words to get that point across to you sufficiently. Hopefully you understand.
Ok, enough of the sappy stuff. Here's what's going on tonight.
We're still coordinating a fuel drop -- we think we can make it happen in the morning. There's a misconception out there that somehow we're diverting fuel from hospitals or something. That's silly. We're low on the fuel priority list. The problem for the hospitals is not the availability of fuel, but the actual delivery, according to the National Guard people. Some of the hospitals are phsyically under water according to them. It's hard to pump fuel into a generator when the generator is sitting in water.
Ok, enough about fuel. Now for security. The influx of troops which we saw today should make the streets a lot safer at night.
Edit: I forgot to mention this. I want to thank everyone who responds in a helpful manner to the people who ask questions in the comments section of this blog. That's one form of volunteering right there. We all appreciate it and thank you for that help.
BRB
6:54p Message from a Co-Owner
As an owner of Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., I would like to thank all of you for the overwhelming support you have shown our company, our group, and our fight. This week has been a nightmare for everyone involved. The team at Outpost Crystal has done an outstanding job. There are many employees behind the scenes who have also committed themselves to working 16 hour days amidst complete turmoil, to keeping direcNIC.com up and operational.
Unfortunately all of these people are scattered across several states and telecommuting via hotel connections, pc cards, dial-up connections and even wi-fi hotspots. This dedicated group needs a temporary home until New Orleans is rebuilt!
Please help us to find a temporary home for 55 employees. We are looking for the following:
Short-term solution
6,000 - 8,000 square feet
Ready to occupy, desks, chairs, etc
Workplaces for 55 people
Nearby datacenter preferable
Internet connectivity
Nearby housing
Texas, Northern Louisiana, Georgia, & Florida are preferable...
Please send any information to [email protected].
I also want to take this time to thank all Internet providers who have offered assistance in secondary collocation, bandwidth and hardware. We especially want to thank National Net (http://www.national-net.com/), Marlin Web Hosting (http://www.marlinwebhosting.com/), and EV1 (http://www.ev1.net/). They have been invaluable with their assistance.
Best regards,
Noah Lieske
Co-owner / Director
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.
10:02p Cluster F.
What a bowl of fubar soup we got served for dinner tonight. Yummy. Fuel is still a no-show. No ETA on my resupply schedule tonight.
Was waiting on the street freaking out the Federal Cops guarding the Bogs building until the actually came over to talk and found out who we are and what we're doing.
Then Homeland Sec comes driving by and yells water and hums a 20 ouncer at our feet without slowing down. I know I'm not looking too hot right now, but come on. I'm standing out there with my flashlight on in the middle of the road, obviously waiting on a convoy.
Bunch of stressed out, trigger-ready police and military types driving by suspicious as all hell. It's not safe just standing out on the street even if you look like you belong there.
Anyway, I'm gonna sit tight up here until something definite appears on the street.
|
|
