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Re: Los Alamos Fire, Internet helping People......

  • From: Tom Beeson
  • Date: Sat May 13 15:35:40 2000

[This reply is going out to the NANOG and NMISP lists.
 apologies for duplicates for those who are on both lists]

At 02:39 AM 5/13/00 -0700, Sean Donelan wrote:

On Thu, 11 May 2000, "John M. Brown" wrote:
> The raging fire in Los Alamos, New Mexico is devistating.

400+ homes destroyed.

US West is reporting 1000+ lines with fire damage, but no major
interruptions.  The wildfire came within 1/2-mile of the Los Alamos
central office.  US West brought in water trucks for cooling and
fire fighting.

If you had a working computer and phone, it appears all the major and
minor Internet service providers in the area maintained service.


Sean,

Sorry there has not been more news from New Mexico on the NANOG list lately,
we have been very busy over the past 72 hours.  I know this is of interest
and concern for all the NANOG folks and here is the latest update:

In a nutshell, many New Mexico ISP's and organizations have banded together
to provide much needed information resources to help New Mexico residents who
are displaced by the various fires in our state.  This includes communities
in the north part of the state (Los Alamos, White Rock, Santa Clara, etc.)
as well as communities in the southern part of our state (Ruidoso, Weed,
Cloudcroft, and so on).  I don't have a list of all the communities that
have been evacuated, but there is an estimated 25,000 people who are
displaced at this time.

The Internet is playing a major role in helping these folks and getting
precise information where it needs to be in a timely manor. Many Internet
providers and professionals are working around the clock to provide valuable
information resources to those who are displaced by these fire.
Many volunteers armed with laptops and modems are going to various
shelters.  We have established PC's at several of the shelters (schools)
who have dedicated Internet connections.

The NMIPA (New Mexico Internet Professionals Association) has been
instrumental in establishing a central web site at http://fire.nmipa.org/ to
use as a clearing house for all the various databases that have been
established to assist evacuees in various ways.  MANY organizations and
volunteers have contributed to the success of this site since its inception
earlier this week.  Our hats off to all the excellent work and the continued
efforts by all those who are busy updating and maintaining the many parts of
this site.

Here is a list of the sites/databases that have been established recently:

http://www.nmgrande.com/  - Fire Evacuee database (People/evacuee locater)
                             established by Oso Grande Technologies
                             maintained by Oso Grande and fed from lists
                             provided by the Red Cross, various shelters, and
                             evacuees themselves.
                             as of 1:15 PM (MDT) 13-May: 4000+ registered
                             out of an estimated 7500+ households.


http://fire.newmex.com/   - Emergency Shelter and Lodging Database
                             established by ToasNet (John Batis)
                             maintained by ToasNet and fed from various
                             sources.

http://gambusia.org/    - People Finder Bulletin Board
                          established by David McDonald (i think)
                          an excellent BB that has helped many people!

http://www.lac.losalamos.nm.us/ - List of homes destroyed in Los Alamos
                                (Los Alamos County web site)

http://www.abqjournal.com/  - Albuquerque Journal Web site with list
                                of other sites established.

The response to assist and aid the many families who are displaced by all
these fires is overwhelming.  Our many thanks to all those who have given
(and continue to give) countless hours to assist those families in need at
this time.


-- Tom Beeson
   Oso Grande Technologies, Inc.


--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--**--
Tom Beeson		Oso Grande Technologies
Network Engineer 	A New Mexico Technet Co.
(505) 345-1748
[email protected]
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