Originally Posted By: Paul810
My first thought was....that's a great idea!

My second thought was...wait, how would I get on the internet in a wide scale emergency?


I was a Red Cross Responder (also a ham) doing communications during Katrina. We provided internet service via a Red Cross Satellite Link to many shelters and other locations. People could do whatever they wanted and many used the service.

There were several other organizations providing similar services although some would not let people actually use the computers but were restricting them to a sort of "telegram" service. Some filtered the content quite severely.

There always seems to be a way to get on the internet. Ham radio is also frequently used, although slow, it does work well. Here again, it usually requires people to write their messages as sort of a telegram and it is sent by operators. Although in some situations now, standard e-mail programs are interfaced and people can type their own messages. One sees this more where large agencies such as hospitals are communicating via ham radio. These are usually situations where a lot of prior coordination has take place. Such as between a hospital and a local Emergency Operations Center etc.

I assume that the situation is very dynamic and getting more available and user friendly every day.

Nomad.
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...........From Nomad.........Been "on the road" since '97