The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s (CNT) Wireless Community Network project (http://wcn.cnt.org) has responded to the call for technical expertise in establishing communication infrastructure for first responders and evacuees in the Gulf Coast area following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. There is a “desperate need” to re-connect people with basic resources which communication systems help facilitate. An initial team of CNT network engineers is on its way to Louisiana as a component of Part-15.org (http://www.part-15.org/), an operation of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to provide the necessary broadband and phone services to people with no or limited access to their families and friends, emergency services, and government authorities. CNT’s Community Wireless Team will help deploy wireless networks, that will allow evacuees and first responders to email, make phone calls, post pictures of missing people, request services, and report conditions in evacuee camps that are popping up across the region, among other important tasks. The networks will be similar to those being deployed in Illinois as part of CNT’s Wireless Community Network project.

One of the people down there -- Paul Smith, the Technology Director of the WCN project is bloging at wcn.cnt.org/news/