The Committee to Nuke Elysium

One of the unsung heroes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone was occasional OStatic contributor, Aaron Huslage. Aaron drove from Portland to New Orleans, carting a truckful of telephony equipment, a big heart and a can-do attitude that, in less than a week, brought a rudimentary, improvised telephony network to twelve thousand displaced residents of the city. Six volunteers assembled a makeshift infrastructure, atop cell towers, water towers, powerhouses and other tall structures, using a Wimax backhaul and a 900Mhz Trango wireless link to connect civilian shelters – stretching wirelessly from Gulfport to affected areas over a range of around fifteen miles (Gulfport-Mississippi Power Tower-Waveland-Stennis-Port Bienville).