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Ham radio to the rescue
A Times Editorial
Published September 2, 2005
One of the first casualties of Hurricane Katrina was technology. Without working telephones and only intermittent cellular service, many New Orleans residents had no means to communicate their situation to the outside world. That's when the primitives of high tech - ham radio operators - came to the rescue.
On Monday, an Oklahoma woman got a cellular phone call from an elderly aunt in New Orleans who said she was trapped on the second floor of her house. Then the cell phone went dead, the Washington Post reported. The Tulsa woman contacted her local Red Cross, which turned to Ben Joplin. As a member of a ham radio network that responds to emergencies, Joplin couldn't reach anyone in New Orleans, but he did pass the message on to a fellow ham in Oregon. From there, the message was relayed to another amateur radio hobbyist in Utah, who was able to get through to ham operators in other parts of Louisiana. Through that circuitous route, New Orleans emergency personnel were notified.
When rescuers arrived at the house, they found a dozen people, including the 81-year-old who made the first call. That happy ending is a reminder that even in modern times, a horse and buggy is sometimes the best way to reach your destination.
[Last modified September 2, 2005, 02:15:35]
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