T-Mobile Offers Relief for Hurricane Victims

lilrowdy18 writes "Eweek reports that T-Mobile is offering free Wi-Fi to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. This relief will be free until Sept 2 and an evaluation will be done to see if it will continue after that. The hot spots are only available to residents of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi and does not include phone service. The article also includes a link to a map of T-Mobile hotspots. At least we can use some form of communication to get in touch with loved ones."

Uhmm...

[SpaFF]

T-mobile does realize that there's no power, right?

If they want to help, they can get more manpower working on the phone system. I evacuated from New Orleans to north Alabama, and my t-mobile phone service has been spotty at best. I haven't been able to make outgoing calls for the last 3 days and I've only been able to get a few incoming calls.

OT: Good news

[bersl2]

Army Corps of Engineers: water is no longer flowing into New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain [wwltv.com]

Nextel

[L. VeGas]

A coworker told me that he has been using Nextel to communicate with people in the area without any problems whatsoever. Not free, but he said it works.

Re:OT: Good news

[tazanator]

12:11 P.M. - Army Corps: Water has become level with the Lake in the city so no more water should flow into the city, except at high tide. okay it's seems better the way you said it...

Re:Ham radio

[wumpus188]

Adding to my post... Go here [arrl.org] to search for ham radio operators in your area.

Cingular Opens Free Calling Stations

[digid]

Cingular Wireless has set up free emergency calling stations at its open company-owned retail stores across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to help the many individuals and families who are without power and phone service due to Hurricane Katrina.

Free phone calls to friends and family anywhere in the United States can be made at Cingular stores during normal store hours. The calling stations are available to anyone who simply needs to use a phone.

The company has also set up a free mobile calling station at the Cajundome in Lafayette where thousands of evacuees are being housed.

All Cingular stores will offer free calls as they open.

Re:Useful corporate donations pouring in...

[n6mod]

Anheuser-Busch: $250K cash + 875K cans of water

Say what you like about their "beer", Anheuser-Busch has a long history of switching their closest functional production line to canning water, and delivering it *right now*.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Red Cross barely had the shelters opened when trucks from A-B started showing up.

-Z

Re:Only 3 days??

[joeljkp]

Like others have said, I can't see how this is going to do any good. Any little bit helps, I guess, but free Wi-Fi? 80% of Mississippi is out of power, last I heard. My parents are in Ridgeland (next to Jackson), and official word was that they won't get power at all until the 2nd. Does Starbucks have a Wi-fi generator or something? I can understand shipments of food, a rush of temporary cell phone towers, free pay-as-you-go phones for people in the area... but free Wi-Fi for 3 days in flooded areas with no power?

Re:This is what t-mobile has

[RapmasterT]

Unfortunately I will not support the Red Cross in anyway. This includes giving blood. The Red Cross is one of the most poorly managed organizations in the country. They have horrible financial management and I will not in any way support them. Which brings me to another thought. Does anyone know of any other organization or way to donate blood other then through the American Red Cross?

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!

That is either a malicious lie, an ignorant statement intended to make the poster look educated on some issue that he is obviously not, or a disturbed mind trying to get people not to help in a time of disaster.

10 seconds with Google will pull up just about any charitable organizations overhead expense ratio, the American Red Cross is under 8%. That means 92% of every dollar donated goes to charitable uses.

I am personally sickened that someone would level such an attack against one of the premier legitimate charitable organizations on the fucking planet!

You sir, are an asshat.

Re:Logistics, management and coordination...

[hetairoi]

Logistics, management and coordination would be a nightmare.

um, the National Guard is an organization designed with logistics, management and coordination in mind. National Guard units get deployed all over the world in fact. They are mobile and I'd say they likely have a very good idea of what units have the required training, as that would be critical tactical information.

no clear high level chain of command. (I'm pretty sure theres no General of the National Guard.)

The National Guard is part of the Army. They probably have the most structured chain of command in the world. You are right about not having a general though, he's just a Lt. General (Lieutenant General Clyde A. Vaughn [army.mil]