Took a very interesting tour of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' PADRU (Pan American Disaster Response Unit) facility this afternoon. Some of the highlights (going on memory, so might be a bit inaccurate:)
- They stand ready to send supplies for 20,000 beneficiaries
- Can mobilize supplies for another 5,000 every 48 hours ongoing
- Have an HF radio network setup with email capability - worldwide
- Put together "kits in a box" - IT Kit, Office Kit, Radio Kit, etc. - field staff can be up and running very quickly in a variety of situations
- Ericsson has donated some GSM repeaters (see pic) to be deployed in a disaster where cell service is completely destroyed or otherwise unavailable - they call it the "million dollar bet"; that is, if they decide to deploy the repeater, they're working under the assumption that they might not get it back. In some cases this could actually be a million-dollar investment, since there would be a scenario where the repeater just becomes part of the permanent cell network wherever it was deployed.
It's utterly mind-boggling how the IFRC manages the logistics around their disaster response - it goes way beyond technology. At the end of the day, it makes me remember that tech is simply a means to an end. It's humbling to think, since most of my career has been tech for tech's sake (or for the sake of profit.)
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