ECRV 

I have all these good photos and stories from Alabama, and I keep forgetting to post them. Anyways, this is a photo of a Red Cross Emergency Communication Response Vehicle (ECRV). There are about fifteen of these trucks based around the United States. Each has a built-in satellite dish on top (as you can see) and a server inside, as well as a supply of laptops, shortwave and longwave radios, cell phones, and communication equipment. The ECRV teams are some of the first units deployed and once they arrive at a building (usually an empty warehouse or out-of-business big box store), they can establish a satellite link, fire up an Internet connection, set up a network, and wire an operation headquarters within hours. (This truck was parked in Guntersville to allow Red Cross case workers to electronically open and file claims as tornado victims came into the senior center-turned-service center). Now that I'm on the Disaster Service Technology (DST) Team, later on this year I'll be learning to set up, operate and maintain New England's ECRV (which is based in Farmington CT).