04/07/2025
Todd, who is our senior technician based out of the Green Bay office, is also part of ITDRC - IT Disaster Resource Center. ITDRC is a volunteer-driven nonprofit with over 5,000 volunteers across the globe. “Our goal is to enable disaster response and relief organizations to do their work, helping communities and survivors heal more quickly” (ITDRC.org).
Todd is currently deployed to Michigan to help out after the ice storms decimated a 12 county area in late March.
From Todd -
I've been crazy busy over the past week and am just getting caught up with Resource Requests that are coming in from the areas hardest hit by the ice storm. I’m working out of a shelter in Ga***rd, Michigan, where ¾” of ice brought down trees and power lines. Only 15 miles away there were areas where an inch and a half of ice coated everything.
Right now, one of my crews is working at two local public schools to get their buildings reconnected to the internet so their staff can come in tomorrow and hopefully students on Wednesday. I may be running out to another school that, as of last Friday, was told it would be three months until they are reconnected to power. Fortunately, they are getting reconnected to power as I type this, thanks to a push by the power companies. They are the only building in town with power and there is only one road open directly to the school. Once they have power, my crew will work to get them internet access. I'm also working on trying to figure out how to get their ancient phone system connected to a virtual T1 connection so we can get them completely up. We have also provided internet and phone connectivity to many Emergency Operations Centers and Fire Stations in the past several days as well as a number of shelters.
Pics of their resources on sit and a Starlink on the roof of a school building.
For more information about IDTRC, please visit their website: https://www.itdrc.org/
