Tech-Time for the natural disaster

About two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck I heard a day by day summary of what went wrong during the emergency response. One thing stood out - the early response was severely hampered by lack of power for handheld devices, most notably radios and flashlights. What happened was that the disaster plans assumed either landlines would be available or the mobile phone network would be available. Unfortunately neither was forcing first responders to use battery powered handheld radios which soon ran out. Apparently the radios were not able to use disposable batteries but had to be recharged and there was no power to recharge them because most of the state's emergency generators were out in Iraq with the national guard. The result was teams of rescuers wandering around New Orleans and the rest of the state in the dark and with no way to coordinate their activities. Not a good thing.

This all lead me to think about what emergency power resources I have at home. Basically I'm down to a lot of candles (not much use outside), a few flashlights, and a battery powered radio or two including my ham radio. I do have a pretty hefty UPS for my computer which on reflection I'd probably turn off right away if there was a big quake, then I could use it to recharge various battery devices like my phone. Similarly I have an AC inverter that can be plugged into a car 12V lighter socket to charge devices. But when the UPS is out of juice, the car has run out of gas I'd be pretty much down to whatever disposable batteries there are available.

Now it just happened that as Katrina came along the local public radio broadcaster KQED started their latest fund raising pledge drive. These fund raisers usually have some gimicky gifts to lure you into giving, like a bag, hat, mug, and a magazine subscription. However this time around they actually had a couple of cool items - a USB powered radio called the Radio Shark that also supports time shifted recording TiVo style for radio. Of even more interested was the Eton FR300 radio which has a builtin hand cranked battery charger. 90 seconds of cranking gives you an hour of listening. Even better it comes a builtin flashlight, siren, and power out socket that can be used to power/recharge cellphones. Finally it actually receives broadcast TV audio (until those frequencies are relinquished) and the NOAA weather channels that give 24x7 weather information and emergency reports.

Needless to say I just couldn't resist one of these babies and got my credit card out to make a donation to KQED, although I have to say it was when they announced they were throwing in a years subscription of The Economist that I finally caved.

Those interested in other hand cranked gadgets might be interested in the Freeplay line who were arguably the first company to make it big with self powered devices. Their website is full of hand cranked radios, flashlights, phone chargers and now even a foot powered generator the Freecharge Weza. I'm now considering picking up one of the flashlights Freeplay sells, and possibly the foot powered generator too - I think cranking out 40W would be a good thing even when the power isn't out. I wonder if there is a PC that make do with that little power these days?