Saturday, August 20, 2016

The Cajun Navy

It's amazing how our electronics work today.  I'm reading an article over at the Indepentdent Journal about the fellow behind the Cajun Navy, Bob Gaudet.  This work wouldn't be possible without good communications and they've focused on two apps to help communicate, locate and rescue stranded people.
They are fueled by nothing more than a steadfast commitment to helping their neighbors and are using two apps to navigate their rescue missions — Zello, which is a central dispatch communication system and Glympse, which allows them to geolocate stranded victims.
And Facebook.  They're using Facebook.
We had a pregnant woman Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m. contact us on on Facebook saying her house wasn’t flooded, but it was on an island and isolated. We took the call — much like the hundreds of other stories like this — and we got her water. On our way back, we got a call there were three cats stuck on a roof and didn’t get back till 1 a.m. At least five guys I know.”

Funny, how many of us see social media as having the potential to be destructive, or just plain old mean, but this group is using Facebook to save lives. Like any other technology, it's a tool.  How you use it depends on who you are.

The story is both heart-rending and heart-warming.  I'll link it again.  Go read the whole thing.

Update** I found what looks like a fairly legit Louisiana Cajun Navy page on Facebook.  Give them a like, and if anyone knows any others, mention them in comments.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I tend to avoid social media but it has been invaluable this last week. AT&T failed completely in the midst of the flooding. I've used it all week to keep the wife of a police officer with AT&T updated when she couldn't find her husband (but he could call us because we have Verizon). I've used it to place animals, donate furniture locally, show up to sandbag a house. And a shout out to the Cajun Navy as well, those are some awesome folks! I've lost track of how many stories I've heard of the Navy hauling them out.