Update: Asterisk Community Participant | Katrina Refugee UPDATE

Note: Here is an update from JR Richardson. He is a Katrina survivor and I wanted to post his update for people that are following his family's story. Also I would like to add that it is very refreshing to hear what Digium did in his wake. Great work!

Hi all,

Thank you all for your replies of hope, and advice for recovering flooded computer equipment. I was not able to recover ANY electronic components. There was 5 foot of water sitting in my home for over a week. The water was laden with very corrosive contaminants and heavy sludge. Literally this water ate the conformal coating off a lot of ckt boards then heavily corroded and oxidized any metal and solder. I struggled to recover data from hard drives but did manage to get a couple to work after cleaning.

Silver Lining:

I lost a few thousand dollars just in Digium hardware alone, so I contacted Digium and let them know that I was out of commission for a while till I could get another lab setup. In my most humble manner I requested card replacement or discount on a few items just so I could get back up and running, to my surprise, Digium would not accept any money from me and sent several cards and components free. They thanked me for my participation and expressed compassion for my loss. Digium is a class act and have helped me rebuild some of what Katrina knocked down. I will forever be grateful and never forget Digium's Support in my time of need.

Thank you; Mark and Malcolm, you guys are the best.

I have already relocated my family to Lafayette, LA and we are living in the home we intend to buy soon, just need to run some extra power ckts to the spare room and setup a new lab. We took in a family that lived across the street from us in St Bernard and they are living in my future computer lab, so it will still be a bit before I get up and running but will soon.


JR Richardson