Randy's Rangers

This is where we are staying/working in Mississippi! There have een many changes in the past few days. I will get out an email tomorrow with details.

Randy's Rangers: "To all the Rangers, past, present and future....

Hands On Disaster Response » HODR Update & Announcements

Hands On Disaster Response » HODR Update & Announcements:

"We gave some consideration to helping out with the tree damage after the blizzard in Buffalo, and after the earthquake in Hawaii. We decided “no” in both case, based on our perception of the level of disaster impact, and the local response capability. Interestingly, Jim Mahar, one of our... HOUSA volunteers and leader of the St Bonaventure teams, has launched BonaResponds, and is leading a volunteer effort in the Buffalo area most weekends. We chipped in some money for some quality chainsaws, and they’ve also linked with a local HON chapter, so there may be more activity forthcoming there."

BonaResponds makes a trip back to Buffalo - Features

BonaResponds makes a trip back to Buffalo - Features:

"The cleanup mission is not finished. The group plans to return to Buffalo in the spring. At that time, the students plan to do different types of activities like planting trees in the parks.

The organization has cleared 90 residents' yards and 40 acres of Martin Luther King Park, according to ... James Mahar. ....

"The majority of the yards we are clearing are for people who are incapable of clearing the yards for themselves, like handicapped or elderly people," Kane said.

The work was dirty, hard physical labor. However, sophomore Patrick Brutus was willing to sacrifice to help others.

"I sawed branches with a hand saw. I dragged the branches and logs out of the muddy, swampy areas to the cleaner areas, that way my other group members did not have to get as muddy and dirty as I had to," Brutus said. "We then dragged everything to the front yard so that it (could) be picked up.

Students were not the only ones to pitch in for the cleanup effort. Kane said current and former faculty members joined BonaResponds in Buffalo."

Some new pictures of on campus trail cleaning

Flickr: Photos tagged with bonaresponds
A couple of us went out to clear the trails on campus. Unfortunately the camera's batteries dies so we did not get many pictures, but a few is better than none.

Buffalo News - Cleanup continues for hundreds

Buffalo News - Cleanup continues for hundreds:

"many branches, measuring more than 4 inches in diameter, are too heavy for her 72-year-old husband to carry. 'I don't know how we'll get all of this out to the front,' he said.

Erie County has assembled a list of up to 600 people - senior citizens, the infirm and others with limited financial means - waiting for volunteers to help trim damaged trees or remove debris, according to Mark Lazzara, who heads the local AmeriCorps office in West Seneca, which is helping to administer volunteer cleanup efforts.....

AmeriCorps has about a dozen volunteers available for the cleanup, in addition to about 30 St. Bonaventure University students working one day a week, Lazzara said.

"We've been doing it every Sunday and are trying to get more volunteers," he said

"

Bonaresponds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bonaresponds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:


We made it to the big time! (Anthony, James, Jerry-- GREAT JOB!!!)

And still more pictures are online!

More pictures from Sunday Dec. 3, BonaResponds working in Buffalo!

More Buffalo pictures online

Finally got around to uploading some more pictures from Buffalo. (Remember we are going back this Sunday (12/3/06--leaving Murphy lot at 8:45).

RedOrbit - Science - Plan May Protect Gulf: Better Storm Tools in Creation

RedOrbit - Science - Plan May Protect Gulf:

Better Storm Tools in Creation: "Federal and state governments are setting into motion plans to protect northern Gulf of Mexico communities from future hazards, policy makers invited to speak at a conference for scientists and coastal natural resource managers said Wednesday.

'The ocean research budget is less now than it was 30 years ago,' said Dr. Frank Muller-Karger, a member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and a biological oceanographer at the University of South Florida. 'If people like you don't push to fix these problems, they won't be fixed.'

Among the most pressing concerns, Muller-Karger said, are pollution, overfishing, land development and wetland loss, climate change, evolving habitats, red tide and hurricanes."

and then the bombshell:

"Katrina is not the worst-case scenario," said Rob Lowe, who is leading FEMA's efforts to create flood and storm surge maps. "This type of storm comes into the Gulf every 30 or so years. We need to look at a 500-year storm event.""