Kubota Disaster Relief Team

[sjbasin]

Is there such a thing as a disaster relief team comprised of Kubota owners who are willing and able to travel to disasters in the US with their equipment and provide relief to the victims?

[Bob_Young]

They're all busy in Muyanmar right now. Except for KeithInSpace who is working from this end with his PHD to help drain the flood waters.
Bob

[ChuckinNH]

Originally Posted by Bob_Young

They're all busy in Muyanmar right now. Except for KeithInSpace who is working from this end with his PHD to help drain the flood waters.
Bob

That was great Bob!

[MarkV]

Originally Posted by sjbasin

Is there such a thing as a disaster relief team comprised of Kubota owners who are willing and able to travel to disasters in the US with their equipment and provide relief to the victims?

Never heard of one. I went down to Mississippi after Katrina with my L39 for a while and there were some Kubota痴 working in the area. The hard part is finding a place to stay and fuel. You pretty much have to arrive self contained with a fuel supply and camper. Even then empting holding tanks, finding water and food were an issue.

MarkV

[Aquaman]

This sounds like a pretty good idea. An army of machines that were coordinating their efforts could probably do alot of good in the area that just experienced the tornado damage. I wouldn't know how to organize something like that but I'll bet some of the readers on this forum would. Something to think about....

[KeithInSpace]

Originally Posted by Bob_Young

Except for KeithInSpace who is working from this end with his PHD to help drain the flood waters.

You kill me.

Try as I may...perhaps I need the new 2660.

In all seriousness, I could qualify for the 'disaster relief' offer. We've gotten over 11 inches of rain in the past month and over 6 INCHES IN THE PAST 5 DAYS (over 2 inches last Thursday and over 2 inches last night). It has put us on notice to the damage excessive water can do, even in a brand new house.

We had a series of circumstances that led to a small amount of water in the house, our sump pump being overwhelmed (supplamented with another 1/2 HP pump I have on hand to get it under control), and the water table around our house rising to the point that we had water seeping in the basement walls.

Project #1 when it stops raining (which won't be until next weekend May 17th at least) is doubling my sump pump discharge capacity and adding a battery powered backup sump pump.

Project #2 is burying all roof leaders from the house in hard-pipe drains that extend >30 feet from the basement walls to diminish the amount of roof water getting into my underslab french drain system (which goes to the sump pump and has to be pumped out). I just have too much rainwater soaking in 5 feet from the basement walls that comes straight off the roof.

THEN I'll get back to augering my way to Muyanmar. I was well on my way last time...

[KeithInSpace]

Originally Posted by Aquaman

An army of machines that were coordinating their efforts could probably do alot of good in the area that just experienced the tornado damage.

I'd definitely love to do it...I'd love to know if someone had the capability of organizing such a request. Seems it would need to be in concert with some local or Red Cross agency to make sure it isn't more hurt than help.

Not that I'd ship my machine to a military dictatorship and wait on the border at Thailand or whatever for the warlords to let me in...Kansas sounds more do-able.

[Baby Grand]

'Botas without Borders?

[Aquaman]

Bota Brigade??

[CBW1999]

GREAT IDEA!!!

To support my tractor habit- I happen to work in Emergency Medical Services full time, so I have some input on how to start something like this.

It is hard to start at the national level, but the local level is ideal to begin. Several options are available. In our area, the 2 organizations that would be a starting place are the local emergency planning commission.

Their role is to organize and catalog all available resources. As an example, our county has a complete listing of personell, resources and equipment available from EMS, Fire Service, Public works etc.

The second that comes to mind is the local community emergency response team (CERT). Volunteers organized to assist as needed at the local county or statewide level for a variety of needs.

The one thing to avoid is developing a "rougue program" and just showing up to help. Even though this is in the sense of volunteering, there have been too many examples of fly by night help showing up and "helping" for a fee. it would be difficult nowadays to just show up and not be turned around.

My brother, an Arborist actually registered as a business and contacted the better business bureau before going down to assist with Hurricane Katrina. This opened up a lot for him as municipalities would only source through channels that had verifiable information.

One last thought- The "Southern Baptist's" used to provide a lot of disaster relief (food/Shelter) mobile operations. If they still do this, maybe contacting them for guidance/suggestions/ offerring help might work as well.

let me know what you think!