Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoiners!

As you are likely aware the South has been hit with the most devastating weather in recent history. I'm in Montgomery, AL, with a couple bitcoiners including bitcoin2cash (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=369;sa=showPosts). I'm suspending my Bitcoin Roadtrip (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4752.0) for some days in order to help out with cleanup and aid. We are going to head north tomorrow to Tuscaloosa and/or Birmingham and help out.

The bitcoins you send will be turned into dollars through bitcoin2cash.com (http://bitcoin2cash.com), and will all go to aid, minus our transportation and food costs. I'm kicking it off with 10 BTC. Any leftover coins that we can't spend on aid will be donated to the Faucet. Send coins to 1MuZVTGQgzq47CjAQMDR41qk8Uepsivk4T. edit: this is a fresh mybitcoin.com account that I just set up.

My plan so far for tomorrow is to buy up a truckload of bottled water, and give it away to cleanup crews and families. PM if you're in the area and would like to help. Post ITT if you have other ideas as to how we can put the money to good use.

Cheers,
PLATO

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/5667392730_dd3c067c3b_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfredomontenegro/5667392730/)
Severe Weather (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfredomontenegro/5667392730/) by Afredoilde (http://www.flickr.com/people/alfredomontenegro/), on Flickr


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/5667457100_f259d8e833_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillips92/5667457100/)
Phil Campbell Tornado damage  (http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillips92/5667457100/) by blackblue1992 (http://www.flickr.com/people/phillips92/), on Flickr

Now this... this is something awesome. I tip my hat to you.

Donating 10 myself

http://presstorm.com

Operation Clean Up

How Can We Help You?

I'm afraid I'm just getting started and only have a few bitcents to my name, but I can offer a bit of practical advice.  Instead of all bottled water, go to the local camping supplies store, and buy some water filters and pumps.  Used carefully, they can provide 400 gallons of water for less than the cost of one case of bottles.  All you need are a few mud puddles. (A cotton sock for a pre-filter will extend the life considerably.)

How can I find the disaster coordinator? There should be someone at a command center somewhere who's in charge of this entire situation. They (or their minions) can direct us to the places we can help the most. There are hundreds of cities and towns that need help but some (Smithville, MS) sound like they're worse off than others.

Presstorm - follow me on Twitter so we can DM

tlhonmey - Good point

Thanks for the donations, guys - at the current rate 36.75BTC is almost a hundred bucks

Smithville is closed off by the National Guard right now. No one's getting in or out so nothing can be done about it for right now.

That said, yeah there's a lot of other places that need help. I'm fixing to go home today and see what all damage has been done

That looks like japan after the tsunami. Good job raising donations for this plato.

Here's a video I took a few miles from my house: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2rkk8ABeeU

I consider myself extremely lucky not to be sifting through a pile of rubble right now. I've got solar panels charging a portable Duracell backup battery by day and running a generator by night. The mail is still running at my P.O. box so deposits shouldn't be affected.

I went out to Eclectic, AL today to help clean up a devastated trailer park. 11 people died there and the wreckage was near total. A corps of Air National Guardsmen came to help as well as a division of CAT owners, operators, and maintenence. I met the owner of the trailer park, I will probably give the donation money to her directly, I feel that she'd be able to put it to very good use. I'm heading back tomorrow AM.

Just saw this on Reddit:
https://i.imgur.com/dlPgE.jpg

Keep up the good work Plato.

Quick update, bitcoin2cash sent $105 to the owner of that trailer park, from the 41.75 BTC that were collected. Thanks guys, that will go a long way :)

Many thanks for doing your part, Plato!

$105 / 41.75 BTC comes out to a price of $2.51 per BTC, almost a full dollar below the current market price.  That would definitely explain why my lowball offers of $2.60/BTC and $2.55/BTC were bought, which I had mostly just put up there for the heck of it.

As I do not wish to profit at the expense of the storm victims, especially as I very nearly avoided the storms myself, I'd like to return the ~4 BTC difference that I got from selling at the lowball price instead of a more reasonable offer.  Are you still accepting donations at that address?

Sure - I'll keep it open indefinitely

That's really awesome of you. I spent a week without power and my fence was messed up pretty bad but that's a minor inconvenience compared to some people that lost everything, including their lives. Here's a video that I took a few miles from my house: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2rkk8ABeeU

It's hard to believe how powerful these storms can be.

Here's the receipt for the donations.

https://i.imgur.com/4uIn0.jpg