This is not an ad, but a victory cheer. Three months ago, someone here posted a thread about helping hurricane victims by sending bikes. Now, with lots of help from a few others on a steering committee, we in Maine have done it! We surpassed our goal of 400 bikes (the amount that fit in the trailer), and are trying to figure out if we can send a second shipment with the leftovers, and those we had to turn away. We got TV coverage on the first day of our two-day staging event, which prompted a steady stream of people cleaning out their garages, basements, and sheds on the second day (most of which were okay). See our website in my sig.

In the group pic, I'm the guy with the full brown beard and tan jacket, crouching.

I salute you and your colleagues' good intentions and work acting on bringing those intentions to fruition. Three Cheers to all of you in this Holiday Season.

Nice work! :beer:

great job!! let's hope they rebuild the city with cyclists in mind.

I think this is great what yall are doing for us. I rebuilt my uncles bike, and I am working on my aunts bike right now. They were New Orleans residents before,but then they got flooded, and now they live in north Louisiana. I Live in new orleans but I live on the westbank of the river and I didn't flood, so I am able to fix em' up!

Wow, that is really great!!! The first thing I thought when those people were stuck there was that they wouldn't be if they had bikes. If New Orleans doesn't improve that flood wall, they could also use amphibious bikes (actually not a special bike- pontoons that can be added to any bike) to get around:

FYI, we made our contact with Biloxi through the Texas Bike Coalition, which is coordinating these efforts nationally. It is headed by Audrey Warren, a former Big Easy resident and bike advocate herself, maybe you know her? If you are interested in receiving bikes in New Orleans, I would get in touch with them and see what they can do.

Ditto. :beer:

nope, I don't know her. But the name kinda rings a bell in my head, but I never met her. I would love to recieve bikes, but I have no room left to store them! My sheds and garage/mini shop is full of stuff from my realatives who got flooded. And another thing would be, since my neighborhood didn't flood, who would I be able to give them out to? :(

That's wonderful! :D

One question; has anyone documented any folks who evacuated by bicycle? They must have flown past the traffic.

Great job John! I've been watching this on Channel 6 news.

I didn't see any major media coverage, but there were first-hand cyclist accounts on many of the bulletin boards that were set up so people could try to contact one another in the aftermath...

roughrider504,

In Biloxi, there is a regional aid organization set up to receive the bikes, "unflatten" them and do any tune-ups required, and hand them out. We would be hesitant to send 4000 bikes to an individual.