
Roddenberry Foundation
Disaster Response Team
In mid-November 2013, roughly ten days after Supertyphoon Haiyan devastated the Central Philippines, the Roddenberry Foundation funded the deployment of a Disaster Response Team (DRT) for a 10 day targeted mission. The goal was to identify unmet needs and to provide guidance in the use of new technologies and processes for disaster relief. The team was then tasked with establishing a place for such new capabilities in the design of future response plans.
The success of that mission to Haiyan prompted the Roddenberry Foundation to establish a formal Roddenberry Disaster Response Team to provide two closely integrated services:
• Water Distribution: Water sourced from anywhere (river, lake, stream, irrigation ditch, rice paddy, cistern...anywhere not salt) and purified on-site for distribution to both survivors and, if needed, to responders.
• Rapid Telecommunications Damage Assessment: The deployment of teams trained in the evaluation and reporting of damage to communications infrastructure.
The team most recently returned from a twelve day mission to Loiza, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in September of 2017.