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Wi-Fi Network To Aid Town Devastated by Tornado



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Greensburg, KS May 16, 2007

Aug 21, 2007, News Report

 

 

Greensburg, KS May 16, 2007 - The center of town twelve days after it was hit by an F5 tornado with 200 mph winds.


In efforts to help rebuild a town nearly destroyed by a tornado, Xirrus, Inc. has deployed a high-performance Wi-Fi network in a temporary school facility in Greensburg, Kan. The state-of-the-art wireless network was up and running in less than a day and covers the 14 temporary buildings where 74 percent of student population will return for the 2007-2008 school year. The Wi-Fi network will provide Internet access for the students, faculty and school staff allowing them to conduct research and enable curriculum enrichment activities using 200 new computers.

On May 4, an F5 class tornado struck Greensburg destroying 95 percent of the city including all of the district's schools. In the wake of the devastation, Darrin Headrick, superintendent of the Greensburg Unified School District, declared that students in the area would have a school by August. Within four months, the city built a temporary school and deployed a state-of-the-art, high-performance Wi-Fi network using Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays.

"Rebuilding a school for these children has been a top priority," said Headrick. "Everyone at Xirrus stepped up to the challenge to make the installation process of our network as quick as possible and we are extremely fortunate to receive the help and support from companies like Xirrus during our rebuilding efforts. We selected Xirrus because they have the best technology and were able to quickly deploy the network without sacrificing performance."

The Wi-Fi Arrays were deployed outside the temporary facility using Xirrus Outdoor Enclosures and represented all the equipment needed to power the school's state-of-the-art Wi-Fi network. Xirrus donated installation service to the district in an effort to help rebuild the city. Staff from Fort Hayes University also helped with the Xirrus Wi-Fi network deployment.

"In the city's rebuilding efforts, it was very important for us to ensure that come fall, the children would have a school to attend with state-of-the-art technology," said Jon Freeman, regional director of sales and marketing, Xirrus. "Working on this project has been a great honor for the Xirrus personnel who donated their personal time to make this deployment a reality."

Classes for the 2007-2008 school year will begin at the temporary facility on Wednesday, August 22, 2007.


KW

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