emse232

Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

Crisis and Emergency Management

November 2008 Volume 15 - Number 2

Domestic Disaster Update...

Communications one of the critical challenges of Katrina. Lessons for the future

By Graciela Piedras

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, on June 2004, reported that 80% of America’s cities do not have emergency communications that are inter-operable with each other, or with State and Federal agencies; 97% of cities cannot communicate for chemical plant disasters; 94 % for rail disasters and 92 % for seaport disasters.

Hurricane Katrina formed on August 23, 2005, crossed Florida as a Category 1 hurricane and made its second landfall as a Category 3 on August 29 in southeast Louisiana. It was the deadliest USA hurricane since 1928. Nearly every levee in New Orleans was breached which resulted in 80% of the city becoming flooded.

The effects were devastating. From the human point of view, at least 1,836 people lost their lives in the hurricane and the resulting floods, 705 people remain as missing and over one million people were distributed across the country. From the economic point of view, the storm was responsible for US$ 81.2 billion (2005) in damage not counting the economic impact caused by the interruption of the oil supply, the destruction of the Gulf Coast's highway infrastructure, the destruction of forest lands, the unemployment, and the reduction of exports such as grain. From the environment point of view, the storm surge caused considerable beach erosion, about 20% of the marshes were permanently overrun by water, and the water that covered New Orleans was pumped into Lake Pontchartrain containing a mix of sewage, toxic chemicals, and oil.

Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans exposed several critical challenges in Federal, State, and local preparedness for catastrophic events and the capacity to respond to them. In this article we will focus in the telecommunications aspect of the disaster.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed part of the communications infrastructure in the Gulf Coast region leaving emergency responders and public unconnected. In particular, several 911 emergency call centers and police and fire dispatch centers were non operational, three million customers were left with no telephone service and 50% of area radio stations and 44% of area television stations were affected.

Security concerns suspended search and rescue missions, hindered medical support and delayed the restoration of essential services such as telecommunications. In this situation, it was of the outmost importance the assistance provided by volunteers from the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, the shortwave radio and the role of the AM and FM radio (only two AM & two FM radio survived of 41 authorized).

As of September 14, 2005 there were still 350,000 customers without phone service in the Gulf Coast, with 318,000 in Louisiana. Wireless carriers reported they were up to at least 75 % operating capacity, cable service had been restored for 55 % of the customers, but 39 of 41 broadcast stations were non operational. To alleviate the situation, FCC granted special regulatory waivers to set up Wi-Fi and Wi-Max systems in New Orleans, processed requests for special temporary authority within four hours of receiving forms in order to speed up operations restoration, and established an internal task force to consider industry outreach, coordination with other Federal agencies and ways to improve preparedness, reliability and communications among first responders.

Federal, State, and local governments are still working on a strategy to improve operability and interoperability to meet the needs of emergency responders and to take into account the changing technological environment. The Department of Homeland Security reviewed laws, policies, plans, and strategies relevant to communications and released on July 31, 2008 a National Emergency Communications Strategy that supports communications operation and interoperability.

Congress is still establishing unified command procedures for responses to disasters and to reallocate high-quality broadcast spectrum for public safety radio use.

References

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2881&program=Technology%20and%20Democracy&callingPage=discoMainPage

http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/advisory/hkip/

Carmicheal, David W. ,11 Lessons That Katrina Taught Me, Georgia Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, President, Council of State Archivists

LESSONS LEARNED FROM HURRICANE KATRINA:

Preparing Your Institution for a Catastrophic Event, Federal Financial Institutions

The federal response to Hurricane Katrina – lessons learned

http://www.whitehouse.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/

http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1217529182375.shtm

http://www.usmayors.org/72ndAnnualMeeting/interoperabilityrelease_062804.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/

http://www.hhs.gov/disasters/emergency/naturaldisasters/hurricanes/katrina/index.html