Federal, state and local authorities struggled last week to carry out relief efforts in the ravaged Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina decimated communications.

The efforts resembled the tsunami disaster relief work in Southeast Asia earlier this year. Unlike that widely praised campaign, however, the Bush administration and Homeland Security Department have received harsh criticism for failing to move quickly enough to control the situation.

The destruction of most of the region's communications infrastructure hampered relief efforts.

Federal agencies and telecommunications companies deployed mobile and satellite communications vans to battered areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi last week to fill gaps in commercial, federal and public safety systems. The Defense Department and Coast Guard also dispatched communications vans equipped with a wide range of satellite and land mobile communications systems to provide connectivity for commands supporting disaster relief efforts.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, for example, marshaled its satellite communications resources to provide support for the relief operations, including the deployment of Defense Satellite Communication System gear to Camp Shelby, Miss., which is DOD's headquarters for hurricane relief operations.

The four-ship USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which sailed for the Gulf Coast from Norfolk, Va., last Wednesday, is transporting mobile disaster-response communications vans, a Navy spokesman said.

The Department of Health and Human Services deployed its mobile command post to Baton Rouge, La., an HHS spokesman said. It is equipped with satellite communications systems and radios that can communicate with public safety radio systems.

Courtney McCarron, a spokeswoman for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International, said power outages along coastal areas of Louisiana cut off most forms of communication.

She said Willis Carter, chief of communications at the Shreveport, La., fire department and a second vice president for APCO, reported that the 911 emergency service system was down in New Orleans, and police and fire radio systems weren't operational because they lacked power to recharge batteries in handheld radios.

Commercial telecom connections are limited in the Gulf Coast area, said Petty Officer Third Class Larry Chambers, a spokesman for the Coast Guard command center in Alexandria, La. Commercial landline and cell phone connections are inconsistent, Chambers said.

Urban search and rescue teams from neighboring states found that some areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina don't have a communications infrastructure or a coordinated command and control system.

Barry Luke, division fire chief of the Orange County, Fla., Fire Rescue unit, said about 80 to 90 firefighters, paramedics, building engineers, technicians and others from central Florida had been sent to the Mississippi cities of Gulfport and Pascagoula and surrounding areas to search for survivors. More Florida teams from Jacksonville and Tampa were deployed following a formal request by federal and Mississippi officials.

But poor communications among the teams have hindered rescue efforts, said Luke, who has been receiving reports from the field.

"What we're finding in the rural coastal communities is that there is no ability to pick up the phone and dial 911," he said last week. "There is no ability for the public to call for help. There is no local communication system that is organizing police and fire, and the mutual aid units rolling in are [only] able to talk among themselves."

His crews use 800 MHz portable radios that can communicate up to 1.5 miles apart. Additionally, they have three satellite phones. The crews essentially conducted operations blindly, unaware of other search and rescue teams and the location and operational status of critical facilities, such as hospitals, he said.

After a disaster, local authorities typically monitor requests for help, organize the rescue effort and deploy teams in an effective manner, he said. In this case, no effective organization exists because the communities are wiped out, he said.

"We found three people who were trapped or alive and those people were rescued and put in the back of an Orange County ambulance," Luke said. "Now what does the ambulance do? Where do they go? We don't know Gulfport, Miss. We don't know where the closest hospital is. We don't know if that hospital has electricity, if it's operating. There is no radio to ask anyone that question, and there's certainly no radio to call that hospital and tell them we're bringing a patient in."

Luke said rescue coordination is starting to form as the right equipment and people arrive.

Florida also sent several sophisticated mobile communications trailers. Using equipment from the trailers, emergency workers can set up temporary antenna towers that operate different radio channels, and they can communicate with one another using devices that function across different channels.

Telecom companies also worked overtime to deliver necessary communications gear.

Marlin Forbes, vice president of defense and international markets at MCI, said the company deployed two of its communications vans packed with satellite gear to Baton Rouge and New Orleans. MCI was preparing another five vehicles late last week, and Forbes said he expected the company to deploy them Sept. 3.

To help plug gaps in public safety radio communication systems knocked out by Katrina, Motorola delivered a radio-packed trailer to the Louisiana State Police. The trailer will serve as the base station for an emergency 700 MHz communication system.

Motorola delivered another trailer to Baton Rouge, giving the city's first responders a 900 MHz emergency radio system. The company will provide a similar trailer for the Louisiana National Guard.

Motorola also shipped 2,500 pieces of emergency communications equipment to the Gulf Coast, including police radios, batteries and battery chargers. FEMA and other federal agencies are using MCI's vans to provide communications for disaster- response teams, Forbes said.

Those vans provide solid satellite communications links in an area where the hurricane cut a significant number of fiber-optic communications links, he said.

Forbes said the devastation caused by Katrina surpasses anything he has ever experienced. "We've responded to 10 hurricanes, and the devastation from this one is the worst I have ever seen," he said. "It's incredible."

###

Wisconsin Public Safety Group Awarded $420,000 Grant for Interoperable Communications

September 6, 2005

Government Technology

By News Staff

URL: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=96507

On Monday, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle announced that the North Eastern Wisconsin Public Safety Communications (NEWCOM) group has been awarded a $418,800 Federal Homeland Security grant. The funds will be used to implement a regional public safety mobile radio plan for the 16 county group, and purchase equipment that will enable the region's law enforcement and fire agencies to communicate with one another when responding to an incident.

NEWCOM is headed by the Oneida County Sheriff's Department and includes Florence, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Oneida, Portage, Price, Shawano, Taylor, Vilas, Waupaca, and Wood Counties.

"When an emergency occurs, the most critical element of a response is communication," Governor Doyle said. "This grant will help the NEWCOM group coordinate its own communications strategy to fit the unique needs of law enforcement and fire departments in the Northwoods."

Wisconsin's Office of Justice Assistance (OJA) has asked all of Wisconsin's 72 counties to identify their radio interoperability needs. OJA contracted with Federal Engineering to conduct a statewide interoperability assessment. The issue of interoperability was brought to the forefront after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Reports showed many of the emergency first responders were unable to communicate with each other because their radios were not interoperable.

"Wisconsin's first responders deserve the very best radio equipment," OJA Executive Director, David Steingraber said. "We want to make sure our cops, firefighters, and EMS workers can communicate with one another during times of distress. This grant will help make sure they can."

Since 1999, Wisconsin has received $128 million in federal terrorism grants. This year, Wisconsin received $37 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for state and local government to purchase first responder equipment such as personal protective gear, radios, chemical detection, and monitoring equipment. This funding is used for training and emergency exercises as well as improving security of critical infrastructure such as municipal water systems and transportation facilities. Funding is also used to improve statewide radio and information sharing capability by emergency services and to support regional teams specializing in high risk emergency response. Wisconsin is expected to receive and distribute additional terrorism funding to local communities later this year.

###

Charlottesville, Va., Fire Department Provides Interoperable Communications Support for Katrina Relief Effort

September 6, 2005

Government Technology

By Corey McKenna

URL: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=96531

The Charlottesville, Va., Fire Department has deployed its communications interoperability unit to help restore communications in the areas affected by hurricane Katrina. Initially, the department was directed to deploy its equipment to a Veterans Administration medical center in Jackson, Miss., to provide Internet access to critical patient records for the hospital.

After completing its mission at the Veterans Administration medical center, the interoperability unit was directed to Gulfport, La. As of this writing, the interoperability unit is being deployed to Gulfport, La. after reporting into Virginia's emergency management office for another assignment, Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Warner said.

The fire department's interoperability unit which is composed of an Incident Commander Radio Interface connected to a satellite and installed inside a sport utility vehicle, takes 10 minutes to connect all the pieces and make operational and takes five minutes to learn how to use, he said.

Incident Commander's Radio Interface, which is an integral part of the Charlottesville Fire Department's interoperability unit, includes five ports that enable different radio systems to communicate with one another as well as providing for underground communications.

The equipment may be used for emergency service support or it may simply serve as a means for people to communicate with loved ones. "We'll do whatever we need to do to help the citizens of these communities," Werner said.

In addition to the ICRI being deployed by the Charlottesville, Va., Fire Department, Communications-Applied Technology has provided additional ICRI units and communications equipment that can be deployed in other areas if needed.

###

Communications breakdown

As the Katrina disaster unfolded, many emergency responders had no way to talk to each other. Why were they so unprepared?

September 9, 2005

Salon.com

By Mark Benjamin

URL: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/09/comm_meltdown/

Hurricane Katrina was the first big test of U.S. emergency disaster management in the post-9/11 era. Though the murky waters are still receding, it's already clear that at least one key lesson from that day four years ago went unheeded.

In addition to the heroism shown by police and firefighters at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001, there were waves of confusion and miscommunication. Sometimes there was no communication at all when it was needed the most. The 9/11 Commission documented in its historic report from July 2004 how bungled communication in the disaster zone might have prevented some firefighters from getting a critical message that day: to evacuate the North Tower, after the South Tower had already pancaked in lower Manhattan.

A main radio channel used by the firefighters "was simply overwhelmed by the number of units attempting to communicate on it," the commission wrote. "As many people tried to speak at once, their transmissions overlapped and often became indecipherable." Other firefighters were simply using the wrong radio channel or lacked functioning radios altogether. The commission found that these problems were a "contributing factor" in the deaths of an unknown number of firefighters, and that botched communication between the police and fire departments may have also contributed.

The lesson was that first responders in a unit -- and across departments -- must be able to talk to each other in unforeseen or even unbelievable circumstances. The system hadn't worked in New York. Four years later, it didn't work in New Orleans.

Though the scope of the communications meltdown in Katrina's aftermath remains unclear, anecdotal reports show that it may have helped turn already chaotic rescue operations in New Orleans into a bungled mess. The causes are also still uncertain, though devastation of the city's infrastructure surely contributed. But the information blackout clearly blinded local officials, and appears to have also affected military troops who arrived later.

During the first, darkest days after the storm, security operations were left almost entirely to the local police department. And New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said in a news conference Aug. 29 that his officers worked during that period with no operating communications systems at all -- a problem he described as nearly as significant as running out of ammunition.

The Miami Herald described the city as "paralyzed by poor communications" on Aug. 31. "Fire officials had one channel for 800 people to communicate with," the paper reported.

The problem spilled over to thousands of National Guard troops operating in the city. The Washington Post on Tuesday described the "massive military effort" in New Orleans as "severely disjointed and hampered by a lack of basic communication between units," according to officers. "Ground commanders for New Orleans have been functioning without the ability to track the location of some units reporting to them -- something unheard of in Iraq." The article describes soldiers apprehending two possible looters, "but because they had no radio communication with the New Orleans police, they had to flag down a passing patrol car to hand over the two men."

Ironically, the technology that makes most day-to-day emergency-response activities run smoothly can turn into an Achilles' heel in a disaster. Many emergency responders continue to assume that their sophisticated communications gear -- radios, pagers, cell phones and global positioning systems -- will work in a disaster.

Yet for all of America's formidable technology, communications meltdowns have wreaked havoc on large-scale emergencies for years, including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Columbine High School shootings in 1999 and the attacks on Sept. 11. First responders at Columbine turned first to their radios, then cell phones, then land lines in vain attempts to organize -- only to find that the sheer volume of activity had rendered all of them useless. And that was without the added problem of massive infrastructure damage like that seen in New Orleans.

"It is very frustrating to see these patterns over and over and over. We still have not learned," says Bill Pessemier, the executive communications advisor for the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Pessemier, now retired after 25 years of firefighting, was the fire chief in Littleton, Colo., on the day the Columbine shootings occurred. He saw firsthand the chaos that followed once communications systems were overwhelmed.

"We get so comfortable with the technology because on a day-to-day basis, that is what we do," he says. "What happened with Katrina is you get pummeled back to the Stone Age. You have to rely on face-to-face communications and organization."

Pessemier says that first responders have a hard time imagining operations without their relatively high-tech communications methods. Training sessions and exercises rarely include scenarios in which there is an information blackout. "You have to plan how you are going to work together when you have no technological support," says Pessemier.

Just as important, he says, first responders must map out exactly how organizations will share tasks and responsibilities in an emergency. Planners have to recognize that not only do organizations need to talk to their own staff, but police need to talk to firefighters, and firefighters may need to talk to the National Guard. This type of training is particularly difficult, given the local rivalries typical between many police and fire departments. Among emergency planners, that kind of cross talk and cooperation is called "interoperability."

"All states are working on this interoperability," says Nolan Jones, deputy director of federal relations at the National Governors Association. "We are in the process of trying to fix this," he says. Being able to do that sometimes does require investments in new technologies, he adds. "It is expensive."

With more money, first responders could hand out more cellphones as backups to radios, use satellite phones where cellphones fail, use more microwave technology for radio communications, and create what are called “trunked” radio systems, which allow more response units to talk with one another, says Joseph Estey, chief of police in Hartford, Vt., and the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The 9/11 Commission said in its report that "if New York and other major cities are to be prepared for future terrorist attacks, different first-responder agencies within each agency must be fully coordinated, just as different branches of the U.S. military are."

Many emergency-response experts say that responding to a terrorist attack or a natural catastrophe can be very similar. Once the lines of cooperation are clear, then the groups must decide how they will talk if all their communications gear fails, according to Pessemier. If that means relying on crude methods of communication, so be it -- that should be part of emergency training, he says.

Poor communications can certainly contribute to a situation that devolves into the chaos evident at the Superdome in New Orleans. While circumstances quickly deteriorated there for the thousands seeking refuge, it took days for adequate supplies and evacuation vehicles to arrive.

"If you can't communicate, you are going to have a real tough time knowing what is going on and managing resources," Pessemier says. A key part of the problems in New Orleans, he says, was that planners never considered what would happen if modern methods of communication were wiped out by a storm -- a mind-boggling oversight given disaster studies done in the years before Katrina struck.

An independent commission helped get to the bottom of problems with the emergency response in New York four years ago. But given today's political environment, it's unclear what kind of inquiry into the Katrina response might be carried out.

For Pessemier, some of the critical changes needed are already clear. "My guess is that we just did not plan for being able to work together in situations when we don't have technological support," he says. "We have to start planning for that."

###

Clear the airwaves: First responders can't communicate

Lack of action by Congress keeps a radio band tied up

September 10, 2005

Houston Chronicle

By Harold Hurtt

URL: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3347539

We frequently are reminded that our first responders desperately need improved communications capabilities to do their jobs. Hurricane Katrina has made it painfully obvious that when we face threats to the citizens of this country, our first responders need to have the best possible communications tools.

Major disasters highlight the need for state, local and federal agencies to have immediate and secure inter-operational communications so first responders can communicate quickly and privately with each other in these emergencies.

Every day, police, fire and emergency personnel in this community face difficult communications problems. Most of these problems occur because of dangerously congested radio systems. Unfortunately, the ability of first responders to communicate with each other is jeopardized because of the lack of a precious resource: clear radio spectrum, or airwaves.

As a public safety official, I would like to express my concern that Congress has not yet taken action to clear the 700 MHz spectrum band for first responders and complete the transition to digital TV.

In 1997, Congress and the FCC recognized the great need for public safety to have a dedicated spectrum and earmarked 24MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band for state and local public safety.

However, eight years later, television stations are still blocking public safety officials' access to the 700MHz band.

Why? Because Congress has not set a date for TV stations to transition from this spectrum to other TV channels.

It's important to know that conversion to digital will not result in the loss of TV signals for anyone.

About 85 percent of Americans receive television signals over cable or satellite and would not be affected by the transition.

For those households that receive television signals through the air, they will receive better, digital TV signals with an inexpensive converter box.

This is a win-win situation for everyone.

To ensure that we, as first responders, are able to continue to save lives and keep America safe, we need to clear the spectrum for emergency response — now.

We need our public safety workers to be able to have interoperable communications, the ability of agencies to speak quickly to each other in emergencies. This could mean that a child, separated from her parents during a hurricane, is returned unharmed, or that multiple agencies coordinating relief supplies can deliver services quickly and efficiently.

Clearing the spectrum will provide the first-responder community with the ability to enhance operations and upgrade capabilities, including high-speed data transfers, wireless video transmissions and Intranet access in vehicles.

We need Congress to set a firm date to complete the transition to digital TV and free the spectrum for public safety as close to Dec. 31, 2006, as possible.

The lives of first responders and the citizens we serve remain at risk under current conditions.

###

Ky. Chosen for First Responder Project

ChallengerNKY.Com

September 11, 2005

URL: http://www.challengernky.com/articles/2005/09/11/state_news/doc4321e10f7e87f483923622.txt

FRANKFORT - Kentucky has been selected as one of only two states to take part in a pilot project to provide a statewide strategy to implement radio interoperable communications throughout the commonwealth.

"While we remember the sacrifices of those who have laid down their lives for the cause of freedom, both here at home and abroad, we are reminded of the necessity to ensure that tragedies like the one of Sept. 11, 2001 never happen again here in this country," said Gov. Ernie Fletcher. "On that fateful day, over 300 New York City firefighters lost their lives because they couldn't communicate with one another and with local law enforcement. This pilot project will help us ensure that such a tragedy never occurs here in the commonwealth, whether it is due to a natural or man-made disaster."

The project is being conducted by SAFECOM, which is managed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC). Additionally, the pilot is expected to save the state several million dollars in future funding.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security representative Dr. David Boyd and Kentucky Director of Homeland Security Alecia Webb-Edgington joined Fletcher on the steps of the capitol Friday to announce the project.

The OIC was established to serve as the office within the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen and integrate interoperability and compatibility efforts to improve local, tribal, state and federal public safety preparedness and response.

For the Kentucky pilot, SAFECOM will work with its state and local partner agencies to implement the following steps:

* Establish key relationships and gather information
* Create a project plan and identify roles and responsibilities for project team
* Prepare and conduct focus group interviews
* Prepare and conduct strategic planning sessions
* Develop a statewide communications interoperability strategic plan and
* Create guidelines for the first 90 days of implementation

"This pilot will be driven by the practitioner community-the men and women who use communications equipment on a daily basis. They underscore SAFECOM's commitment to improving public safety communications by putting users in the lead," said Boyd, director of the OIC.

###

Mass honors first responders, MEMA says Maine better prepared

September 11, 2005

Boston Globe

By Associated Press

URL: http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/09/11/mass_honors_first_responders_mema_says_maine_better_prepared/

LEWISTON, Maine --Firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police officers from across the state marked the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Sunday by attending a special Mass honoring Maine's first responders.

Gov. John Baldacci joined the public safety workers at the "Blue Mass" led by Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Malone at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Several officers and a firefighter participated in the service honoring public safety officials in Maine as well as those who responded in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

"These people put their own lives in front of other people, which really is the ultimate sacrifice," Baldacci told The Associated Press after the service.

Elsewhere, the Great State of Maine Air Show at the Brunswick Naval Air Station opened with a moment of silence to mark the anniversary. In New York, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was honored for her work on intelligence reform last year by "Voices of September 11", an advocacy group comprised of families who lost loved ones on 9-11.

Four years after the attacks, the state is now better prepared to handle an emergency, said Art Cleaves, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

Maine has received $62 million in the past three years in homeland security funding, most of which improved the state's ability to respond to a hurricane, flood or ice storm as well as a terrorist attack, Cleaves said.

The world of disaster preparedness changed radically four years ago. On Sept. 11, 2001, two hijackers started their day at the Portland International Jetport before boarding American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center.

One of them was Mohamed Atta, who was identified as the mastermind of the worst terrorist attack in American history. Atta was believed to have been at the controls when Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower.

Since then, Maine has invested in emergency preparedness, working with local police and border patrol agents on security, increasing the number of decontamination stations from six to 60 and doubling the number of hazardous materials teams in the state to 22.

But new radio systems improving communications between public safety agencies, added public health staff and equipment, and new generators are more typical of the state's spending, Cleaves said. Those items would be in high demand regardless of whether a disaster was natural or man-made. Planners call it an "all hazards" approach to disaster preparedness.

"When we're looking at our terrorism funding that comes into the state we have to meet the letter of what the grant was given for, but we still stretch those rules as far as we can so we meet the threats we feel are most likely," Cleaves said.

The first responders to any disaster are firefighters, EMTs and police officers, the ones honored at Sunday's Blue Mass. In addition to Baldacci, U.S. Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen attended. But the event was not about politicians.

"We think the real VIPs were the people in blue," said Sue Bernard, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese for Portland. "It was really for them."

###

Katrina proves 9/11 communications problems not fixed

September 11, 2005

The Express-Times

By Bill Cahir

URL: http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1126429616122590.xml&coll=2

The terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised questions about the ability of first-response agencies to talk to one another. Fire, police and emergency medical technicians' radio systems didn't match. Overburdened cell phone communications systems crashed. Walkie-talkies worked sporadically inside the World Trade Center.

Four years later, lawmakers have created the Homeland Security Department and Congress provided $8.3 billion in public safety grants to states and localities since fiscal 2002. States spent about $2.5 billion of that money, according to the House Homeland Security Committee. About one-third of that pot of cash, or $830 million, was targeted towards upgraded radio communications systems, says U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, a member of the panel.

"There has been significant funding for communications and interoperability," said Dent, R-Lehigh Valley. "It's a lot. It's not enough -- that's always the criticism you get."

Despite the new spending, the Gulf Coast states and New Orleans since the landfall of Hurricane Katrina have shown little ability to cope with the communications challenges, such as the loss of power sources needed to keep radios juiced.

The breakdown in communications in New Orleans contrasts sharply with success city officials had when the Super Bowl was held at the Superdome on Feb. 3, 2002.

That communications challenge came off without a hitch, despite having the U.S. Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in town, and despite having Mardi Gras occur at the same time, according to New Orleans officials quoted in Channels, an industry magazine.

"In the end, a public safety radio system must provide the communications necessary to protect lives. That's our goal, and nothing less is satisfactory," Duane Johnson, deputy superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, told the magazine published by M/A-COM, a division of Tyco Electronics.

Last week, the M/A-COM police radios in New Orleans did not function between Katrina's arrival Monday morning and the repair of a vital power generator on Thursday, according to Victoria Dillon, a spokeswoman for the company in Lowell, Mass.

M/A-COM technicians knew that a critical generator had been damaged by wind-driven debris. They were prevented by New Orleans police from repairing the power system, although they had the equipment and the know-how for the job, Dillon said.

"This is one of those situations where it's tremendously frustrating, especially to our technicians out there, that something so simple could be such a problem, particularly when the system was functional," Dillon stated.

Mayor's order to leave goes unnoticed by cops

Command and control issues continue to create embarrassing situations for public officials, too.

U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett on Wednesday said he saw a television news report in which New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Jr. said he had ordered the mandatory evacuation of people still in New Orleans. Police in the same broadcast said they did not know of the mayor's order.

"I've always had concerns as to where the federal dollars were being spent, all along, and whether they were going to the most needed areas," said Garrett, R-Warren. "On communications, we would've thought that states would have been wise to put it in, to have, a seamless communications system. But we know that's not the case."

"You'd have police on one bridge looking at officials someplace else and they'd be unable to talk to one another," Garrett said, describing the situation in New Orleans.

U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson worked as a relief volunteer in Baton Rouge over last weekend with his brother-in-law, his legislative director and a former member of his staff.

Ferguson, R-Hunterdon, said he and his companions flew to Dallas, rented a car and drove eight hours to Louisiana. The four men worked out of the offices of U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and at two shelters.

"It was very much hit or miss, obviously, in terms of cell phones and Blackberries and whatnot," Ferguson said.

Sprint Nextel, the wireless giant, on Sept. 3 issued a statement saying it had restored 75 percent of its network in Mississippi. However, the company added that "flooding, power and safety concerns" were "hampering service restoration" in New Orleans.

Ferguson serves on a House panel that plans to debate legislation this fall that would have some impact on police, fire and emergency medical radio systems. The bill would terminate free over-the-air analog television broadcasting and put the analog television spectrum up for an auction, generating up to $5 billion or more for the U.S. Treasury.

As part of that bill, lawmakers intend to reserve a portion of the analog television spectrum for police, fire and emergency medical technicians. Public safety agencies would use it for a more robust emergency communications system.

"That legislation is not finished. I was in a meeting about that earlier today," said Ferguson. Lawmakers have not yet agreed upon a date upon which Congress would terminate regular analog television broadcasting, beyond which consumers would need digital television sets or adapters capable of decoding a digital signal.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, examining the preparedness of radio systems in 192 cities, last year published a report on interoperability of first-response communications systems. The study suggested a long road for federal officials interested in helping states and cities cope with disasters.

The survey found that 88 percent of the cities taking part did not have working communications with the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency; that 83 percent of the cities could not talk to the Justice Department, including the FBI; and that 75 percent had not received federal funding or had not been notified that they were to get federal money.

"The inability of public safety agencies to be able to talk to one another via radio communication systems, and exchange voice and/or data with one another on demand in real time on a day-to-day basis and during major incidents has been raised by mayors and police chiefs as a continued threat to achieving homeland security," said the study, published in June 2004.

###

Homeland Security grants open doors for departments large and small

September 11, 2005

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

By Lena Mitchell

URL: http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=201654&pub=1&div=News

Only days before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross launched a September campaign for National Preparedness Month 2005, Mississippi came face-to-face with its first comprehensive test of its ability to cope with a catastrophic event.

Hurricane Katrina roared ashore in South Mississippi and New Orleans on Aug. 29 with 140-mph winds tearing a path of destruction across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana's Gulf Coast.

Today marks four years since Sept. 11, 2001, the day the nation was awakened to the horrifying consequences of failing to be prepared for disasters - whether manmade or naturally occurring.

Since then, the federal Homeland Security Department has poured more than $51.3 million into preparing Mississippi for a variety of threats: natural disasters, terrorist attacks or other large-scale emergencies.

Local Homeland Security spending

At the local level, public safety officials agree the state is much more prepared now with several years' infusion of Homeland Security funds than it was before Sept. 11, 2001.

"We've got personnel in Bay St. Louis with a team of officers for the Regional Response Team," said Tupelo Police Chief Harold Chaffin, referring to hurricane relief work. "That is the result of homeland security money and homeland security organization. They're doing search and rescue in Bay St. Louis, and there is more organization for this type of thing."

From large city police and fire departments to rural community volunteer firefighters and first responders, every county in the state has received funding from federal Homeland Security grants.

Receiving a $200,000 grant to buy bomb unit equipment has helped the Tupelo Police Department move toward being able to handle bomb threats without needing to call on experts from Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg or from Huntsville, Ala.

"Either place is three hours from us," Chaffin said. A fully functional Tupelo bomb unit will save critical time in a dangerous situation.

Day-to-day dangers

Corinth is able to face the day-to-day dangers of house fires and other structure fires protected by equipment afforded through Homeland Security grants, said Corinth Fire Chief Rob Price.

"We were able to upgrade our self-contained breathing apparatus, and we use those every time we have a fire," the chief said.

Price calls the majority of the equipment "everyday usable."

Along with the four breathing apparatus, they bought eight extra air bottles.

"It would have been years before we would have gotten them because those things are very expensive," Price said. "We would just have had to replace ones as they went down, not upgrade."

In Corinth the funds also were used to buy hazardous materials capabilities, trailers, suits and a thermal-imaging camera used for locating victims or hidden fires.

Oktibbeha County Sheriff Dolph Bryan said the sheriff's department has gotten a new vehicle and other equipment from Homeland Security grants. He said the funds have "really come in handy" to buy equipment the department couldn't otherwise afford.

Bryan said that with the hurricane on the Coast, he expects the Homeland Security department to expand. "We look for it to get better and better," he said.

Communication is key

Story after story from the Katrina relief effort have indicated that snafus in communication among agencies have hampered efforts to get help to victims.

During the 9-11 terrorist attacks in New York, public safety efforts often were blocked by inability of agencies and departments to communicate with each other because they used different types of equipment.

Most of the barriers to what is referred to as "interoperability" have yet to be overcome.

The Tippah County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation earlier this month from a vendor seeking to replace the county's emergency communication system. The proposed system meets interoperability standards that make it eligible for Homeland Security grant funding, said Sheriff Brandon Vance.

"What you have now is a minimum of 10 years old," said Jim McCreary, owner of Precision Communications in Amory. "The FCC has mandated every 9-1-1 upgrade by 2006."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security disseminated to the nation's 50,000 public safety agencies in April 2004 a document outlining future technology requirements for public safety wireless communications and interoperability.

SAFECOM is the umbrella program in DHS that is working on the problem for local, state, tribal and federal public safety agencies.

But the transition is slow.

"It is important to understand that the process of achieving national interoperability may take up to two decades, but important interim measures which move locales, states and the nation toward that goal are already in place," said SAFECOM director David Boyd.

Training needs

Another gap, identified by both Chaffin and Price, exists in teaching how to train users on the purchased equipment.

Funds are available, but "you have to meet a very high standard to qualify," Price said. Meanwhile, he's pursuing alternate sources to acquire proper training for his personnel.

Some training funds have flowed through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to prepare ordinary citizens to play a role in coping during emergencies through the Citizen Corps Councils and Community Emergency Response Teams.

Members of the Citizen Corps acquire training in first aid and emergency skills and support local emergency responders, disaster relief and community safety.

Mississippi has seven Citizen Corps Councils: Columbus-Lowndes County, DeSoto County, Leflore County, Gulfport, Gautier, Glendora and Isola.

Community Emergency Response Team members learn life-savings skills to be able to respond to emergency situations in their communities. Training includes managing utilities and putting out small fires; learn to handle medical emergencies by opening airways, control bleeding and treating for shock; learn basic medical aid; learn victim search and rescue and more.

How it works

Everything purchased with Homeland Security-related funding has to come from a list of items already approved by the Office of Domestic Preparedness.

The state of Mississippi receives an allotment from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The state doles out the money to counties, and counties, in turn, fork over funds to local municipalities.

During the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, the Lee County received nearly $600,000 from Homeland Security, said County Administrator Ronnie Bell. In fiscal 2005 on Oct. 1, the county expects to receive a little more than $1 million.

"That's a pretty substantial amount of money from Homeland Security," he said. "Most of that is going to the Regional Response Team."

And that, said Tupelo Fire Chief Marc Flanagan, includes most of Northeast Mississippi. The state has nine RRTs and a capital response group. This region's team is made up of members of the Tupelo Fire Department, 10 people from the Tupelo Police Department and about 10 people with the Lee County Sheriff's Office. Currently, the RRT is working with North Mississippi Medical Center to bring it into the fold.

###

Disasters were not an e-gov priority

Feds, Congress had little support for emergency management e-gov

September 12, 2005

Federal Computer Week

By David Perera

URL: http://www.fcw.com/article90734-09-12-05-Print&newsletter%3Dyes

Two e-government projects, led by the Homeland Security Department and intended to create a framework for interoperable first responder data and wireless communications, have garnered scant support from federal agencies and Congress.

Congressional appropriators have worked to limit funding for the projects — Disaster Management and Safecom — by inserting restrictive language into spending bills and denying agencies' requests to shift promised money into those efforts. Lawmakers have legally prevented the Interior Department, long an opponent of the projects, from contributing to the initiatives during the current and next fiscal year, as the Office of Management and Budget would otherwise require.

In fiscal 2003 and 2004, a combination of executive and legislative branch actions ensured that only 73 percent of the programs' combined $105 million budget reached project coffers, according to data from a recent Government Accountability Office report.

But officials close to the projects say the root problem has been a lack of executive leadership in DHS' Federal Emergency Management Agency and hostility from partner agencies. FEMA executives did not respond to an interview request.

"Those two programs probably weren't FEMA's bread and butter when it came to their response to disaster," said Ron Miller, that agency's chief information officer from 2001 to 2002. "The hope was that they could become that some day."

FEMA was the project leader for Safecom almost from its start until 2003 when DHS transferred the project to its Science and Technology Directorate.

Safecom seeks to create interoperable wireless communication standards for state, local and federal first responders. The directorate is the program's fourth lead agency in a roster that includes FEMA and the Justice and Treasury departments. FEMA continues to lead Disaster Management, but its transfer to the directorate is pending.

Disaster Management is an effort to create interoperable data-exchange standards for first responders and a free set of Web- and desktop-based emergency response tools. FEMA already had a suite of tools in place, but program managers resisted integrating it into Disaster Management, Miller said.

Transferring the project to the directorate will reunite its oversight with Safecom, Miller said. "Essentially, they were supporting the same community," he said.

But in some ways, the transfer is also a step back.

The two projects "were never about the technology solutions because the technology has been out there for a long time," Miller said. They are more concerned with processes and stakeholder involvement, he said.

Focusing the programs on their technological aspects "is probably not going to get them everything they need," he added.

Internal FEMA resistance to cross-agency emergency preparedness programs spearheaded by the CIO was strong because agency divisions felt "they weren't their programs, they were something else," said a former FEMA official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Another perception was that states, rather than the federal government, should fund Disaster Management, the former official added. Federal officials "just looked at it as a bill they shouldn't have to pay."

But without an integrator like Disaster Management, state and local officials face an overwhelming number of federal programs, said Mark Forman, former OMB administrator of e-government and information technology.

"They don't have time to figure out who to talk to or what systems to use during a disaster," Forman said. "They need to be able to know who to go to when, for which part of the puzzle."

Partner agencies required to contribute to those programs under pass-the-hat funding also sometimes opposed the project. During 2002, Commerce Department CIO Tom Pyke left a Disaster Management strategy meeting early, according to several officials.

Pyke "expressed some pretty strong reservations about the program, and he was pretty passionate about those," Miller said.

Pyke did not respond to requests for comment.

Miller's departure from FEMA in 2002 did not bode well for Disaster Management, the former FEMA official said. Without a champion, responsibility for the project was pushed further down the executive ladder, sources said. "They pushed it all the way to the basement," said an official familiar with the program.

###

L.A. County Office of Emergency Management to Utilize Satellite Networking

September 12, 2005

Government Technology

By News Staff

URL: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=96587

The Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management and Network Innovation Associates Inc. are installing a LinkStar satellite private network from ViaSat Inc. for the County's first responder network.

The Emergency Satellite Communications Network (ESCN) is designed to be the backbone for the Emergency Management Information System (EMIS) that L.A. County fire, law enforcement, health, and safety agencies rely on for communications in the event of a disaster. The three-year contract, valued at approximately $1.5 million, includes networking equipment for 137 locations, plus network services through the ViaSat Customer Care Center.

All 88 cities within Los Angeles County rely on the EMIS network to connect to critical resources from medical, police, sheriff, fire and City Hall agencies in an emergency. Designated operators communicate through the network when the Office of Emergency Management activates the system. LinkStar satellite modems, connected to EMIS terminals, will be able to provide two-way communications with a dedicated hub server at the L.A. County Emergency Operations Center (LAEOC), creating a secure, emergency response intranet across the county. By the end of 2005 the agency is expected to complete a mirror site in Denver, Colorado that will serve as a backup hub for the network.

"When we start sending information over the EMIS network, we'd really rather send it through the ESCN because it's more secure," said Rob Sawyer, who designed the network and now is chief of Communications for the LA County Fire Department. "Even though the primary network is still terrestrial, most likely the network operators are going to use the satellite network when they have a choice."

All the attributes of satellite communication make it a natural fit for emergency operations. Disasters often cut or create gaps in terrestrial service, but, by virtue of its wireless nature and wide area coverage, satellite networks are immune to interruptions on the ground.
###

APCO Offers Communications System Restoration Support

September 12, 2005

Government Technology

By News Staff

URL: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=96594

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International's frequency coordination subsidiary, AFC, Inc., recently announced it will be offering its services free of charge to help the relief and restoration efforts for communications services for public safety operations in the Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. APCO International is working closely with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its effort to expedite the restoration of failed communications systems and the deployment of emergency systems to support incoming relief resources.

Many existing Gulf coast public safety systems have experienced catastrophic failures due to flooding, winds, power availability, and more.

The FCC has offered to expedite their Special Temporary Authority (STA) licensing required to restore downed systems especially in areas where existing equipment and infrastructure is no longer viable. APCO-AFC has offered to provide assistance to any public safety agency requiring coordination of frequencies for stations that may be required to change locations. APCO-AFC will waive all normal fees. In addition, APCO-AFC will assist any agencies in filing any applications for STA with the FCC. APCO-AFC's electronic access to the FCC's Universal Licensing System (ULS) allows APCO-AFC to quickly and accurately review, approve, and file applications with the FCC.

In addition to helping with the restoration of existing systems, APCO International will provide free frequency coordination and STA filing services for local Gulf Coast related public safety relief and interoperability systems required to support the thousands of additional support manpower assisting in the impacted area.

Last week, APCO International launched its "Members Helping Members" web forum where APCO International members can offer and seek assistance. In addition, APCO International is dedicating its "Sunshine Fund" to the PSAPs and telecommunicators in the affected areas. For more information, visit http://www.apcointl.com/mboard.

###

Emergency radio system upgraded

September 13, 2005

Chicago Tribune

URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0509130202sep13,1,4659830.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed

DUPAGE COUNTY -- A new cooperative radio communications system that allows DuPage County's police and fire departments to talk to one another in an emergency is in use.

DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba said that in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the need for immediate communications was evident.

In DuPage, public safety agencies individually use radio frequencies on three radio bands, VHF, UHF and 800 MHz.

Communication between the bands was difficult, requiring a radio dispatcher to have access to several systems.

The DuPage Interoperable Radio System is funded with $700,000 from the DuPage County Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB), which collects funds through a monthly surcharge on telephones in the county.

Using three unused radio frequencies, one in each of the bands, the Motorola-based system takes the transmissions from one and sends them to the other two in real time.

###

McCain Returns to 2007 Date for DTV Transition

September 14, 2005

RCR Wireless News

By Heather Forsgren

URL: http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=24117

WASHINGTON-In a change to his previously proposed bill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants to move up by two years the date that broadcasters must give back the extra spectrum they were given for the transition to digital TV to the original date of Jan. 1, 2007.

"After watching citizens suffer during recovery efforts in New Orleans, I believe this date should be moved up to Jan. 1, 2007, as originally contemplated by Congress," said McCain., former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, noting that the federal government, three surrounding parishes and the city of New Orleans all used different public-safety radio systems.

In June, McCain introduced what he described as compromise legislation that would have given broadcasters an extra two years to complete the DTV transition. In July, the National Association of Broadcasters, which consistently has tried to delay the spectrum transfer, said it was willing to support-or at least accept-a 2009 hard date.

Congress had been expected to consider a hard date for the DTV transition as part of the 2006 budget reconciliation process, but the budget appears to have been put on hold in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Sensing another slip, the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials International stepped up its lobbying effort by sending a letter to all members of Congress urging that Congress finish the DTV hard date legislation this year.

"While we are still gathering specifics, the Katrina disaster demonstrates once again the critical need for robust, interoperable radio communications for public-safety personnel. Congress can help by ensuring that public-safety agencies have the communications tools they need, including sufficient radio spectrum and the funding to construct and maintain state-of-the-art interoperable communications systems," wrote APCO President Gregory Ballentine. "With only three months left in the first session of the 109th Congress, APCO urges Congress to set first-responder communications as a top priority in their agenda. Don't let another session end without a clear resolution to help improve first-responder interoperable communications."

In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been encouraged widely by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.

###

Mississippi gets satellite technology to help with recovery efforts

September 15, 2005

Federal Computer Week

By Dibya Sarkar

URL: http://www.fcw.com/article90803-09-15-05-Web

A Virginia-based satellite technology company is lending Mississippi’s public safety department a mobile communications trailer equipped with computers and voice over IP-enabled phones to aid hurricane relief and recovery efforts.

A spokesman for Segovia, which bills itself as the first global satellite network to support IP communications, said the trailer is en route to Gulfport, Miss., which is one of the areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and should be operating by this weekend, if not before. He said the company contacted Gov. Haley Barbour’s office, which accepted the company’s offer.

The trailer will provide broadband Internet access and IP telephones for 20 people, but it can handle as many as 250 people, the spokesman said. The company is picking up all of the state’s phone charges and will have two technicians on site for at least three weeks.

“The infrastructure there is pretty badly battered,” said Segovia’s spokesman. “It’s a need that Mississippi has, and they’re very happy to have it as long as they need it.”

He added Segovia officials are also talking with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office to arrange the loan of a similar communications trailer to Louisiana public safety officials.

Katrina has wiped out much of the communications infrastructure in the region. Teams of rescue workers are bringing in their own radio systems, satellite phones and other equipment because landlines are down. A number have similar mobile communications trailers equipped with satellite service.

At least 35 sites across the Gulf Coast are using the satellite network built by Segovia, which is a major provider of satellite communications for the military in post-war Iraq. The Army Corps of Engineers has 16 sites, while the Air National Guard has five and the Homeland Security Department has two. The Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Fort Polk, La., is also using Segovia’s service.

“The interesting thing here is that our network is built, frankly, for this exact kind of situation where you need broadband [communications] where there’s no infrastructure and, in some cases, no power,” said Kirby Farrell, executive vice president of sales and marketing and a co-founder of the company.

Farrell said the company provides all of the corps’ communications throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and in central and southwest Asia. It also provides communications support to the corps’ first responder teams in all 50 states and four territories.

Once Katrina hit, he said, the corps, which has several large trailers equipped with computers, local-area networks and other technology, almost immediately deployed those vehicles into the devastated areas.

“It’s a moving office,” Farrell said. “One of those vans goes, and they just point their dish at the sky, and it probably takes them 20 minutes to find the satellite [and] right into the Army Corps network.”

Similar to what Segovia provided Mississippi, the corps’ satellite-equipped trailers provides two dozen employees with IP telephony and broadband Internet access.

In Iraq, Segovia supports the corps, Army Space Command and the Army’s Combat Service Support Satellite Communications network. In 2003, the company built 175 Internet cafes in Iraq to allow soldiers to make calls using voice-over-IP phones at about 4 cents per minute, reducing it from the previous rate of $1 per minute.

“About 20 million minutes a month of VOIP traffic comes across our network from Iraq,” Farrell said.

###

APCO Urges Congress to Address Communications Needs Highlighted by Hurricane Katrina

September 16, 2005

Government Technology

By News Staff

URL: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=96659

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International sent a letter to Congress last week urging them to set first responder communications as a top priority in the remainder of the first session.

"While we are still gathering specifics, the Katrina disaster demonstrates once again the critical need for robust, interoperable radio communications for public safety personnel," the letter from APCO International President Greg Ballentine said. "Congress can help by ensuring that public safety agencies have the communications tools they need, including sufficient radio spectrum and the funding to construct and maintain state-of-the-art interoperable communications systems."

Specifically, APCO International asked Congress to establish a hard date for the Digital Television (DTV) transition; increase the amount of interoperability federal grant funding; improve funding allocations for local governments for communications; provide federal grants for agencies to upgrade 9-1-1 systems; and consider future needs for broadband spectrum for public safety.

###

FCC’s Martin Calls for New Public Safety Bureau

September 16, 2005

MRT Magazine

By Donny Jackson

URL: http://mrtmag.com/news/FCC_public_safety_bureau_091605/

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin yesterday proposed establishing a new bureau within the FCC focused on public safety and homeland security after commissioners listened to three hours of testimony about communications struggles related to Hurricane Katrina.

During the hurricane, more than 3 million people lost phone service, more than 1000 wireless towers were knocked down and more than 100 broadcast stations were knocked off the air, Martin said. This made communications with victims of the storm difficult, and even first responders had difficulty communicating.

“It is at times like these that we are reminded of the importance of being able to communicate,” Martin said. “While no communications network could be expected to remain fully operational in the face of a direct hit from a category four or five hurricane, that fact was little consolation to the people on the ground.”

In an effort to avoid similar communications problems in the future, Martin said he will create an independent expert panel of public-safety officials and communications representatives to review the impact of Hurricane Katrina. The panel will be asked to make recommendations to improve disaster preparedness, network reliability and communications between first responders.

Perhaps of greater long-term impact will be Martin’s proposal to establish a public-safety/homeland security bureau within the FCC to coordinate all public-safety and national security activities within the agency. Martin said the new bureau’s responsibilities would include the following issues:

* Public-safety communications, including 911 centers and first responders;
* Priority emergency communications;
* Alerting and warning U.S. citizens;
* Continuity of government operations;
* Disaster-management coordination;
* Disaster-management outreach;
* Communications infrastructure protection;
* Network reliability and interoperability; and
* Network security.

Commissioner Michael Copps applauded Martin’s proposal, noting that the FCC had waited “too long” to take action to fulfill its national-security obligations granted under the 1934 Communication Act. Copps had proposed the creation of such an FCC bureau during a keynote speech at the conclusion of this year’s APCO annual conference in August—a speech delivered days before Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S.

“In addition to working on specific interoperability and redundancy challenges, this bureau should serve as convener, facilitator and expediter, helping local public-safety organizations share ideas, prepare plans, vet proposals and coordinate them with both government and industry,” Copps said. “Why should every jurisdiction across this broad land have to start at square one when others have already done a lot of work?”

Willis Carter, first vice president of APCO and chief of communications for the Shreveport, La., fire department, testified that 911 service was impossible in some areas and that communications to field units was “very limited.” In addition to the hurricane winds damaging tower and transmitter sites, power outages and flooding rendered many public-safety communications systems useless, he said.

Among other things, Carter recommended that public-safety answering points (PSAPs) be considered to be “core elements” of the first-response structure and that all PSAPs—and their supporting infrastructure from commercial carriers—be “mirrored” in a remote location to provide an alternative when evacuation or technical problems require dispatchers to work elsewhere.

Carter also called for funding to ensure that public-safety networks are built to withstand “worst-case scenarios” and additional spectrum earmarked for disaster-related deployment of communications systems.

“Just as September 11th, 2001, helped to focus the nation on the communications issues facing our first responders, Hurricane Katrina has revealed that much still needs to be accomplished to provide public-safety personnel with the communications tools they need to protect the safety of life and property,” Carter said.

Carter was one of 12 witnesses to speak before the commission, which met in BellSouth’s emergency-response center in Atlanta. Multiple stories were told of the challenges—not just from the weather but also from gunshots being fired at technicians trying to repair infrastructure—and unprecedented cooperation between business competitors to restore communications.

Rod Odom, BellSouth’s network services president, said the hurricane reinforced the fact that modern communications networks “are increasingly dependent on power,” noting that many instances of communications loss were not a result of physical damage to networks.

“Many of the communications failures are not a failure of connectivity but a failure caused by a lack of power at point or another in the network,” Odom said.

###

Home · TheySaid · Photos · Hotlist · Books · Links · Jobs · Archives · Help · Email