As Hurricane Harvey set its sight on the Texas and Louisiana coasts, carriers employed strategies to keep wireless technologies that keep people in touch and critical systems online. As the storm advanced, preparation included topping off fuel generators, testing high-capacity back-up batteries at cell sites and protecting physical facilities against flooding.
AT&T bulked up its Network Disaster Recovery program and said it has more than 700 pieces of equipment to deploy to disaster areas. Its Cell on Wheels, Cell on Light Trucks, trailers and generators available are capable of maintaining its wireless network, if permanent macro towers happen to be offline. “We’ve worked for the past few days to position equipment and crews to respond to the storm,” said Dave Nichols, president, AT&T Texas. “We’re closely linked with Texas public officials in their storm response efforts.”
Sprint pre-staged equipment and invested in new cell site equipment, back-up batteries and greater fiber backhaul across Gulf Coast states like Louisiana and Texas. The carrier was ready to deploy incident management teams to assess impacted areas and inspect local wireless networks after the event. Sprint’s Emergency Response Team activated its Disaster Support Program which allows for state and local government agencies, in states that issued a proclamation for a State of Emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Harvey, to request up to 25 mobile devices, with up to 14 days of service from the date of declaration, for free.
Deployables that carriers and others use after a disaster now include drones. During Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Florida Power and Light (FPL) flew 130 drone flights in northern Florida in areas unsafe for ground crews to venture. With a wireless video feed, crews were able to watch from command centers. FPL’s spokesman, Bill Orlove, told GovTech.com, “Our drones were our eyes in the sky.”
August 28, 2017
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