White House Report Urges New Emergency Communications Plan

The report urged the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) to review current national security and emergency preparedness policy by April 30, while the White House Homeland Security Council and Office of Science & Technology Policy lead an “interagency review of all current policies, laws, plans and strategies that address communications.” The goal would be for the White House, working with DHS, to have a more unified interim strategy by May 31.

That “national emergency communications strategy” would “consider the direction of the telecommunications industry,” the report said. The 228-page report -- The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina, Lessons Learned -- cited communications among 17 areas needing improvement. The “complete devastation of the communications infrastructure” in Hurricane Katrina’s wake was one of the “critical challenges” hampering the U.S. response to the storm, the report said. With millions of customers without phone service and 44% of TV stations down, the Gulf Coast region lacked “basic operability” and gear and system interoperability, the report said: “The complete devastation of the communications infrastructure left emergency responders and citizens without a reliable network across which they could coordinate.”

“We could have and should have done more,” the report said. Federal, state and local agencies had equipment in place but no “comprehensive strategy to improve operability and interoperability to meet the needs of emergency responders,” the report said: “This inability to connect multiple communications plans and architectures clearly impeded coordination and communication at the federal, state and local levels.”

Other recommendations: (1) Communications policy must “emphasize the ability of emergency responders and private security officials to share information and use available communications systems to connect with authorities at all levels of government.” (2) Inventory all communications capabilities, govt. or private, to ease emergency use. (3) Obtain “rapidly deployable, interoperable, commercial, off- the-shelf equipment that can provide a framework for connectivity among federal, state and local authorities.” (4) Develop “accurate and complete data to assess courses of action.” The report said “inadequate situational awareness during the response to Hurricane Katrina resulted in decision makers relying on incorrect and incomplete information.”

The FCC was among organizations praised as examples of “what went right” after Katrina. The Commission “acted quickly to facilitate the resumption of communications services” by authorizing temporary communications services, the report said. The agency streamlined its procedures to speed requests for temporary operation and “contacted each segment of the communications industry to help match their needs with resources such as emergency generators and fuel,” the White House report said: “Further, the Commission assisted telecommunications carriers by helping their repair crews to secure the transportation and credentials recognized by local authorities to gain access to damaged sites.”

Amateur radio operators monitored the airwaves for distress calls and rerouted requests for aid to locations outside the region until locally based emergency response personnel could receive messages, the report said. The White House said the NTIA “correctly and immediately identified the need for additional communications bandwidth and allocated more than 1,100 frequencies to nine federal agencies which allowed them to operate their land mobile, aeronautical, maritime and satellite communications.” The NTIA also coordinated with the FCC “to temporarily authorize the use of private sector satellite, ultrawideband and microwave communications services.”

The report illuminates the havoc Katrina wreaked on Gulf region communications, a subject also under study by the FCC Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks.

FCC panel chmn. Nancy Victory has sent copies of the White House report to her colleagues, the former NTIA dir. told us. “We will be considering this,” she said. “This will be very important.” The Katrina panel will hold hearings in Jackson, Miss., March 6-7. Many want to testify, and the agenda still is being assembled, Victory said. Those picked as witnesses will be notified next week.

Apart from providing detail, the report offers scant new information on communications failures, sources said. “We've heard most of this before,” an industry source who has read the report said: “I don’t think it really breaks that much new ground.” Katrina “crippled” 38 911 call centers, knocking out more than 3 million phone lines in La., Miss. and Ala., the report said. The storm took out 1/2 the region’s radio stations and 44% of TV stations. Taken offline were 1,477 cell towers.

First responder capacity was hit especially hard. “Flooding blocked access to the police and fire dispatch centers in New Orleans; neither 911 service nor public safety radio communications functioned sufficiently,” the report said. La.’s 800 MHz radio system, designed to be the backbone of that state’s mutual aid communications, “ceased functioning” and repairs had to wait several days.

The report detailed how communications gaps vexed efforts to move residents out of storm-beset areas. In one case, a fully provisioned train with space for 600 left the city with fewer than 100 evacuees because of communications breakdowns.