e-Vents

[ Wednesday ]

Technology Failures During An Emergency

Those who believe that current technology is a panacea are sadly mistaken. One only needs to look at the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina.

Initially, after the tropical depression became a tropical storm, the NWS models predicted a path of WNW to NW across southern Florida. Only one of thirteen models predicted a different path... amazingly, the one Hurricane Katrina followed. But once she crossed southern Florida, the computer models predicted a ninety degree northerly turn, and the hurricane center advised the western Florida panhandle to prepare for a Category 1 or 2 landfall. Once again, the models were wrong, as the movement of a high pressure area north of the storm did not move to the east as rapidly as predicted.

But weather forecasting is not an exact science, even with the satellite capabilities, the C-130 hurricane hunters, and the weather service computer software which helps assimilates the data.

Once the storm hit the Gulf coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, high winds knocked out trees and electrical lines, damaged cell phone towers, and relay stations. Communications, the key to coordinating emergency services, were also knocked out, or at least, were spotty. That continues several days into the recovery period, with no solution in sight. When needed most, communications capabilities are not there.

Regular telephone service to many areas is out, or the system is overloaded and unable to handle the volume of calls. Cellphone carriers do not have the bandwidth available at a time when cellphones are the only devices available to most subscribers. Did we not learn from the communications problems during 9/11 ?

Residents and emergency personnel in the affected areas are depending on television news programs to relay messages. Some online communities are allowing anyone to post a message on their site in the hope of others noticing the message and forwarding it to friends and relatives. But there are over one million displaced people in these three states, and matching them with others is a formidable task...especially when the phones are not working.

Are we living with a sense of false security when it comes to our telephone service? It only seems to fail when we need it the most. Why is it not scaled for the increased demand? Lives are on the line in these situations...ask any police officer or EMT. And let us hope that the carriers will respond.

MM [19:00]