In past emergency's where Cell phones were a primary means of communications, there were considerable problems in getting essential messages through. I know that a friend at one of the local utilities told me that during the 95/06 floods and storm season, they sometimes had crews waiting up to 4 hours after completing an emergency repair, for their next assignment. This was because they relied on Cell's for communications, and the cell circuits were jammed because of outages on the surface phone lines. It is also a phenomenon that whenever there is a disaster/emergency of any magnitude in a geographical area, the phone systems are maxed almost immediately with family contact calls. Some of us have Government Emergency Telephone Cards (GETS) that allow us to break in to the phone system for emergency communications, However, I don't think that the cards cover cell communications at this time. An additional problem with wireless communications is that they rely on fixed broadcast and repeater sites, which, in a major earthquake situation may not be fixed any longer. For real emergency communications, most people are going to Sattelite phones, but this is a very expensive service to maintian just for emergency use. K.d> Kevin E. Dorning Chief Information Security Officer Office of the CIO DI-3 Bonneville Power Administration - USDOE 503-230-3082 -----Original Message----- From: George Heuston [mailto:GeorgeH@private] Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 9:17 AM To: crime@private Subject: CRIME FW: Wireless Communications during disaster? Forwarded at Rich's request (he's doing the Rose Festival gig, and not at a terminal today)... -----Original Message----- From: Goerling, Richard J. LT (TAD to CGIC Portland) [mailto:RIGoerling@private] Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 8:55 AM To: George Heuston Subject: Wireless Communications during disaster? I'd like to get some input from those of you who have expertise in wireless communications. I know these are rather expansive questions, and the issues related to them, security and otherwise, are myriad. However, the basics are what I'm after: --What are the weaknesses of relying on cell phones, during post-natural disaster or man-made disaster, for a public safety agency's communications (Coast Guard in this case)? --Are other wireless forms of comms more reliable than cell phones? As a part of a broad-based Port Security Plan covering the Oregon, Idaho, Southern Washington region. We are looking at what comms options we should consider as a contingency for a disaster... any input would be appreciated. Regards, Rich Richard Goerling U.S. Coast Guard MSO/Group Portland 6767 N. Basin Avenue Portland, OR 97217 (503) 247-4018 office (503) 240-9302 fax (503) 849-2026 cell
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