By Peter J. Brown
As Hurricane Katrina approached the U.S. Gulf Coast, she let everyone know that well before a natural disaster occurs, officials need satellite links close at hand. Unfortunately, this lesson was learned the hard way. For months, emergency preparedness officials and satellite industry executives have been aggressively lobbying for more robust communications networks to be in place, before a disaster strikes, not after.
The impact of Hurricane Katrina provided, once again, satellite communications a chance to prove its value to the world when satellite was there to answer the call. "Satellite communications played a critical role during the response to man-made and natural disasters," Satellite Industry Association (SIA) Chairman Tony Trujillo testified last September before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. "When the telephone and broadcast networks went down, satellites remained on the job. Satellites connected emergency personnel and other first responders. Satellites reunited families. Satellites reconnected communities. And satellites enabled the world to witness the devastation of these disasters and also the many acts of heroism," Trujillo stated during the "Public Safety Communications from Sept. 11, 2001, to Katrina: Critical Public Policy Lessons" hearing.
Quick Reaction To A Crisis
Companies quickly responded to meet the needs of emergency responders in the first days after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in August and after Hurricane Rita made landfall in Texas less than a month later. Satellite telephone providers Globalstar and Iridium fielded thousands of equipment requests, and the number of phones activated by the two companies to support the relief efforts was in the range of 20,000, officials say. To meet demand, Iridium shifted its manufacturing into high gear, working 24 hours, seven days a week to meet demand, while distribution partner Fedex Corp. ensured that Iridium phones reached customers in the field.
Globalstar doubled its capacity to make calls to landline phones, increased its active spectrum allocation via special temporary authorities granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and allocated gateway coverage footprints to increase capacity in the affected area to manage the unprecedented surge in users. "Voice service saw almost all of the usage on the first day, but data quickly came up as a key service for response agencies at their communications centers," says Globalstar spokesman John Dark. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "relies on our Quick Locate Asset Tracking devices to locate all of their heavier assets. They have many thousands of these units. Overall, our current product and service offering closely matched what was needed."
Ottawa-based Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) provided expanded services to its existing customers, including the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, FEMA and the American Red Cross. The Mississippi Department of Health and the Federal Aviation Administration also contacted MSV to work with partners in Mexico and Canada to obtain additional terminals. "MSV was able to support the needs of Louisiana and Mississippi with voice and data communications that enabled the relief efforts to begin and allowed outside states and federal agencies to speak directly with the relief coordinators.
Because of the high capacity of our geostationary orbit satellite system, our users, even at peak times, received reliable communications during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort," says Alexander Good, MSV vice chairman and CEO.
Connecticut-based Panamsat Corp. contends that the better the communications, the more effective the rescue and recovery. The company set up its Disaster Recovery Solutions initiative and Emergency Response Team, putting an emphasis on flexibility and on systems that enable Internet protocol connectivity including voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), the Web and Virtual Private Networks. The Emergency Response Team is dispatched from the company's customer service center in Ellenwood, Ga. In the wake of Katrina, the team worked with On Call Communications to create Spotbytes-equipped mobile command posts on an RV chassis so emergency response personnel had a direct connection to the Internet via a Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) link. These mobile command posts also were outfitted with Quickspot On Demand two-way broadband as well as G2's iDirect and satellite phone services. Panamsat also sent G2 executives to Mississippi after Katrina, and to Texas and Louisiana in advance of Hurricane Rita. Besides command posts and flyaways, G2 deployed an experimental inflatable antenna, and made contact with the Defense Information Systems Agency, U.S. Northern Command, FEMA, the Homeland Security Department, the American Red Cross and other agencies. G2 also stood by for several teleport operators in and around Houston in advance of Rita.
Other companies such as Overwatch Systems of Richardson, Texas, also were able to lend a hand in a hurry. According to Terry Benson, Overwatch's senior program manager, the company accelerated the delivery of its flyaway, Quad-band satellite terminal to Naval Station Pascagoula, Miss., in support of the Naval Reserve Distributive Common Ground Station Navy Unit Two.
This satellite communications system, originally destined to support base operations, provided dual-band operations in a single feed, operating either in C-/Ku-band or X-/Ka- band simultaneously. The terminal allows the operator to adjust the system's capability to work with available satellite resources within the region of operations. "External land- line [wide-area network] connectivity that provided access to the command/control infrastructure was disrupted as a result of the hurricane," says Benson. "... As a small company, we were able to rapidly respond to the request for early delivery of the system to a remote location. The system was on site within 72 hours of the request to field, despite the lack of transportation and shipping options," he says. "As it was an early delivery of the system, satellite certifications were still pending when we packed up the trailer to leave. Intelsat certification was achieved by day two after arrival. Formal [Defense Satellite Communications System] certification process has been initiated, which will provide access to X- and Ka- military bands for future deployments."
Restoring Communications Across Wide Areas
Once the needs of emergency responders were met, satellite companies began the work of restoring communications across the regions well before terrestrial systems were put back in place. Maryland-based Hughes Network Systems (HNS) LLC set up a task force to respond to the enormous amount of requests for emergency Direcway deployments, and sent teams to enterprise customers to get them back online as soon as possible. Direcway-specific requests came from charitable organizations, government agencies, private industry, schools and others, according to HNS.
Virginia-based Spacenet dispatched special rapid-response teams to help major oil companies, retailers and freight companies quickly restore communications, according to Spacenet officials. Spacenet also opened a special toll-free hotline to coordinate expedited disaster recovery installation and maintenance efforts and waived a number of normal enterprise business process requirements. According to Spacenet, the company allowed its customers to install sites with no-term contracts on a purchase order basis to enable its customers to get up and running more quickly.
Demand for usage-based VSAT services surged at Spacenet as companies scrambled to activate their backup and business continuity plans. In fact, a number of companies wanted VSATs installed right away to tide them over until other connectivity was restored, but many of them have kept the dishes and the services as an insurance policy against future problems. Likewise, a number of Starband broadband Internet systems were donated to aid organizations working in the area. In addition, local Starband dealers in the area worked with organizations large and small to help meet local needs.
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