Hurricane Recovery Experience

1
Hurricane Recovery Experience
John Quigley Director Network Integrity Network
Operations
November 18, 2004
2
Hurricane Trivia

• Who was the first pilot to intentionally fly into
  a hurricane's eye?
• Chuck Yeager
• Charles Lindbergh
• Amelia Earhart
• Joseph Duckworth

3
Overview

• Series of four hurricanes hit the state of
  Florida between August 13 and September 30, 2004
• Charley
• Frances
• Ivan
• Jeanne
• The loss of resources (e.g. backhaul, power,
  fuel) to individual cell-sites occurred in the
  Southeastern markets and hampered wireless
  service restoration efforts

4
Industry Issues

• Power to remote areas slower to be restored due
  to geographic location
• Priority to restoration is unclear
• Storm caused shortages of fuels needed for
  generators
• No priority for NS/EP entities
• Pumps at fuel stations in the field were electric
  and as such would not work during major power
  outages following the storm.

5
Industry Issues

• Evacuation in affected areas causes longer outage
  duration.
• T1s went offline following loss of power to
  central offices causing need to reprioritize work
  continually.
• 6. Circuits went down due to lack of back-up
  power at remote terminals (e.g. remote fiber-mux)

6
Lessons Learned

• Backup power is critical and the most vulnerable
  component of telecommunications network
• Expertise in the area of logistics cannot be
  underestimated!
• Moving people, generators, trucks
• Food, Fuel, lodging
• Continual learning during and after each event
  using a well defined event analysis process is
  critical to the maturity of a BCP program
• The basis for a successful response effort starts
  with your ICS structure and ability to
  communicate at all levels during a disaster

7
Sprints ICS/EMG Structure
8
Actions to Consider

• How can the Telecommunications industry and
  power industry best work together to improve
  reliability?
• What level of protection should the
  Telecommunication Industry assume for remote
  sites?