Future-proofing Our Emergency Networks

“In case of emergency, network unavailable.”

Climate change is heightening the intensity and frequency of severe weather around the world, making hurricanes more dangerous, increasing extreme heat, intensifying wildfires, and risking greater natural disasters. It’s a hard reality that the essential technology we rely on to get in touch with family, friends, and emergency services during a crisis is not guaranteed. Natural disasters will leave many more lives at risk, especially if we can’t increase the resiliency of essential telecommunications network infrastructure to reach people when they need help.

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, taking an estimated 2,975 to 4,645 lives. Part of what exacerbated the death toll was the hurricane’s impact on people’s ability to reach each other and get help: Maria destroyed 95.2 percent of cell sites and damaged internet and underwater cables so badly that many Puerto Ricans were left without cable or wireline service for more than a year after.

Future-proofing our networks and making them more resilient to coming natural disasters will help save lives and prevent the total devastation of communications infrastructure from events like Hurricane Maria. A baseline step would be to require that all providers participate in the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). Created in response to Hurricane Katrina, the DIRS is a web-based system that allows wireline, wireless, broadcast, cable, interconnected VoIP, and broadband service providers with a single, coordinated, consistent process to report their communications infrastructure status information during disasters. Through the DIRS, the FCC can collect data that can inform restoration efforts by federal partners and help the FCC assess communications reliability during disasters. It will ensure transparency about what’s happening where, and provide consistent network status information to federal emergency management officials, who can then act where needed. Information collected through DIRS can be bolstered by data from the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), a mandatory collection of information about network outages lasting for more than 30 minutes. The FCC should also issue rules and establish a regulatory resiliency framework to minimize the number, duration, and impact of future communications network outages. The agency can examine previous network failures, like what happened in Puerto Rico, to figure out what the underlying causes of prolonged outages are, and use that information to shape their rulemaking.

More resilient networks are especially important for those already most vulnerable. The climate crisis impacts people unequally, as seen in the case of Puerto Rico where ​​energy colonialism, an extractivist economy, and austerity measures from policymakers in the mainland United States left the power grid vulnerable to total shutdown. In addition to provider participation in FCC’s DIRS, funding for low-income, rural, and racial or ethnic minority communities to strengthen the resiliency and energy efficiency of their communications networks should be prioritized. As the situation in Puerto Rico has shown, those most impacted by climate change may not be able to rely on companies and internet service providers alone to step in, let alone the federal government. Investing in community and local-based solutions, through federal funds but also through philanthropy, corporate funds, and support from public utilities, increases redundancy and ensures that communities always have a back-up plan to be sufficient and help themselves should major networks fail.

It’s a hard reality that the essential technology we rely on to get in touch with family, friends, and emergency services during a crisis is not guaranteed.

The Open Technology Institute has examined developing community resilience, the critical ability of individuals and neighborhoods to support each other before, during, and after a disaster or crisis, and helped a small community in New York expand its own wireless network to prepare for the next storm. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the community of Red Hook in Brooklyn, New York suffered losses to its communications and power. The building housing the neighborhood’s community-driven WiFi, was one of the few locations that had outlasted the storm, such that 300 people a day were using the free community network to reach loved ones, stay informed, and get recovery assistance. Red Hook Wifi has been explicitly designed to stay on even if the power grid goes down, with backup generators as a part of the plan to outlast another storm. This kind of community-driven network is also focused on more than just providing telecommunications service — Red Hook Wifi trains and employs young adults from local public-housing to help develop the network, providing a hub for community engagement and involvement, and works with sustainability in mind, with equipment supported by solar backup systems. Funding these kinds of efforts in communities at the frontline of climate change will help save lives in future natural disasters.

Some of these policy solutions have already been raised by Congress. ​​The Generating Resilient and Energy Efficient Network (GREEN) Communications Act introduced by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last year would require both provider participation in FCC’s DIRS, direct the FCC to issue rules and establish a regulatory resiliency framework, and prioritize funding for those most vulnerable. However, network failures are one of many consequences of the ongoing climate crisis, which requires holistic and collaborative commitments from those beyond the telecommunications field to address the root cause of rising sea levels, extreme weather, and much more. For instance, switching to clean energy sources can also ensure connectivity during severe weather, and address the root cause of climate-related disasters. Last year’s deep freeze in Texas didn’t directly affect network cables but it did cut off power, making it impossible for some people to get online. Although clean energy sources like wind turbines were blamed for the blackouts, in actuality, the Texas power grid’s heavy reliance on natural gas, which contributes to climate change and the subsequent increase in extreme weather events like the winter storm, was the very thing that made the state vulnerable to blackouts that killed hundreds. A recent study also shows that switching to 100 percent clean and renewable solar, wind, and water energy sources could actually prevent blackouts going forward.

In less than 100 days, the Atlantic hurricane season will begin, hitting communities all along the Eastern Seaboard and in Puerto Rico, potentially taking down entire power grids and jeopardizing connectivity. While many of us hope we will never have to call our emergency contacts, especially not during a crisis, in the face of climate-related natural disasters and inefficient protections to essential infrastructure our emergency contacts may soon become unreachable. Ultimately it’s policymakers who are responsible for ensuring that our telecommunications networks and other important infrastructure is resilient and can be used as a resource for all of us to survive the coming storms.

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