Disasters expose limits of cordless communication
Twenty-four years ago, TV weatherman Bryan Norcross was the voice of reason and calm as Hurricane Andrew lashed South Florida. As frightened residents huddled in hallways and crouched in closets around transistor radios and little battery-powered TVs, he told them what they should be doing toweather the storm.
As a result of that devastating hurricane, local building codes were strengthened and community emergency preparedness plans overhauled. Forecasting also has improved in the intervening years. But there’s one area that may be more vulnerable than itwas when Andrew came ashore on Aug. 24, 1992: the communications system.
There have been huge technological advances in personal communications in the past two decades. There are also apps with weather alerts and safety tips, and agencies from theNationalHurricane Center to FEMA crank out information on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
But when it comes to natural disasters, some analysts say oldschool technology— landlines and battery-powered radios — may be best.
“I think we’re more vulnerable [in terms of communications] than we were 24 years ago,” said Norcross, who anchored the WTVJ newscast for 23 hours straight during Andrew and is nowa hurricane specialist for The Weather Channel. “I remember after Andrew there were a lot of people with wrecked homes but the phone linewas stillworking in the kitchen.”
During Andrew, Norcross’ reports were simulcast on radio. Now, formany people, the batterypowered transistor radio is little more than a nostalgic relic. Television stations also have switched from analog to digital systems and battery-powereddigitalTVs aren’t as readily available as the small analog modelswere.
Society has become dependent on devices from cellphones to tablets and laptops that need a charge to keep working — and electrical grids are often the first to go during major storms. That impact is compounded by the fact that so many people have cut the cord and use only cellphones in their homes rather than landlines, which are usually more reliable during storms.
A Florida Public Service Commission report from December 2015 said Florida residents and businesses had 3.3 million traditional phone lines last year, down from 3.8 million the previous year and 6.1 million in 2011. The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Health Interview Survey found that 47 percent ofU.S. households are nowcellphone only, compared with 20 percent in 2009 and just 3 percent in 2003.
There hasn’t been a major hurricane in the United States since 2005 — the year of hurricanes Katrina and Wilma — although there have been storms that caused extensive flooding. As a result, the cellphone network hasn’t really been put to a test during the era of mobile phone proliferation. “It is a large, unexplored area,” saidNorcross.
But even as a tropical wave brewed in the Atlantic this week, cellphones providers were holding discussions and mobilizing emergency response teams in case it developed into something more serious.
They generally start moving portable generators into strategic areas well in advance of a storm. In locations where cellphone facilities are damaged or down, they bring in mobile cellphone sites called COWs (Cells on wheels) and other equipment.
“Our preparations for these types of natural disasters are ongoing— well inadvanceof a storm. In the state of Florida we’ve invested millions in this,” said Roni Singleton, a spokeswoman for Sprint. Its cellphone towers, for example, are designed to withstand winds of 120-150 mph.