Hang-Ups in Emergency Land

How do you get help when you are in dire straits? Plant rocks in the ground spelling “help” and hope someone flying above sees them? Smoke signals and fire alerts? Not too good if the emergency is a fire or an earthquake… Flooding kind of negates most of that signaling too. What, you say, I am missing the obvious? That even mobile phones with unpaid bills have an emergency function? CALL someone? Duh!

But what if you can’t? Even assuming you have an adequately charged cell phone – noting that utilities are now shutting down power service during certain emergencies, from heavy storms knocking high voltage power lines to the ground or places where older powerlines could easily spark in heavy winds and ignite raging forest fires in inaccessible locales filled with decades of accumulating debris and tinder… like federal forest land controlled by cabinet-level heads appointed by the President. 

Landlines, slowly disappearing at least a residential level, are fixed. If the structure in which they are housed is destroyed or if the residents are forced to abandon the building, they are useless, especially if the hard lines that connect them are broken. Oddly enough, however, landlines in some cases still worked when cell access was down. Nevertheless, we are back to cell phones as the primary “go to” answer. But as recent experiences in the California wildfires, easily replicated in regions impacted by earthquakes, tsunamis, severe coastal surges and massive flooding, tell us that cell phones, even when fully charged, don’t work when the cell towers built to receive their signals are damaged or destroyed… or where the towers themselves loose the power that keeps them operating. 

The California lesson is a lesson for us all: “California saw significant interruptions of cellphone service due to the planned power shut-offs at precisely the time customers needed to be alerted about evacuation warnings — raising questions about how prepared California is for future electric shut-offs and other public safety emergencies, such as a major earthquake.

“At one point, Marin County saw 57% of its 280 cellphone tower sites out of service. Other counties also saw major disruptions: Sonoma, Lake, Santa Cruz, Humboldt and Calaveras all encountered days when more than 20% of cellphone towers were out; Napa County saw a day when 19% of cell towers were not working, according to data released by the Federal Communications Commission.

“In the central Bay Area, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties saw more than 11% of cell towers fail to work. The problems weren’t limited to cellphones. Some customers who get their landline phone service through their broadband internet service provider saw their phone lines go out, despite having their phones charged and equipped with battery backups.

“Local government officials and consumer safety advocates were incensed at the widespread phone service failures, which came despite days of warnings that the power would be shut off to help prevent ignition of wildfires by power lines and other electrical equipment damaged from severe Diablo winds… Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes areas under evacuation during the Kincade fire, said that the cellphone network outages posed significant safety concerns.

“Fire stations were forced to communicate by radio, creating excess traffic at a time when officials had to rapidly deliver information about an active fire… And while evacuation warnings were delivered before the planned power shut-offs, Hopkins said residents in rural communities without cellphone or internet service would have had no way to receive additional warnings.

“‘Had there been a second fire, had the fire suddenly been reinvigorated and moved quickly toward some of these communities, we would not have been able to effectively communicate with the residents,’ she said… Federal regulators said they do not release data on how many cell signal sites went down by company… Phone carriers said they did the best they could.

“Heidi Flato, a spokeswoman for Verizon, said in an email that the company has generators and backup batteries at most of its cell towers and at all of its switch locations… ‘While we are doing everything we can to minimize the impact of the [power shut-off], there are discrete areas of our network that will experience service disruption or degradation, due to topographical and other technological constraints,’ she said.

“AT&T spokesman Ryan Oliver said that before the Kincade fire, the company deployed hundreds of additional generators and technicians from across the country, and had crews working 24 hours a day to refuel and deploy generators as needed.

“A statement provided by T-Mobile spokesman Joel Rushing said the company deployed and refueled generators to more than 260 sites. Permanent generators are in place at key cell sites, while others are prepared with a battery backup; the company also has a fleet of temporary generators that can be deployed as needed.

“Comcast’s Xfinity services require commercial power to operate, spokeswoman Joan Hammel said in a statement… ‘Generators may be deployed in a limited manner to address Comcast outages in vital public safety facilities,’ the statement said. There may be situations when a home’s power is on, but the part of the network that provides a connection to the home has no power, and as a result, communication services are unavailable.

“Consumer advocates, however, say the carriers failed to keep phone signals alive at precisely the moment they were needed most — when customers needed to communicate with loved ones and receive evacuation warnings… There are no federal or state regulations that mandate cell carriers have any backup power for cell service, said Ana Maria Johnson, program manager with the Public Advocates Office, an independent organization of the California Public Utilities Commission that advocates on behalf of consumers… ‘What this tells us is that the communications network is vulnerable. It’s not resilient. The companies were not prepared. And requirements must be put in place to require backup power,’ Johnson said.” Leila Miller and Rong-Gong Lin II  in the Los Angeles Times, November 5^th. What an understatement!

What are the answers? Fleets of aircraft at the ready with cell receptors on board? Expensive and not particularly useable in massive fires, where fire-fighters need open and unobstructed air space in which to operate. Increasing the ability of cell towers to operate on a standalone basis even if their network goes down? Long-term batteries, perhaps with solar chargers to keep them powered in emergencies?

“In Japan, it is required that cellphones have a 48-hour backup power supply, said seismologist Lucy Jones, author of ‘The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us.’

“There was some discussion as to whether such a standard should be required in Los Angeles to prepare for earthquakes, but it became clear several years ago that neighborhood groups would oppose having diesel-powered generators at wireless tower sites across the city, which would need to be tested monthly, said Jones, a former science advisor to Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“A prolonged power outage — and lack of cell service — can cause major problems for recovery. The hardest-hit areas in Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami ran through the 48 hours of backup supply, but electricity wasn’t going to come back soon. ‘When they lost cellphones is when people gave up and left the area,’ Jones said.” LA Times. Whatever the answer, we know one thing for sure: what we’ve got just ain’t workin’!

              I’m Peter Dekom, and we surely must move away from being a “reactive” and unprepared nation to totally “active” and prepared; ultimately it will save us billions of dollars and untold numbers of lives.