Thank you so much for posting this I will forward
A few additional tips about meeting/contacting family.
1) Even is the voice cell networks crash the SMS text portions of the network still work. Text uses lots less bandwidth so communicate with texts
2) agree with family members as to one or two reliable out of state contacts. Often a local network will crash but long distance lines survive and keep working. on 9/11/2001 my cousin and her husband live in midtown New York. My cousin had an office near midtown with private bank. Her husband, a bond broker, had offices at the WTC and midtown. Their boy was in school at St Bernards on East 98th St and the girl at the Convent School of the Sacred Heart at 91st St and Fifth Ave. Both parents started walking to the upper east side and one started for the boys school, the other to the girls,not by plan but just the way it happened. They were unble to reach each other on cell phones in NY but each called my Uncle Matt, her father, in Methuen MA. The calls to MA went through and they were able to exchange messages and arrange to meet via message left with Uncle Matt in Methuen. One good thing was that the husband had had a meeting scheduled at the WTC office but it had been cancelled that morning.
3) do not rely on Sat phones. A friend with Louisisana State Police told me their superior officers had a good supply of Sat phones. They discovered during Katrina that there are a limited number of channels to the birds overhead. When news networks get to a disaster the first thing they do is call the main news number and then have a staffer stand their holding the line open for the newsmen. No open lines were left for public safety.
4) public safety agencies cannot rely on cell phones is they do not coordinate with other agencies. When the 7/7 bombings hit London the Metropolitan Police, the large agency that serves most of London, had carefully compiled list of all the individual cell phones of all senior officials. Most of these phones were in the accounts of the individual officers. The City of London Police that police "The City", i.e. the financial district, had all officers equipped with department issued phones. The City police invoked a protocol that shut off service to all private cell phones leaving network available only for phones that were i the name of public safety agencies. This worked well for the City Police but ended up shutting off most of the phones held by Met Police officials.
5) Remember that 911 calls are routed differently that ordinary cell calls. Ordinarily your calls go via the provider you subscribe to. 911 calls are routed via the nearest call tower of any provider to the state's primary PSAP.
1) Even is the voice cell networks crash the SMS text portions of the network still work. Text uses lots less bandwidth so communicate with texts
2) agree with family members as to one or two reliable out of state contacts. Often a local network will crash but long distance lines survive and keep working. on 9/11/2001 my cousin and her husband live in midtown New York. My cousin had an office near midtown with private bank. Her husband, a bond broker, had offices at the WTC and midtown. Their boy was in school at St Bernards on East 98th St and the girl at the Convent School of the Sacred Heart at 91st St and Fifth Ave. Both parents started walking to the upper east side and one started for the boys school, the other to the girls,not by plan but just the way it happened. They were unble to reach each other on cell phones in NY but each called my Uncle Matt, her father, in Methuen MA. The calls to MA went through and they were able to exchange messages and arrange to meet via message left with Uncle Matt in Methuen. One good thing was that the husband had had a meeting scheduled at the WTC office but it had been cancelled that morning.
3) do not rely on Sat phones. A friend with Louisisana State Police told me their superior officers had a good supply of Sat phones. They discovered during Katrina that there are a limited number of channels to the birds overhead. When news networks get to a disaster the first thing they do is call the main news number and then have a staffer stand their holding the line open for the newsmen. No open lines were left for public safety.
4) public safety agencies cannot rely on cell phones is they do not coordinate with other agencies. When the 7/7 bombings hit London the Metropolitan Police, the large agency that serves most of London, had carefully compiled list of all the individual cell phones of all senior officials. Most of these phones were in the accounts of the individual officers. The City of London Police that police "The City", i.e. the financial district, had all officers equipped with department issued phones. The City police invoked a protocol that shut off service to all private cell phones leaving network available only for phones that were i the name of public safety agencies. This worked well for the City Police but ended up shutting off most of the phones held by Met Police officials.
5) Remember that 911 calls are routed differently that ordinary cell calls. Ordinarily your calls go via the provider you subscribe to. 911 calls are routed via the nearest call tower of any provider to the state's primary PSAP.
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Posted by: Marilyn Sass <paws_sassy@yahoo.com>
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