States, Telcos Brace for Hurricane Sandy

"We're praying for the best, and preparing for the worst,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. He was on the eighth floor Monday, calling CEOs of telecom companies in the affected areas to offer commission support, and to assess and discuss preparedness efforts. Monday morning, Genachowski approved activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System, used to monitor outages to 911 call centers as well as other network outages such as cell sites and VoIP. Results from the first day of reporting were to have been available Tuesday morning.

Prince George’s County, Md., has seen its “biggest surge for 311-specific calls” during Hurricane Sandy, said Office of Information Technology and Communications Acting Director Vennard Wright. The county’s 311 initiative was only launched in October, fortuitous timing given the hurricane, Wright said. The line averages 700 calls a day, although 400 are typically devoted to bulk trash, he said. The office has expanded its 311 hours of operation and “this is the first time we've been open on a Sunday,” he said, noting 311 received about 90 calls then from noon to 7 p.m. that day. The office didn’t yet have numbers for Monday. These calls involve “downed trees, power outages, what to do to prepare, requests for sandbags” and other hurricane-related matters, he said. Prince George’s County has fixed initial errors that prevented all calls from reaching 311, he added, pointing to the unique problem of the jurisdiction being located alongside the 311 centers of Montgomery County, Md., and the District of Columbia. The county has worked with carriers, too, to route traffic better and ensure wireless-dialed 311 calls go to the correct jurisdiction’s call center, he said. Washington has a backup center “hot and live and ready to go for 911 and 311” if need be, a District of Columbia Office of Unified Communications spokeswoman said. She has been busy on the D.C. 311 Twitter account and elsewhere trying to keep people informed of updates as they come in and describes an “extremely busy” day at the office.

Last week, the FCC staffed an emergency response team for Sandy, a commission spokeswoman said. She said the team includes Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky and FCC Chief of Staff Zac Katz. At the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s request, the FCC would deploy agents on the ground to the disaster area, and those agents would use specialized equipment to examine radio spectrum in the area to identify disaster-related communications outages, the spokeswoman said. At our deadline, FEMA had not requested the use of the FCC’s emergency deployment teams, she said.

Over the past several days, in coordination with FEMA, the White House’s Sandy team and state and local governments, the FCC focused on readiness and on issuing waivers because of the storm, the commission spokeswoman said. In the coming days, the commission expects to be receiving requests for special temporary authorization from telecom providers and others, she said. The commission also has a 24/7 operations center that has done outreach to state emergency 911 call centers and telcos and carriers in the path of the storm, and has communicated safety tips to the public via news releases and over social media, the spokeswoman said.

There’s “no indication of any telco outages yet,” a New York State Public Service Commission spokesman said Monday afternoon. Staff is “closely monitoring Sandy,” he said, and Verizon has moved its New York City command post to an alternate location due to the storm. The Maryland Public Service Commission warned Marylanders in a press release Monday afternoon of “extended power outages,” with restoration efforts likely to be hurt by high winds (http://xrl.us/bnwn7p). “More than 4,000 utility personnel, including nearly 1,000 out-of-state mutual assistance crews, are already in place across the State and are ready to begin restoring service as soon and quickly as possible,” it said, and PSC Chairman Douglas Nazarian assured people that PSC staff and utilities are working “around the clock” to be ready. The PSC has been in contact with Verizon, a spokesman told us. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission also has heard of no phone outages, a spokeswoman said. “We are engaged with the utilities on an ongoing basis,” she said. “We have regular update phone calls and reporting phone calls throughout the day."

"So far, so good -- I haven’t heard anything yet,” said Virginia Corporation Commission Telecom Director William Irby. Mid-Atlantic 911 center directors have met with Verizon many times since extended 911 outages during the summer derecho storm, and Verizon has assured the directors it’s addressed all issues contributing to those prior outages, said Fairfax County, Va., 911 Director Steve Souder. “I hope so,” he told us by email. His region of Virginia has encountered no problems so far, he said. Irby is “optimistic,” he said, and said he expects the worst Monday night.

As of our deadline, Verizon’s networks were all working properly with no major disruptions, a spokesman said. The telco had activated its national and regional command and control centers to monitor network performance, and communicated with power and other service providers to coordinate in case of storm damage. The company had staged equipment in and around the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, including poles, fiber and copper cable, mobile emergency power generators, and portable cell sites to replace damaged cell towers. Verizon has begun having daily conference calls with 911 center directors in the Washington metro area, and is expanding that call to include center directors in other states, the spokesman said. Verizon has also placed employees in the Virginia Emergency Operations Center in Richmond, and in the Fairfax County Public Safety and Transportation Operations Center, he said. CenturyLink said it was experiencing “minimal impact” to its service areas, but it was carefully tracking the storm and monitoring the network, a spokeswoman said. CenturyLink deployed generators to areas in its service territory along the East Coast likely to be impacted, which will be used to maintain service if power is lost. CenturyLink is also “working closely” with government and emergency responders. In the event of damage to phone lines, CenturyLink plans to wait for electrical technicians to repair power lines before restoring the damaged phone lines, the spokeswoman said.

Sprint Nextel was “not experiencing any network impacts due to the storm” at our deadline Monday, a spokeswoman said in an email, “but have prepared ourselves for the impacts that could possibly arise [Monday night] and early morning Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy reaches the coast.” Three of the carrier’s network strike teams are already “on the ground” in areas being impacted by Sandy to assess the network’s performance during and after the storm, maintain cell site generators and perform repairs as needed, the spokeswoman said. Additional teams are ready to deploy as needed, she said. Almost 200 of the carrier’s retail stores between Connecticut and Virginia are closed because of the storm, the spokeswoman said. Sprint’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) has sent personnel, five Satellite Cell on Light Trucks, portable satellite equipment and 800 handsets to its hub in Sterling, Va., the spokeswoman said. State and local agencies in areas under a declared state of emergency can request 14 days of free service and device access from the ERT. Three Maryland state agencies -- the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, Maryland State Police and Maryland National Guard -- are using ERT services, as is the Atlantic County, N.J., government, the spokeswoman said. T-Mobile USA’s network was operating normally in all areas Hurricane Sandy was impacting as of our deadline Monday, a carrier spokesman said. T-Mobile had already established command centers in areas between Virginia and Maine where Sandy was most likely to affect wireless service, the spokesman said. The carrier had access to additional fuel supplies for its generators and company vehicles; they had already “topped off” the fuel for generators at all cell sites in Sandy’s path, T-Mobile said in a news release. The carrier said it had staged emergency equipment, including cell-on-wheels technology, in areas likely to be impacted so they can be quickly deployed. Engineers and backup generators from nearby markets were on standby, T-Mobile said.

On FCC deadlines affected by the hurricane, agency rules provide that if the commission is closed on a deadline day, then the deadline shifts to the next business day the FCC is open, said Kelley Drye attorney Steve Augustino, co-chair of the telecom practice group. Federal offices in the Washington region were essentially closed on Monday. Kelley Drye’s Washington office was closed Monday and expected to stay closed Tuesday, with most attorneys working from home, Augustino said. So far, there have been no major disruptions, and the firm keeps its remote servers offsite in a data center with backup power, and can shift to other service as needed to preserve continuity, he said. Some telecom attorneys we contacted Monday said their law offices were closed, but a Wiltshire & Grannis attorney said the office was open, with some attorneys working in the office and some from home. The FCC postponed indefinitely Senior Digital Literacy Day, scheduled for Tuesday at FCC headquarters, because of the weather.

With many law firms asking their employees to stay home Monday, several of the communications lawyers we spoke with Monday were working from home. One lawyer said he was at his office, but there was only one other person on his floor. “I think folks are doing what they can to catch up paperwork or whatever, but I think most everyone stayed away from the office,” said a second lawyer.

Cable operators serving regions in Sandy’s path began preparations last week, they said. Time Warner Cable is operating under emergency management and business continuity plans to make sure its employees are safe, it can assist local emergency management personnel and ultimately make any repairs to its network that are needed “as soon as it’s safe to do so,” a spokesman said. It began alerting customers last week about what to expect during the storm and has added staff to its call centers, he said. The company contacted customers through email and its blog (http://xrl.us/bnwo29) and encouraged subscribers to check Twitter for updates on outages and storm-related issues. At Comcast as well, the focus was on the safety of employees and customers, a spokeswoman said. It has increased staffing and moved employees around to “key locations throughout the company,” she said. And the company added backup generators and other supplies, beyond coordinating with local power companies, state and local emergency workers, she said. In areas expected to be hit by the storm, Comcast has been calling subscribers to tell them the company will be tracking the storm and to urge them to visit comcast.com from mobile devices to check for outage updates.

Broadcasters have also added backup power generators to their operations in preparation for the storm, an NAB spokesman said. NAB CEO Gordon Smith said he saluted broadcast industry employees for “putting themselves in harm’s way to keep millions of people safe and informed,” during the storm.

Most emergency alert system (EAS) messages related to the storm will probably be carried on local EAS relay networks and not on FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS), said Ed Czarnecki, senior director-strategy, development and regulatory affairs for Monroe Electronics, an EAS equipment vendor. “IPAWS is however able to relay severe weather alerts to enabled mobile phones via CMAS,” the commercial mobile alert system, he said. “These are solid technologies, utilizing multiple paths of distribution,” he said. “Beyond the technical, however, this storm event may illuminate areas of improvement on the operational level,” he said.

The National Disaster Distress Hotline is also available to help affected East Coast residents, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare said Monday. “The helpline is a national hotline answered by a network of crisis call centers across the U.S., providing phone- and text-based support to people experiencing emotional distress before, during and after disasters,” Secretary of Public Welfare Gary Alexander in a statement (http://xrl.us/bnwnyq). Natural disasters can cause problems such as anxiety, stress, confusion and fear, the department said.