While the mission of the command center trailer is primarily to restore Verizon networks, it also can provide Internet and radio communications for local emergency response agencies, Price said. The trailer also has electrical outlets on its exterior so emergency response workers and other people can recharge their laptops and other equipment, and Verizon is working on a way for the trailer to become a cellular transmission site, he added.

"We want to give back to the community as much as we can while we're out there fixing our network," Price said.

In addition to the mobile command center, Verizon has three other trailers outfitted with communications equipment specifically focused on providing Internet and voice service to people affected by disasters. Verizon, which has operated a disaster team since 1993, deployed one of those trailers to Baghdad in 2003, just after the start of the Iraq war, providing soldiers a link to their families in the U.S.

Outside of the mobile command center Tuesday morning, MERIT members were putting on hazmat suits. The mission of the first hazmat team was to enter the Verizon building and test for chlorine and hydrochloric acid inside the Verizon operations center.

Dale Thomas, a facilities engineer for Verizon when he's not serving on MERIT, has been deployed to Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina, and to a train accident in Alabama.