The complexity of modern communications networks, both wired and wireless, makes responding to a disaster not only technically difficult but politically and culturally troublesome as well, said Andrew Lippman, director of the MIT Media Lab.
The roundtable discussion of emergency preparedness issues, sponsored by Avaya Inc., a Basking Ridge, N.J.-based maker of communications networks, included communications specialists from the public and private sectors.
The panelists agreed that there remain enormous obstacles to building an adequate widespread disaster response program. For example, the task of ensuring radio interoperability among local, state and federal agencies could take years to complete.
Lippman noted that the response to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was more efficient than the emergency efforts that followed Katrina in New Orleans. At a time when communications technologies were limited, a single entity -- the U.S. Army -- quickly took control of emergency operations.
"In those days, communications didn't exist, with no phones in homes or pockets. They didn't have TV. And yet command and control worked," Lippman said.
Kevin Prendergast, vice president of northeast operations at American Medical Response (AMR), the nation's largest ambulance service, said his workers often lacked links to disaster recovery officials during the company's efforts to help out after Katrina hit. AMR sent 67 ambulances to New Orleans following the hurricane only to find spotty cellular service and incompatibility between emergency radios.
"It was a tremendous burden on command folks," Prendergast said. "Command capability is impossible without communications capability. Communications is the core of what we need."
Because 85 percent of the nation's critical infrastructure is controlled by the private sector, businesses need to develop the concept of a "trusted partner" when building communications that can survive disasters, said Tom Lesica, senior vice president of global technology and operations at Avaya. Such a partner would likely carry a seal of approval from a third party to ensure that its equipment could survive a disaster, he said.
None of the panelists, including Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, a Republican, called on federal or state governments to certify trusted partners or legislate such cooperation.
"I suspect companies want to do this on their own," Healey said. "There has to be a degree of civic-mindedness. It's not just the profitability factor."
Following Katrina, The American Red Cross received help from several call center and communications providers, which supplied network capacity and personnel to keep networks accessible for a variety of tasks, said Lesica. With that in mind, Avaya may work with other IT vendors at a CIO summit next month to devise a plan under which different vendors would commit in advance to offer call center capacity in an emergency, Lesica said.