3 Years After Superstorm, the ‘SANDy Act’ Seeks to Apply Lessons Learned

When Superstorm Sandy made landfall north of Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Oct. 29, 2012, it set records for being the strongest storm ever recorded to hit the Northeast. The recovery would take years for those affected the most. In the days immediately following, some areas received as much as a foot of torrential rainfall, resulting in flooded city streets and downed power lines.

On the third anniversary of the disaster, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. of New Jersey introduced legislation for the Securing Access to Networks in Disasters Act, or the SANDy Act, with the intent of readying our nation’s emergency communications capabilities for the next major disaster, fixing many of the problems that were prevalent during Superstorm Sandy.

This act would ensure that networks have the resiliency to support emergency communications, even in disaster scenarios that cause heavily increased network congestion or adversely affect physical network infrastructure.

Since Sandy, one of the most significant developments has been the initial implementation of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), which has been tasked by Congress to construct a nationwide public safety broadband network. For first responders in crises like Superstorm Sandy, having a resilient broadband network is an invaluable resource, ensuring that mission critical communications remain functional.

One of the key features of FirstNet is to route communications over diverse networking paths—whether wireless or satellite— when terrestrial infrastructure is damaged or overloaded. This is a capability that must be executed with coordination at the local, state and federal levels, since it impacts the capabilities of smaller local districts as much as it does the responders from the federal government. It is perhaps most important for local 9-1-1 answering points, known as Public Safety Answering Points or PSAPs. Many districts, counties and states have been struggling to adopt Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) network capabilities as quickly as they would like to, given constrained budgets and resources.

In responding to wide-impact disasters like Superstorm Sandy, the need for NG911 networks as a nationwide standard directly complements the need for a nationwide public safety broadband network. In addition to basic features like text-to-911, NG911 networks would provide centers with access to more data, allowing them to better locate caller locations, route calls, and group together calls related to the same emergency situation.

All of these capabilities would result in greatly enhanced quality and coordination of response over existing networks currently utilized in response centers. Indeed, today’s 9-1-1 networks only support voice and limited data, if any—a limitation that would be unacceptable for consumer cellular services.

As FirstNet continues to prepare for the next Superstorm Sandy, it must have reliable support in the form of more efficient local PSAPs. The relationship between PSAPs with NG911 and FirstNet allows for critical information to flow from those directly affected all the way up to the highest levels of a federally coordinated response. In examining the topic of FirstNet and NG911-enabled PSAPs, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council stated, “When properly designed and implemented, NG911 systems and FirstNet will complement each other in multiple ways and will provide public safety with a broad range of new capabilities.”

With FirstNet bringing a modernized public safety network online, it is vital that PSAPs begin adopting modernized networks and coordinating with the national model—and to take steps now before the next major disaster, which may strike anytime. The most obvious first step is to implement a resilient managed network capable of maintaining connectivity with victims in affected areas even in conditions like Sandy’s.

That requires implementing satellite connectivity options for primary or backup services, which are outside the vulnerability of terrestrial fixed and mobile networks and provide the necessary bandwidth, reliability and voice/data features. In addition it would be a tremendous advantage for PSAPs to implement NG911 features like application prioritization, intelligent data compression, TCP and Web acceleration and scalable bandwidth.

At the end of this year’s Hurricane season, Hurricane Joaquin took the South by surprise in an otherwise mild year. With recovery efforts still underway in the hardest hit parts of South Carolina, it further reinforces the adage that high risk areas especially need to be in a constant state of preparedness.

Coordinated public safety and emergency response is essential, and the keys to success in upgrading our nation’s 9-1-1 infrastructure is for PSAPs to work in tandem with FirstNet, which starts by providing local districts with the necessary resources. Rep. Pallone’s legislation and outreach to the FirstNet program is one very positive first step in the right direction. The upgrade to PSAPs and implementation of FirstNet won’t prevent the next disaster, but it will help us be prepared to respond more effectively than ever before.