Hurricane Laura, the first major hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, slammed into the state of Louisiana as a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in late August. With sustained winds as high as 150 MPH and a catastrophic storm surge, it was the 10th-strongest U.S. hurricane on record and caused the deaths of at least 41 people in the United States. An estimated $23.3 billion in damages was inflicted on southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas near the Gulf of Mexico.
I drove my motorhome to Louisiana from Indiana to see how I could help our customers, along with first responders and residents, many of whom were displaced with no home and no belongings. I saw miles of electricity poles snapped like twigs, nothing but twisted metal and in some cases stilts where houses once stood, saltwater standing in fields, miles inland from the ocean, electrical wires laying all over and signs of lives changed everywhere you looked. I even saw alligator roadkill. The area was a communications dead zone, which made creating a coordinated response next to impossible.
Although I knew full well the catastrophic impact weather could have on an area, it was eye-opening to see just how vital communications technology is to restore critical services to a community after a natural disaster.
In the case of Hurricane Laura, recovery would not have been possible without a connected and reliable operations center. The federal, local and technology teams developed a make-shift communications hub used by the National Guard and a local sheriff’s department to answer calls, coordinate responses and even as an air-conditioned space to get a few hours of sleep between shifts.
Critical connectivity
For emergency management teams, responding to natural disasters such as Hurricane Laura requires months of planning, millions of dollars in resources and, perhaps most critically, fail-safe connectivity to keep first responders prepared to handle a crisis or a threat.
Reliable connectivity has become a foundational element of federal emergency management responses. It is of vital importance to have a reliable non-land based back up communications system. While modern non-terrestrial networks based on satellite networks have been supporting emergency responses for many years, new technology has increased the speed of deployment, expanded the reach of communications and been able to support local response in real time.
Cloud applications, virtualized ground systems and carrier-class connectivity enable federal response teams to deploy adaptable, mobile and data-rich response capabilities that can operate when other platforms fail or are unavailable. It enables responders to coordinate quickly and effectively. It saves lives.
Always‑on connectivity for crises
In large-scale disasters, terrestrial infrastructure is often one of the first casualties, leaving responders without the ability to coordinate or share situational awareness. Non-terrestrial communications support connectivity to vehicles, pop-up networks and field teams that must relocate as conditions evolve. In public-safety events and disaster response, satellite links can support voice, data and video services for crisis response teams operating at the front line and in high-density environments.
Satellite communications networks can provide:
- Resilience in disasters: Operating independently of terrestrial infrastructure, which can be destroyed during natural disasters or emergencies.
- Speed: Quick set up in affected areas provide immediate communication capabilities for first responders. Virtualized, cloud-native systems can be quickly spun up, reducing deployment time in critical situations.
- Wide coverage: Global reach, including remote, rural or isolated regions where traditional networks are unavailable. Emergency teams can be connected across a city, country or internationally for better coordination of the responding agencies.
- Reliability: Uninterrupted connectivity, even in challenging conditions like a flood or hurricane site.
- Scalability: Support for multiple agencies, users and devices, making it ideal for coordination and deployment of large-scale emergency operations.
Leveraging the cloud and virtualization for emergency networks
Cloud-native architectures are reshaping how satellite ground systems are built and operated, allowing emergency-management applications – such as dispatch systems, GIS tools and collaboration platforms — to be deployed closer to the action.
In an emergency, cloud-native satellite control and network management let operators redistribute connectivity when demand spikes or specific sites are compromised.
Virtualization lets emergency networks scale capacity up or down quickly, move functions geographically if needed, and optimize cost while maintaining performance and security.
Emergency communications also require true carrier-class characteristics – high availability, predictable performance and strict service-level assurance – because loss of connectivity can directly impact public safety and people’s lives. Carrier-class connectivity supports mission-critical applications such as command-and-control, video and medical data. The satellite network receives priority and remains reliable across diverse networks and physical environments.
Flexibility and mobility across a network of networks
We know that Starlink and other new satellite networks can connect people to the Internet. But they can also operate as part of a broader “network of networks,” spanning multiple satellite orbits and integrating with terrestrial 4G/5G and Internet Protocol (IP) networks. These systems give emergency teams the flexibility to route traffic over whichever path best meets current performance and coverage. Redundancy features allow networks to automatically switch satellites or links if one path fails.
For on-the-move responders, flexible satellite networks can support roaming across regions and satellites without manual reconfiguration, enabling consistent connectivity for vehicles, field teams and first responders. As emergencies grow more complex, satellite can help agencies maintain resilient operations when they matter most.
Darren Ludington is regional vice president, Americas at ST Engineering iDirect.
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