MESA

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MESA 12 Boston, MA Disaster Communication
SupportLessons Learned
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Harris Katrina Support Lessons Learned

• View the video (5 minutes)
• Harris is attached to the Florida EOC
• Florida tasked with a region in the Mississippi
  Gulf
• Some of the key Harris lessons learned
• Complete devastation was a reality, (where is the
  plan for that)
• Pre-stage equipment, when possible
• Sat-Phone didn't work (acted like the cell
  system overload)
• Could have been effective with dedicated
  transponder
• High priority service
• First communication (and the only for a while)
  was Amateur operated HF
• SATCOM terminal deployment, with voice (access to
  the PSTN) and data (access to the Internet) was
  critical early
• Needs to be self sustaining (i.e. power, and
  support)
• Needed dedication bandwidth on a transponder
• High priority service
• Dedicated corporate organizational element need
  to be activated

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Harris Katrina Support Lessons Learned

• Some of the key Harris lessons learned
• A deployable Broadcast transmitter, FM or AM, was
  critical for EOCs to get the information out to
  the public, existing assets where down
• Reach back, particularly PSTN became a moral
  upper for first responders since all other means
  where out
• Infrastructure re-build was more feasible that
  overlay systems, even in the short term good
  survivability!
• Engineers/installers on the ground, with
  equipment and
• Flexibility
• Patience
• State/local, Federal and National policies need
  to be in place, but without the communication and
  logistic channels even those policies can not be
  unified
• Self sustainment
• Independence