When Disaster Strikes, Emergency Communicators Need to Get Connected and Stay Connected
Whether emergency communicators find themselves responding to a wide-scale disaster or a more localized event, the last things they need to worry about are congested networks or communications failures. Access to reliable and secure communications is a lifeline between all the people who play a role in an emergency response and often can make the difference between life and death. Something that both of us have personally experienced in our careers in public safety.
That’s why, throughout April, we have been celebrating the second annual Emergency Communications Month to shine a light on the people who make up the emergency communications ecosystem. This ecosystem includes everyone from emergency managers to statewide interoperability coordinators and state alerting officials, to emergency responders (both public and private sector), and many others who answer the call when their communities need them.
These emergency communicators often work behind the scenes and out of the public eye but, like all our public safety colleagues, are superheroes—ones that we are honored to support. Maintaining effective, secure, and reliable communications takes a team of experts from across the emergency communications ecosystem.
As co-leads for the Emergency Support Function for Communications, or ESF 2, CISA and FEMA are deeply familiar with the many challenges that emergency communicators encounter in the field, especially during large-scale disasters. CISA leads the nation’s operable and interoperable public safety and national security and emergency preparedness communications efforts, while FEMA coordinates the federal government’s response, continuity efforts and restoration of essential communications before, during, and after an incident.
For example, after tornadoes devastated Alabama and Mississippi in March, FEMA Mobile Emergency Operations Vehicles were deployed to provide tools such as mobile telecommunications and power generation. Communication tools like these not only help give survivors access to the resources they need, they also allow emergency response personnel to stay connected when a disaster has disrupted the normal power supply or internet service. Through Emergency Support Function (ESF) 2, CISA also provided virtual support to the Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (SWICs) in the impacted region.
Another way CISA offers support to all emergency communicators is through free Priority Telecommunication Services, or PTS, which includes a suite of offerings for essential personnel with a critical need to communicate in an emergency. This may include anyone from executive leadership to field personnel with national security and emergency preparedness functions, such as federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government; nongovernmental organizations; and organizations that fall within the 16 critical infrastructure sectors. We encourage those serving in these roles to enroll in Government Emergency Telecommunications Services (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS). Between GETS and WPS, subscribers with priority access on landline as well as cellular networks can maintain communications during crises.
Strengthening the nation’s emergency communications capabilities and enhancing preparedness requires collaboration with all stakeholders -- industry, all levels of government and the public.
Does it work? Yes.
After a devastating hurricane struck Puerto Rico in 2017, CISA worked to help territory leaders strengthen communications resiliency through these programs and other related efforts, that better prepared emergency communications officials during the response to another major hurricane in 2022. But not everything is an emergency – sometimes you just need to ensure seamless and reliable communications for major events and day to day emergencies. Here, too, GETS and WPS can help when there are large crowds, unreliable weather, and other extreme conditions.
April is drawing to a close, but emergency communications professionals are critical all year long. So today, on National Superhero Day, we thank emergency communicators across the nation who work tirelessly, day and night, to ensure we can get connected and stay connected when the need comes calling.