Last June’s “derecho” wind storm caused 77 public safety answering points (PSAP) in seven states to lose some degree of 911 connectivity, a situation that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today called “unacceptable,” and pledged to fix by strengthening the reliability and resilience of the nation’s 911 networks. The quickly-moving storm claimed 22 lives as it moved from central Iowa to the Atlantic coast with winds up to 75 mph, knocking out power and communications lines that affected public safety answering points (PSAP). The commission announced its plans after receiving a 56-page report that detailed how PSAPs serving 3.6 million residents were affected by the winds, “mostly due to service provider network problems,” the report said. There were isolated 911 outages in Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and Indiana, according to the report, and complete system failures in northern Virginia and West Virginia, including some that last several days.
Beyond physical destruction caused by the storm, 911 communications were disrupted, “in large part because of avoidable planning and system failures, including the lack of functional backup power, notably in central offices,” the FCC said. Monitoring systems also failed, so communications providers weren’t aware of some outages. “In most cases, the 9-1-1 and other problems could and would have been avoided if providers had followed industry best practices and available guidance,” the FCC’s inquiry found.
Overall, 17 PSAPs in three states lost service completely, affecting the ability of more than 2 million people to reach 911 at all.
“These failures are unacceptable and the FCC will do whatever is necessary to ensure the reliability of 9-1-1,” FCC chair Julius Genachowski said in a statement. The commission said it would soon launch a rulemaking on the issue, and accelerate the commission’s support for an IP-based, next generation 911 (NG911) 911 network.
“Here’s the bottom line,” Genachowski said. “We can’t prevent disasters from happening, but we can work relentlessly to make sure Americans can connect with emergency responders when they need to most.”
Download (pdf) the entire FCC derecho report, which includes the FCC’s plans and statements from commissioners.
In response to the FCC’s actions, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) issued the following press release.
Extensive investigation and recommendations should improve 9-1-1 resiliency
Alexandria, VA – Today, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released its anticipated report and recommendations following the “Derecho” storm that impacted the mid-Atlantic region six months ago. This brief, but violent storm led to extensive loss of 9-1-1 services, and revealed the importance of determining the causes and actions that can be taken to help prevent similar 9-1-1 outages in the future.
With the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International’s full support, including comments filed with the FCC, and the input of affected public safety answering points, state and local government agency officials and commercial 9-1-1 service providers, the Bureau quickly undertook a thorough review, leading to today’s report.
APCO President Terry Hall said “today’s report confirms that adherence to existing best practices on the part of the commercial carriers would ordinarily have prevented much of the outages that unfortunately occurred.” Hall continued, “APCO appreciates the hard work of the FCC staff, and the steps that service providers have already taken to improve 9-1-1 network resiliency. The report’s recommendations, which are consistent with APCO’s publicly filed comments, reflect common sense steps that all stakeholders can take to ensure that 9-1-1 networks are as reliable as possible, including in the face of large scale emergencies.”
Also today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced plans to launch a new rulemaking to “strengthen the reliability and resiliency nationwide of our country’s 9-1-1 communications networks during major disasters.” Especially in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, “APCO also looks forward to continuing to work with the Commission on ways to further ensure the resiliency of 9-1-1 communications, which might call for more specific requirements on the part of 9-1-1 service providers,” said Hall.
The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) issued a statement in response to the FCC’s actions:
This report highlights the difference between normal telephone network facilities and those dedicated to providing 9‑1‑1 service to the public. Even, or perhaps especially, during times of disaster, 9‑1‑1 facilities must not fail. Importantly, this report reveals much about the effectiveness of “voluntary best practices,” often touted as a preferred alternative to regulatory mandates. Particularly where lives and property are at stake, there are occasions where only a regulation, backed up by the enforcement authority of the government, can assure the public that a critical system like 9‑1‑1 will operate reliably. Of course, regulation is not always the solution, but sometimes it must be. NENA hopes that carriers will recognize their central role in the operation of 9‑1‑1 systems and participate as partners in a process to ensure 9-1-1 systems function properly at all times.
The FCC’s inquiry posted this graph showing the number of incidents entered by telephone companies and other carriers into the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS).
This table from the FCC’s derecho report shows the effect of the storm on 911 PSAPs in seven states.
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