A Katrina Lesson: Need for Unified Emergency Radio System

After surviving Hurricane Katrina's initial blow, the radio communications system for the New Orleans police and fire departments dissolved as its radio towers lost their backup power generators in the ensuing flood. Some of the equipment could have been brought back up quickly, except that technicians were blocked from entering the submerged city for three days by state troopers who were themselves struggling with an overwhelmed radio system from a different manufacturer. Four years after the 2001 terror attacks exposed the need for more robust, interconnected communications during such calamities, with nearly a billion dollars appropriated by Congress for the task last year, the United States still lacks uniform systems that can keep all emergency responders in touch. Since 2001, the federal government has given $8.6 billion to states for equipment, first responder training and disaster exercises. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security gave the states $2.1 billion, of which $925 million was spent on or earmarked for communications equipment upgrades. The department, however, does not tell states what to buy, though it stresses that any system deployed in the field should be able talk to another agency's system, known as "interoperability" in industry parlance.


A Katrina Lesson: Need for Unified Emergency Radio System