Impact of the June 2012 Derecho on Communications Networks and Services. Report and Recommendations.

摘要

In June 2012, portions of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States experienced a fast-moving, destructive windstorm called a derecho, resulting in twenty-two deaths and leaving millions without electrical power. Unlike hurricanes and superstorms, which are generally well-forecast, derechos are more like earthquakes, tornados, and man-made events for which there is little-to-no advance notice and opportunity to prepare. The 2012 derecho severely disrupted 9-1-1-related communications. Seventy-seven 9-1-1 call centers (also known as Public Safety Answering Points or PSAPs) serving more than 3.6 million people in six states lost some degree of connectivity, including vital information on the location of 9-1-1 calls, mostly due to service provider network problems. From isolated breakdowns in Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and Indiana, to systemic failures in northern Virginia and West Virginia, 9-1-1 systems and services were partially or completely down for up to several days. Seventeen PSAPs in three states lost service completely, affecting the ability of more than 2 million people to reach 9-1-1 at all. Even in the context of a storm like the derecho, a large-scale failure of communications particularly 9-1-1-related communications is unacceptable, and action must be taken to prevent similar outages in the future. To this end, at the direction of Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB or Bureau) conducted an inquiry into the causes of the communications failures that resulted from the derecho and ways to prevent them during future emergencies so we can make the public safer. The Bureau's inquiry included extensive review of confidential outage reports, public comments and related documents, as well as interviews of many service providers and PSAPs, equipment and backup power vendors, and public safety and community officials.