Communication Challenges in Response to Disasters
Communication
Communication and response to disaster
The United States has been hit by several disasters ranging from natural ones to man made. Some of them have included flooding, winds, and terrorism among others. In response to these disasters, the law enforcement agencies have been met with several challenges including communication problems due to failure of early preparedness or poor equipment.
The most known natural one was Hurricane Katrina which strikes the United States. According to the risk management experts, the storm caused $40-60 billion in terms of insured losses, and the actual losses exceeded $150 billion. Regarding the human costs, the effects of Katrina was felt for more than decades, (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration., 2005). Some of the far reaching consequences of this killer storm were permanent population shifts as well as large scale changes in terms of land use practices.
There were several communication challenges that law enforcement agencies experienced when responding to this deadly disaster. The law officials acknowledged that the Gulf Coast law enforcement agencies were not able to communicate using radio, cell phone, or even landline telephone. Many existed agencies along the coast encountered lost radio fixed transmission equipment as a result of the flood or wind. Some of the officers in several agencies were limited to the use of car-to-car communications only. Even after the start of restoring communication systems, agencies could only communicate to their own personnel but were unable to communicate to other agencies that were in the area, or to the myriad of officers that came from other states to offer assistance, simply due to incompatible radio systems.
As the storm ended, officers came out of their shelters to start their work; however most of them were not able to locate their fellow officers. Their communication equipments such as repeaters, central transmission systems, as well as cell phones could not operate. Therefore, in terms of response they were rendered uncoordinated and ineffective in a strategic sense. The problem remained for more than a month after the end of the storm as public safety communications in most areas remained largely disrupted.
The experience of Katrina confirms the need for redundant communications...
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