Post-Katrina landscape turned into wireless lab

updated 6:44 p.m. ET Oct. 4, 2005

Hours after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and knocked out telecommunications across much of the region, Mac Dearman visited shelters in northern Louisiana to connect telephones.

Dearman doesn't work for a phone company.

He owns a local wireless Internet service provider, and the gear he set up doesn't need a traditional phone network. It carries calls — as well e-mail and other data — over the Internet.

"In the first 24 hours after we plugged the phones in, there were 11 family members reunited," he said. "We got a hug every time we went into a shelter to make sure things are up and running all right."

Just as Katrina proved the vulnerability of traditional telephone and cellular networks, it also showed how Internet-based technologies could be used to speedily re-establish links with the outside world.

Dearman was not alone. Teams from large companies, private groups and the military converged on the Gulf Coast in ad hoc fashion to set up wireless networks, all the while battling bureaucracies that didn't seem to understand the agility and flexibility of the technologies being marshaled.

The spontaneous wireless projects by groups that simply wanted to help — government mandate or not — is spurring interest in how to deploy the latest in communications technology and expertise in a more organized fashion after future disasters.

"It's pretty clear that it was the folks out in the field who did some amazing heroics to get communications back up," said Carl Malamud, chief technology officer of the Center for American Progress think tank. "We need to move toward a system where people are empowered to do what they can do."

In Louisiana and Mississippi, Katrina initially knocked out 2.8 million phone lines, more than 1,600 cell phone towers and more than 420,000 cable TV connections that also can serve as Internet links, the Federal Communications Commission said.

Some quick-fix systems still in place
In some areas, the wireless networks hastily formed by geek volunteers served as a stopgap while traditional services were restored, often in a matter of days. But in the most devastated areas, they continue to be the link to the outside world.

"Nowadays, without communications, you're basically dead in the water," said Robert Gavagnie, fire chief of devastated Bay St. Louis, Miss. "In the old days you could get by without it. Nowadays, you've just got to have it."

Just days after Katrina struck, the FCC set up a clearinghouse where offers of equipment and expertise could be coordinated with the needs of the disaster area. The agency also eased rules for some advanced technologies.

When Dearman posted a call for help on an e-mail distribution list, the response exceeded his wildest expectations.

"There were trucks coming from all over the United States. This restored my faith in humanity," he said. "They showed up. They came up to my house, to my farm. Their trucks were loaded down with food and wireless gear."

Eventually, BellSouth donated additional bandwidth, and MCI donated a 45-megabit per second DS3 line that Dearman used to light up southern Mississippi, including Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Pearlington and Diamondhead. Trango Broadband also donated radio equipment to expand the network.

"Intel has called me half a dozen times in the last two weeks asking me what I needed. Cisco has donated three routers," he said. "Everybody has stepped up to the plate."

But such efforts were often stymied by run-ins with bureaucrats on the ground.

Sascha Meinrath, an Illinois-based community wireless project leader who worked with Dearman, said he participated in the FCC's Sept. 2 meeting but his group never got calls back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

MORE FROM WIRELESS

Wireless Section Front

10 iPhone apps for the holidays that sparkle FCC questions Verizon about doubling fee Man in stolen cell phone pic turns himself in Think your kid isn't ‘sexting’? Think again No cell phone, brain tumor link, study says CNBC: Google searches for mobile edge GPS cell phone apps challenge standalone devices Using phone while walking perilous for seniors Smartphone return, exchange policies for the holidays Sidekick phones back on sale after data loss Wireless Section Front   Add Wireless headlines to your news reader: