Newsletters

August 2005
Communication After Katrina

I received a call from a customer recently. She was helping to coordinate a group of volunteers who were traveling from Austin to assist with the relief effort following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. On the wish list were satellite phones, and she wanted to know what information I might be able to provide about this communications tool. Knowing very little about this technology, I referred her to my partner, Jim Crockett. He explained to her that it wasn’t likely that she’d be able to just drive somewhere in Austin and pick up a handful of satellite phones. The following weekend, I saw a report on the news that featured a woman borrowing a satellite phone from the military in the hurricane ravaged region and calling her family to let them know she was all right.

Since then, I’ve pondered the impact that a disaster like Katrina can have on basic communications; communications that we truly take for granted. The local telephone network went down in New Orleans and other areas, and a cell phone is actually switched to a fiber optic network when it reaches the closest tower, meaning that land line and mobile phone communication were both down. One of our main equipment manufacturers, Comdial, has a tagline to their trademark: A World Connected. How quickly that can change.

Cisco Systems provided Mobile Communication Kits after Katrina as they did following this year’s Asian Tsunami. The devices are portable IP (internet) networks that can derive power from an automobile battery or generator, and be used to make VoIP (voice over internet protocol) calls. The system sends data to a satellite to be beamed back to a working phone network. According to a recent article from Business Week Online, the system can handle up to 35 simultaneous calls using either wired or wireless IP-based handsets.

We began using and installing VoIP technology several years ago. Companies often move toward VoIP technology for financial reasons. There are also a growing number of telecommuters who benefit, along with their employers, from the convenience and professional image provided by VoIP functionality. Interest in VoIP communications, voice over Internet, will certainly continue to grow in the context of disaster preparedness.

Crockett Communications is proud to contribute to the following organizations – people who are doing the real rescue and rebuilding work in the gulf coast states in this time of need following the devastating storm.

• Hurricanehousing.org, offering free shelter to those in need.
• Habitat for Humanity’s Operation Home Delivery, a long-term rebuilding plan for families victimized by Hurricane Katrina along the gulf coast.
• United Animal Nations, providing animal disaster relief teams to rescue stranded animals in Mississippi and Louisiana and providing pet-friendly shelter for victims and animal shelter in both states.
• Austin Humane Society, caring for animals whose owners are our guests from the gulf coast at the Austin Convention Center until they can find permanent housing.
• IFAW/International Fund for Animal Welfare, working with state authorities, conducting door-to-door search and animal rescue operations in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina where evacuees were forced to leave their pets behind. IFAW’s hurricane relief efforts also include helping to coordinate the massive request for pet supplies and shelter assistance, as well as delivering multiple financial grants to help local animal organizations such as the LSPCA and LSU Vet School with the hurricane pet rescue.