Telecommunications Outage Report: Northern California Firestorm 2017
A report on the telecommunications outages that affected Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma Counties in the wake of the devastating fires of 2017. http://www.mendocinobroadband.org/wp-content/uploads/1.-NBNCBC-Telecommunica... [...] Results show that in the 3-county area, 66% of residents lost landline services, 74% of residents lost cellular services, and 66% of residents lost Internet services with Napa County experiencing the most severe impacts. The 3-county average of service loss for these combined technologies is 71%. Many of these outages impacted residents that were geographically far from the actual burn areas. [...] During the 2017 wildfires, there were no forms of communications or technologies that worked better than the rest. Each method used for emergency notification played a crucial role in preparing residents for disaster. Technologies used by residents varied from many conventional methods to many non-conventional forms of communications. Regardless of the ways residents were notified, collectively the different methods played a major role in saving lives. [...] In the entire 2017 Northern California wildfires’ footprint, it is estimated that 160,000 wireline and 85,000 wireless customers lost service, including 11-15 Public Safety Answering points losing service. Over 340 cell sites were completely destroyed or damaged. [...] Internet outages affected (22) internet provider services over the 3-county region; however, not all (22) providers are available within each County. [...] When you evacuated your residence, how did you receive warning/notice to evacuate? did not receive any warning from anyone outside my own home (23.48%) other response (17.15%) received a phone alert of some kind (text alert, amber alert) (15.67%) received a phone call from a neighbor, family, friend (13.52%) received warning from a neighbor physically at my door (12.05%) received warning from public safety official physically at my door (6.88%) received a reverse 9-1-1 call (3.5%) heard sirens/bullhorns/public safety officials outside my home (3.44%) received notice on the radio (2.03%) heard a power outage alarm at my home (1.23%) received notice from a press event (0.86%) received notice from a ham radio operator (0.18%)
participants (1)
-
Sean Donelan