Local broadcast, telecommunications and utility companies took extraordinary measures to ensure they could continue providing their services to customers when superstorm Sandy struck three years ago.
“We were prepared for [the storm]. The crew stayed overnight, with their sleeping bags and all,” Dan Finn, senior vice president of Greater Media, said at a Sept. 2 panel on the experiences of weathering the superstorm and lessons learned from Sandy at the Lake Como site of radio station WRAT.
“When the water kept coming up higher and higher, we dug trenches for it. The crew even had multiple backup generators. “When everything went out, we were dug in.”
Convened by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D- 6), participants at the roundtable from central New Jersey discussed their experiences during Sandy, focusing on telecommunications, broadcast, social media and first-responder communications “During Sandy, we had disaster response representatives who met with local officials to ensure we were lined up with them,” said Paul Sullivan, president of Verizon’s Mid-Atlantic North region.
“We need to understand local communities’ priorities. It’s about mutual aid and preparation.”
The forum, held in Monmouth Beach, brought together representatives of utilities, media outlets and officials of coastal communities hit hard by the Oct. 29, 2012 superstorm to build on the lessons learned three years ago.
Pallone, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, opened the forum by recalling the challenges people faced in the wake of Sandy and noting that protecting against future storms is a matter of preparation and communication.
“When Sandy struck, I promised that I would keep fighting with you until we completely rebuilt,” Pallone said. “Three years later that fight unfortunately is not over — we still have a lot more work to do.
“We still have homes to replace. We still have businesses to restore. At the same time, we must also look ahead. We need to understand the lessons that Sandy taught us to make sure we are better prepared,” Pallone said. “That is why I called for this forum to focus on the services that keep us connected when we need [them] most.”
Finn recounted the preparations undertaken by 95.9 WRAT, affectionately known as “The Rat,” in order to continue broadcasting throughout the storm.
“We were most concerned about The Rat [during the storm],” Finn said, adding that the radio station is the closest to the beach of the six he oversees.
With many citizens cut off from reliable information, The Rat shifted its format and became a round-the-clock community news service, updating residents as to where they could get gasoline and providing shout-outs for those who had not been able to get in touch with family members.
“That was very important,” Finn said. “There were other stations that went off the air … but we kept thinking what else could we do?”
The Rat would later win an award for Best News at the New Jersey Broadcasters Convention, unheard of for a rock music radio station.
According to Finn, the value of radio as a source of information when all else goes down is something he realized through the superstorm Sandy experience.
Finn is now pushing, along with much of the radio industry, to have the FM chips manufactured in smartphones activated. They are currently switched off before the sale of the mobile devices, but leaving them on would provide mobile access to radio for many, he said.
Several local officials, including Aberdeen Mayor Fred Tagliarini and Monmouth Beach Mayor Susan Howard, praised Verizon for continuing service throughout the duration of the storm. Sullivan attributed the resiliency of the telecommunications provider’s service to early preparation.
To ensure its infrastructure is up-to- date and protected, Sullivan said Verizon employs 23 emergency response vehicles in the region, complete with portable generators in case power is cut off to local towns. In addition, by maintaining lines of communication with area energy suppliers like Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), telecommunications providers can easily identify the most critical areas to support in a disaster, Sullivan said.
Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management Director John Ferguson said working with telecom and energy providers is crucial to ensure emergency services are able to communicate with one another.
“The county depends on mutual aid between emergency services,” Ferguson said, emphasizing that effective communication is of the highest importance.
“We need to be able to talk across municipalities.”
According to Ferguson, Middlesex County is focusing on expanding inter-operability across different types of radio systems in order to ensure better communication among all emergency services in the county.
“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” he said.
And those power suppliers that provide electricity for these telecommunication companies and much needed facilities like hospitals have been working on hardening their infrastructures as well.
Ananda Kanapathy, senior director of asset strategy for Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G), said the company has been focused on streamlining its emergency response strategies.
“The paradigm is shifting now,” Kanapathy said, adding that the company is elevating, moving and otherwise mitigating electrical substations and expanding channels of communication.
JCP&L is focused on similar measures, investing more than $200 million in resiliency projects each year since the storm. The power supplier also established an Emergency Command Center to direct operations during a crisis and partnered with local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for quick fixes during emergencies. For Pallone, weathering the next storm is a matter of preparing ahead of time and keeping elected officials, power suppliers, telecommunications companies and first responders connected throughout the duration.
“My committee is responsible for overseeing the industries that are most crucial during a storm — the industries that must keep our power flowing,” Pallone said. “[These] industries … keep us connected when the worst occurs.”