Wireless Key to Restoring Haiti Emergency Networks, APCO Official Says
HOUSTON -- APCO played a major role in restoring emergency communications in Haiti following January’s massive earthquake, President Richard Mirgon said Tuesday at the group’s annual conference. A major side effect of the earthquake was the destruction of Haiti’s land mobile radio system, with its transmitter in the presidential palace. An estimated 10,000 emergency calls were made and not answered after disaster struck, Mirgon said.
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"The Haitian communications system prior to this was an old trunk system,” Mirgon said. “They dispatched from a central [public safety answering point]. Most 911 calls were really cellular. Part of the reality in that there was a piece of that radio system was not maintained” and there was little backup.
Documentation was so sketchy, it took public safety officials three days to even determine what number people were supposed to dial in an emergency. “There were people saying 416, 911,” he said. The numbers turned out to be 114/118. “Many dispatchers were killed. The dispatchers themselves were displaced,” Mirgon said. “Approximately half the [public safety] precincts were destroyed. Switching stations were destroyed. A huge [submarine] cable was destroyed.”
Several solutions were examined, Mirgon said. The answer was simple, he said. Working with NENA, APCO helped established a secondary public safety answering point managed by the Haitian National Police at their Patco Police Headquarters. Communications between the PSAP and police were completely wireless with wireline networks destroyed.
Commander John McClain of the U.S. Coast Guard, who took part in the U.S. response to Haiti, said one key lesson learned is the importance of communications. “Communicate, communicate, communicate,” he said. “I've got to tell you that flexibility is the key to being effective and getting things done.” The use of cells on wheels units, for example, was critical to restoring communications by the Haitian police, McClain said. “We have to respond immediately,” he said. “Start working with the locals, coordinate with all the players who are there.”