[83884] in North American Network Operators' Group
Martial Law declared in New Orleans Was: RE: Katrina could inundate New Orleans
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Hannigan, Martin)
Tue Aug 30 13:00:11 2005
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 12:59:38 -0400
From: "Hannigan, Martin" <hannigan@verisign.com>
To: <nanog@merit.edu>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
Breaking news..Apparently a 200 foot section of levee broke
last night and is gradually burying the city. Martial Law has
been declared in the area as well.
Overnight Levee Break:
http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20050830/NEWS05=
/50830005
Martial Law:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/08/breaking-news-martial-law-d=
eclared-in.php
--
Martin Hannigan (c) 617-388-2663
VeriSign, Inc. (w) 703-948-7018
Network Engineer IV Operations & Infrastructure
hannigan@verisign.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of
> Matthew Kaufman
> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 11:47 AM
> To: nanog@merit.edu
> Subject: RE: Katrina could inundate New Orleans
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Dave Stewart:
> > Y'know... I do have to wonder whether Internet access is=20
> > nearly as important as power and communications (traditional=20
> > comms, such as the PTSN).
> >=20
> > Granted, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out -=20
> > but I just can't buy that getting the Internet working=20
> > should/will be a really high priority.
>=20
> Back when I was running ISPs, we had several county and city Emergency
> Operations Centers as customers... Either on T1 or frame=20
> relay for their
> primary service, or as their "backup" dial-on-demand ISDN=20
> provider. These
> connections were how the EOC got river gauge data for planning flood
> evacuations (at the time, no other source other than having=20
> the numbers read
> off from the state-level agency office over the phone if they=20
> weren't too
> busy), USGS earthquake epicenter (also available over EDIS)=20
> and shake map
> (Internet only) data, weather service radar and satellite=20
> images (backup was
> TV broadcasts, if still on the air), and in some counties,=20
> the only access
> to the hospital emergency room status tracking system used for
> multi-casualty incidents... While there's more private data=20
> networks online
> now, there's also more Internet-available data that the EOCs=20
> would like to
> have access to, I'm sure (I know that some cities are using
> Internet-connected webcams to do security monitoring, look at=20
> shorelines,
> etc.)=20
>=20
> In many incident scenarios (and a few actual incidents), the=20
> priority was
> that the radio system stayed up, then Internet access, *then*=20
> PSTN (and
> having cellphone access to people in the field to supplement the radio
> system was more important than landline calls to anywhere=20
> else). And power,
> of course, is easily generated locally, so not a big priority at all.
>=20
> Interestingly, almost none of the agencies told sales what=20
> the connection
> was going to be used for... Only when engineering made a=20
> followup inquiry
> would we learn that, yes, in an emergency, they'd like theirs=20
> fixed first
> please, and yes, they'd need first dibs on the backup power=20
> if we didn't
> have enough to run everything.
>=20
> Matthew Kaufman
> matthew@eeph.com
>=20
>=20
>=20
