An FCC reminder about important emergency contact information
With the Fourth of July fading into the past and Labor Day looming ominously just beyond the horizon, hurricane season is upon us. Lisa Fowlkes, Deputy Chief of the Commission’s Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, has asked us to pass along to our clients and readers some important FCC contact information in case Mother Nature turns nasty in the coming weeks and months.
The link to the FCC’s emergency contacts page, including its 24/7 Operations Center, is http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/about-us/contacts.html.
Also, the Bureau continues to encourage communications service providers – particularly broadcasters – to register with the Commission’s Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) and to participate in DIRS if the system is activated. The link to the DIRS login page is https://www.fcc.gov/nors/disaster/Login.cfm. FEMA and FCC emergency response personnel (ESF-2) use DIRS reports to coordinate needed assistance (e.g., fuel, generators, etc) in the aftermath of natural disasters. (“ESF-2” is FEMA-speak for “Emergency Support Function #2” – the governmental system that, among other chores, supports the restoration of the communications infrastructure and coordinates Federal communications support to response efforts during incidents requiring a coordinated Federal response.)
Thanks for the reminder, Lisa. We all hope that none of us will need to call on the guv’mint to “restore communications infrastructure”, a notion which conjures up images of worst case scenarios. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is that Big Storms are beyond our control. This is one of those cases where a timely ounce of prevention is clearly worth a pound of cure.