ESF-2 Demobilizes After Assisting Disaster Victims With Communication Needs
Release Date: December 1, 2005
Release Number: 1603-191
» More Information on Louisiana Hurricane Rita
» More Information on Louisiana Hurricane Katrina
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Support Function-2 (ESF-2) has played a very important role providing communication services to disaster victims during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ESF-2 was responsible for the restoration/repair of telecommunications infrastructure for state, local and private sector communications services. They also coordinated with telecommunications industries on restoration activities. Following the disaster, ESF-2 was deployed to assess the communications infrastructure in disaster-affected areas. The ESF-2 team also identified communications facilities, equipment and personnel located in and outside the disaster areas that could be available to support response and recovery efforts.
ESF-2 partnered with the parishes and industry to restore communications infrastructure to all parishes in southern Louisiana. One ESF-2 priority was to re-establish emergency 911 services to the Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes.
Throughout the team’s deployment, ESF-2 made numerous contributions to the victims of this disaster. Achievements include:
- Embedding telecommunication experts into the most devastated parishes to ensure immediate on-site coordination between parish officials and the U.S. government.
- Providing a temporary 911 mobile prototype to Plaquemines Parish within one week after the hurricane.
- Assisting Orleans Parish with getting 911 equipment at a temporary location.
- Establishing an interagency team of experts from National Communications System/General Service Administration/Federal Communications Commission capable of providing a variety of reach-back capabilities addressing communications issues.
- Ensuring Wireless Priority Service, Government Emergency Telecommunications Service, and Telecommunications Service Priority awareness and usage by the response
- Sourcing a radio tower to increase coverage of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s radio system.
FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program.
Last Modified: Friday, 02-Dec-2005 12:14:48