[Scan-DC] Area Disaster Communications

[Alan Henney]

Montgomery County Official Calls for More Integration of Emergency
Responders

By STEPHEN S. CHAPMAN
Capital News Service

Emergency workers responding to the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon were
helped by "virtually seamless" communication over common radio
frequencies, but more needs to be done, a Maryland emergency official
testified Wednesday.
    
"If you cannot communicate effectively, you cannot effectively operate,"
said Steve Souder, the director of Montgomery County's Emergency
Communications Center. Souder told a Senate subcommittee that several
Virginia jurisdictions already share channels and that Maryland's Howard
and
Montgomery counties plan to join by the end of the year.
    
But he said federal agencies, such as the Justice and Defense
departments,
should be added in case of a future crisis, and he urged the Federal
Communications Commission to free up radio spectrum space to allow more
agencies under the existing umbrella.
    
Souder was one of eight public- and private-sector officials testifying
before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications about emergency
communications during and after the Sept. 11 attacks.
    
Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who chaired the hearing, noted that demand
for wireless phone channels jumped more than 200 percent on Sept. 11.
Besides an increase in demand, relay towers can also be damaged in
natural
disasters or attacks, as was the case in New York.
    
Souder said the problem of jammed communication is particularly pressing
for first responders, who cannot coordinate their responses unless they
have
the ability to communicate openly.
    
He said local emergency responders learned that in the Air Florida crash
of 1982, when a jet taking off from National Airport crashed into
Washington's 14th Street Bridge -- just a quarter-mile from the Pentagon.
    
Emergency workers responded from across the area, and while they all
arrived on the scene ready to work, they were unable to coordinate
because
they found themselves unable to communicate with one another.
    
"It was literally a disaster in itself," Souder said.
    
As a result of the problem, congressional hearings were held and the FCC
has since moved to open wavelengths to local emergency response agencies.
The lessons learned from Air Florida paid off 20 years later, Souder
said.
    
"On Sept. 11, when the plane struck the Pentagon, and the first
responders
responded, they were able to do so in a far more effective fashion than
had
been the case 20 years prior to that," Souder said. "The communication
was
virtually seamless, flawless and very effective."
    
Currently, police and fire agencies in the city of Alexandria and in
Fairfax and Arlington counties in Virginia share a radio frequency with
Reagan National Airport and the Washington, D.C., Fire Department.
    
But while radio waves served as an effective means of communication,
cellular lines were gridlocked in Washington, as elsewhere. Souder
suggested
first responders be given priority on cellular phone lines operated by
private companies, such as Verizon and AT&T, in the event of a future
disaster.
    
A Verizon official testified Wednesday that the company's wireless system
never went down on Sept. 11, although lines were crowded. In prepared
testimony, Paul Crotty also said the company is working with federal,
state
and local governments to ensure the system will be safe in future crises.