[Scan-DC] Congress unprepared for Jan. 20 emergency

[b_thom at juno.com]

TMartin831 at aol.com TMartin831 at aol.com 
Fri Jan 16 12:05:12 EST 2009 said:

(http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/unprepared-for-emergency-2009-01-15.html) 

Eight lawmakers The Hill spoke to on Wednesday said they either were not sure of or did not have the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) card, which gives users priority telephone  access during emergencies, when traditional phone lines may be disconnected or flooded with calls.
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See 
http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/1997/RAR9702.pdf
COLLISION AND DERAILMENT OF MARYLAND RAIL COMMUTER MARC TRAIN 286 AND NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION AMTRAK TRAIN 29 NEAR SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND FEBRUARY 16, 1996

go to page 55:

Cellular Service Communication--
During the emergency response activity of this accident, the arriving fire and rescue personnel were unable to communicate by cellular phone with off-site accident support personnel because of an apparent saturation of the cellular phone network. The on-scene news media quickly engaged and would not release the existing cell sites in the area. This situation prevented the rescue personnel from making any connections and hampered the rescue efforts according to several rescuers, who stated that this problem had occurred previously during other high-visibility accidents in which the news media were present.

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