Hurricane Maria: Summary of communication status - and lack of

Sun Sep 24 21:13:33 UTC 2017

On Sun, 24 Sep 2017, Mike Hammett wrote:
> There are a bunch of WISPs waiting to go rebuild, but waiting for the 
> clearance to do so.

I'm not sure what clearances they are waiting for.  If they are already in 
Puerto Rico, self-sufficient, and respect curfews and other emergency 
responders, they should be able to start local restoration and recovery 
activities.

Several local ISPs and communication providers have announced open public 
WiFi hotspots outside their Puerto Rico offices during non-curfew hours. 
I've also seen reports from individuals volunteering on the Virigin 
Islands setting up internet access.

If they are not already on the island, most Puerto Rican airports and 
ports are still closed to non-military or relief activities. There is no 
U.S. mail or freight service. Only one airport was open for limited 
commercial flights.  They will need to bring everything neccessary to 
support themselves, including food, water, shelter, etc.

Managing volunteers who want to help is difficult in all disasters. 
Unless they have training how to survive and take care of themselves in 
such a situation, letting in outside well-meaning volunteers sometimes 
become additional people who need to rescue.

WISPs already on Puerto Rico or U.S. Virigin Islands, with resources for 
recovery and restoration of communications; can contact the FCC Operations 
Center, (202) 418-1122, FCCOperationCenter at fcc.gov

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0920/DA-17-913A1.pdf