Hurricane Maria: Summary of communication status - and lack of

Mon Sep 25 23:55:41 UTC 2017

On 2017-09-24 17:13, Sean Donelan wrote:

> 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.

Priority is to restore communications to emergency responders, restore
power to hospitals and other critical infrastructure). So workers that
clear roads, remove dangling electrical wires would prioritize fixing of
that critical infrastructure.  That road you need cleared to get to your
fixed wireless antenna will wait.

Similarly, I get the impression that all cargo capacity into the island
is still controlled to prioritize essentials. So those spare circuit
board you need to fix a router have to wait.

Also, with residences overwhelmingly without power, fixing the "normal"
ISP business won't do much when nobody can use it. It is best to focus
on wi-fi in central locations such as shelters, and cellular for first
responders and others.

There are good reasons local governments work out disaster plans because
they need to identify in advance what gets priority after a disaster.