FCC Hurricane Michael after-action report

Tue May 14 05:20:22 UTC 2019

In Florida, especially the panhandle, it's not possible to bury it. The
water table is way too high.

On Mon, May 13, 2019, 9:47 PM <frnkblk at iname.com> wrote:

> This webinar may be of some interest to those in this group:
>
>
> https://www.fcc.gov/small-rural-communications-provider-network-resiliency-webinar
>
>
>
> Here’s some additional color commentary on the FCC’s concerns:
>
>
> https://urgentcomm.com/2019/05/10/backhaul-problems-disjointed-recovery-efforts-key-causes-of-unacceptable-extended-wireless-outage-after-hurricane-michael-fcc-report-says/
>
> "“Uniti Fiber (Uniti) provides backhaul services to Verizon Wireless in
> Bay and Gulf Counties. Uniti indicates it experienced at least 33 separate
> fiber cuts during the recovery effort. These fiber cuts included damage to
> sections that already had been repaired. Commenters attributed fiber cuts
> to debris-removal crews, power-company restorations, and returning
> homeowners clearing their property.”
>
> One of my takeaways from that article was that burying fiber underground
> could likely have avoided many/most of these fiber cuts, though I’m not
> familiar enough with the terrain to know how feasible that is.
>
> Frank
>
>
>
> *From:* NANOG <nanog-bounces at nanog.org> *On Behalf Of *Mel Beckman
> *Sent:* Saturday, May 11, 2019 9:52 AM
> *To:* Mike Bolitho <mikebolitho at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* nanog at nanog.org
> *Subject:* Re: FCC Hurricane Michael after-action report
>
>
>
> This is what I tell outage complainers during natural disasters, such as
> the fires in California that recently took out a lot of power and
> communications:
>
>
>
> “Stop whining about how long it is taking to repair your Internet, your
> cell phone service, or your cable TV. You didn’t pay anything extra to
> recover from natural disasters, and none of us in the field are getting
> paid anything extra to restore your services.
>
>
>
> No, we don’t know how long it will take. It takes what it takes. That you
> don’t get instant gratification doesn’t make us incompetent. It makes you
> ungrateful.
>
>
>
> It’s a natural disaster. These are not scheduled. Your outage is nobody’s
> fault. We don’t have a duty to mitigate all conceivable failures.
>
>
>
> It takes time to repair. We’re not cheating you, or loafing around. We
> don’t owe you any special attention because of your status or reputation.
>
>
>
> So quit whining and be thankful you’re alive, and hopefully you haven’t
> lost too much. Maybe pitch in and help those who have.“
>
>
>
> I also send this to ignorant journalists and grandstanding politicians.
>
> -mel via cell
>
>
> On May 11, 2019, at 4:29 AM, Mike Bolitho <mikebolitho at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Trying not to get political, here goes...
>
>
>
> Something important to keep in mind: The current administration has been
> getting slammed for their lack of response in the aftermath of Michael
> since the hurricane hit. A lot of that criticism revolves around
> communications infrastructure and FEMA's lack of assistance. The current
> administration has, time and time again, used federal agencies
> (specifically their presidential appointees) to defend the administration's
> actions or inactions. I have read the full report and it is more or less a
> thinly veiled hit piece. I'm not going to link them here (they are easy
> enough to find via Google) but there are several very good articles written
> by reputable tech journalists that go into greater detail responding to the
> report. Worth checking out.
>
>
>
> I say all of that because most of us like to hate on telecom companies
> (many times rightly so) but I don't think they are entirely to blame here.
> There's nothing Verizon or AT&T can do if their backhaul is cut by a tree
> or some third party clean up crew. The report is a gross oversimplification
> of how telecommunication infrastructure works. I think anyone here that has
> ever worked a storm like this can attest to the complexity and difficulty
> you run into during recovery. Hanlon's Razor and all but this is the FCC
> and I would hope they would know better.
>
>
>
> Speaking specifically to point 51, it's impossible to coordinate between
> the thousands of crews working to clean things up and repair physical
> infrastructure after a massive storm like this. Many of the people doing
> physical cleanup are volunteers that are fully independent of any governing
> body or company. It is not a telco's responsibility to know when and where
> those crews are working. Further, even if those crews we're calling in and
> letting each telco know exactly where they were, what does that provide
> other than an impossibly large and fluid dataset to parse for any
> meaningful information.
>
>
>
> - Mike Bolitho
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 9, 2019, 4:43 PM Sean Donelan wrote:
>
>
> The FCC has released its report and analysis of Hurricane Michael impact
> on communications: preparation, effect and recovery.
>
>
>
> https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-releases-report-communication-impacts-hurricane-michael-0
>
> Conclusions and Recommendations
>
> 51. Backhaul outages loomed large as an impediment to communications
> recovery. Uncoordinated post-storm recovery efforts between and among
> communications, utility, and debris removal teams created unnecessary
> delays to a speedy return to service. Customers who had communications
> service restored – only to lose it again almost immediately because of a
> fiber cut – provide a clear example of how better cross-sector
> coordination could have improved the restoration process.
>
>
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