NWS service assessment on 2021 Hurricane Ida

Thu Apr 27 21:11:24 UTC 2023

Just published, buried in the after-action report on 2021 Hurricane 
Ida

Commodity internet access is now part of life-safety.

National Weather Service
Service Assessment
August-September 2021 Hurricane Ida
April 2023

https://www.weather.gov/media/publications/assessments/Hurricane_Ida_Service_Assessment.pdf
[...]
The Assessment Team found commodity internet access as important to the 
completion of the NWS mission as the AWIPS Wide Area Network (WAN) is to 
disseminating life-saving warnings. The lack of reliable, consistent 
internet access, to include sufficient bandwidth, would have led
to mission failure during Ida if not for extraordinary measures taken by 
staff at WFO New Orleans/Baton Rouge and the LMRFC. WFO New Orleans/Baton 
Rouge and the LMRFC sent people to telework from a forecaster’s home, 
where they had reliable commodity internet, to provide IDSS.

[...]