Friend,

Hurricane Ida left large swaths of Louisiana without reliable cellphone services, including the complete loss of services in two of the parishes directly in the storm’s path. And more than 300,000 homes lost cable and wireline services.¹

The region's 911 call center was knocked out as well: Calls for help went unanswered for 13 hours, leaving many people in serious danger with few to no options to contact emergency services. AT&T, which local governments contracted to ensure that emergency calls reached the 911 call center over landlines, didn’t deliver.

The lesson in the wake of Hurricane Ida and other devastating storms is that resilient communications infrastructure saves lives. Tell the Federal Communications Commission to do everything it can to ensure that communications infrastructures everywhere can withstand the climate disasters that are striking the country with increased frequency.

Sound infrastructure investment can protect a city from flooding and maintain roads and bridges that people need to evacuate in the moments before a storm or other disaster strikes. Communications infrastructure is just as critical to keeping people out of harm’s way.

The lack of basic communications during climate disasters is a major obstacle to delivering essential emergency and medical services and undermines critical relief efforts in the immediate aftermath. People without these essential services are unable to contact loved ones, employers and health-care providers in the days and weeks following emergencies like these.

Tell the Biden FCC to investigate the communications outages caused by Hurricane Ida — particularly the loss of 911 service in Louisiana — and to make sure those networks are resilient to the next climate-crisis-fueled disaster. This investigation could save lives.

The ability to communicate during a disaster is a life-and-death matter, especially as the climate crisis has only intensified the harms of weather events. Whether it’s Hurricane Ida in Louisiana, Maria in Puerto Rico, wildfires in the west, or the winter storm in Texas, these deadly weather events have become all too common. The FCC’s role in preventing communication blackouts is more important than ever and should be an agency priority.

Thanks for all you do,

Lucia, Vanessa, Carmen and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

P.S. In the midst of Hurricane Ida and increasingly violent hurricane seasons, the FCC must do everything it can to ensure that communications infrastructures everywhere can withstand climate disasters. Urge the FCC to investigate the communications outages caused by Hurricane Ida and develop regulations and policies to strengthen our nation’s communications networks so that they save lives in the future.

1. “Free Press: Communications Infrastructure Is as Essential as Levees, Bridges and Roads to Keeping People Safe During Climate Disasters,” Free Press, Aug. 31, 2021