Telecommunications Power Plant Damage Assessment Caused by Hurricane Katrina - Site Survey and Follow-Up Results

Abstract

This paper extends knowledge of disaster impact on the telecommunications power infrastructure. It presents results both from an on-site survey conducted in October 2005 in the area affected by Hurricane Katrina and from industry and government sources. The analysis includes observations about power infrastructure damage to wire-line networks, wireless networks, transmission links, cable TV grids, and TV and radio facilities along a wide section of the U.S. Gulf Coast. In general, the impact on centralized network elements was more severe than on the distributed portion of the grids. The main cause of outage was lack of power due to fuel supply disruptions, flooding and security issues. This work also describes the means used to restore telecommunications services and proposes ways to improve logistics, such as coordinating genset deployment between different network operators and reducing genset fuel consumption by installing permanent photovoltaic systems at certain sites where long electric outages are expected