https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Harris County officials detail communications impacts of unprecedented flooding in aftermath of Hurricane Harvey

Harris County officials detail communications impacts of unprecedented flooding in aftermath of Hurricane Harvey

  • Written by raidee
  • 1st October 2018

Lin said the Harris County LTE network—the first operational 700 MHz Band 14 public-safety LTE system in the U.S.—encountered more outages , although 90% of the sites remained operational throughout the event.

“We lost four sites, and we were able to bring two back,” Lin said. “With the other two, we’re still evaluating them, but they just had so much water in them—one of them had 49 inches of water in it—that we’re still trying to evaluate the extent of the damage in those two sites.”

Lin said the eNodeB components at the LTE sites have proven to be quite resilient.

“We think some of these sites withstood having a couple of feet of water inside the shelter,” he said.

In terms of backhaul, McMillan said that Harris County encountered “a couple of issues” with sites served by copper wires, but all fiber backhaul paths have maintain functionality, as long as the electronics at either end were not under water.

“We had that happen at probably at least five LTE sites—where we lost the redundant link—because the fiber carrier’s junction box got flooded,” McMillan said.

“We have microwave redundancy at most of the sites. So, where we lost primary fiber, the network automatically went to the microwave [backhaul].”

McMillan said the Harris County LTE system was used to support public-safety communications in area command vehicles and a remote 911 center.

McMillan said the county was able to maintain power at all LMR and LTE sites, although it was challenging to do so in certain situations.

“For the most part, we didn’t lose power,” he said. “Where we did lose power, we just had to get fuel to it. Because the areas were flooded, it was tough to get fuel to the generators, so we had to get high-water assets … to help escort fuel trucks into flooded areas to fuel stuff.”

Harris County did not have any towers on the LMR or LTE networks fail. Most of the Harris County LTE sites are built to meet the TIA 222 Revision G standard—commonly referenced as “Rev G” within the industry—for structural design and fabrication, so the Harvey winds in Harris County were not an issue, Lin said.

 “This is a water event for us and not a wind event,” Lin said. “If we get hit by 170 miles-per-hour winds, I don’t know the answer to the question [about whether towers would remain intact] right now.”

McMillan said that the Corpus Christi LMR system—located near the area where Hurricane Harvey made landfall—lost an LMR site to wind damage and predicted that communications networks affected by Hurricane Irma could be tested similarly.

“In Florida, I think you’re going to see a separate problem, because of the wind,” McMillan said.

Tags:

Related Content

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans ‘futuristic’ robotaxis, Optimus bot to start production
  • The blurring line, and growing risk, between physical and digital supply chains
  • Baltimore investigators discover hundreds of slipshod small-cell installations
  • Harris County officials detail communications impacts of unprecedented flooding in aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
    Newscan: Companies were slow to remove Russian spies’ malware, so FBI did it for them

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Coalition expresses urgent need to NG911 funding, wants more than proposed $10 billion dlvr.it/SWL5VW

9th August 2022
UrgentComm

APCO releases NG911 guide, quickly clarifies stance on NENA’s i3 standard dlvr.it/SWKcCY

9th August 2022
UrgentComm

10 malicious code packages slither into PyPI registry dlvr.it/SWKHxl

9th August 2022
UrgentComm

Verizon Frontline deploys 1,000 connectivity services for nationwide wildfire response efforts dlvr.it/SWKGpW

9th August 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: Verizon counts 5.1 million first-responder subs; AT&T has 3.7 million dlvr.it/SW84Gv

6th August 2022
UrgentComm

Taiwan crisis another blow to the supply chain dlvr.it/SW7GSs

5th August 2022
UrgentComm

Motorola Solutions seeks contempt finding, global injunction against Hytera for not paying royalty dlvr.it/SW6Ldm

5th August 2022
UrgentComm

Humanoid robot explores shipwrecks dlvr.it/SW36fy

4th August 2022

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X