https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • 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
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • 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
    • Product Guides
  • 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
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • 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

Land Mobile Radio


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

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 11th September 2017
​While the vast majority of public-safety LMR and LTE sites in Harris County, Texas, have remained operational since the landfall of Hurricane Harvey, unprecedented flooding from the event could result in multiple new policy and resource decisions in the future, according to county officials.

What is in this article?

  • 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
  • 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

While the vast majority of public-safety LMR and LTE sites in Harris County, Texas, have remained operational since the landfall of Hurricane Harvey, the unprecedented flooding from the event could result in multiple new policy and resource decisions in the future, according to county officials.

For Harris County, Harvey’s aftermath marks the third consecutive year with a significant flooding event, with each one being progressively worse, according to Shing Lin, director of public-safety technology services for Harris County central technology services (CTS). But the flooding challenges associated with Harvey are unprecedented, he said.

“We flood down here—it’s kind of our thing—but it’s hard to imagine [the flooding in Harvey’s aftermath],” Lin said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “When they predicted 50 inches of rain, most of us were like, ‘How is that even physically possible to have that much rain?’”

Harris County operates two public-safety communications networks: a 40-site LTE network and a 700/800 MHz P25 Phase 2 system with about 60 sites that provides coverage to 20 counties and includes a core-to-core link to the city of Houston’s 57-site P25 network, Lin said.

This link between the P25 systems proved to be helpful to Harvey recovery operations, particularly as personnel were reassigned from field rescue efforts—using the county’s LMR communications—to providing security support at NRG Park, the home field of the Houston Astros that was transformed into a shelter, according to Jim McMillan, senior manager of public-safety communications services.

“We were able to send them to the city’s interop [interoperability] groups without having to do anything to the radio—we didn’t have to reprogram it, and we didn’t have to touch it,” McMillan said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “You just go to the talk group, and the radio re-registers onto the city’s layer, and they start communicating.

 “I really liked the fact that we didn’t have to touch people’s radios, for the most part. We had an agency that changed roles mid-operation—maybe they were assisting search and rescue, and then they went over to NRG Park to help have security for the facility, which was sort of being handled by the city—they were able to switch over to a city-layer talk group without having to do anything except change the channel on the radio.”

Lin and McMillan said operations were lost at two of the P25 sites, although one of the outage sites was in a location where other sites could provide overlapping coverage, so communications—albeit at lower capacity—was maintained. The other outage lasted less than two hours, McMillan said.

“One site went down and did cause a degradation in coverage until we could get it back up,” he said. “I think it was down for maybe an hour or an hour-and-a-half, until we could get a guy over there.”

In the other outage situation, a technician was able to resolve the problem after a resident provided transportation to the site on a Jet Ski, McMillan said.

“We just needed to get a tech over to take the UPS [uninterruptible power supply] out of the loop to get the site back on the air,” McMillan said. “So, we lost the UPS at a site but the equipment itself was good, so we just needed to get that UPS bypassed. He was able to commandeer a Jet Ski and get up to a gate, get inside the shelter, reset that and get out.”

1 | 2 | 3 |
Harris County officials detail communications impacts of unprecedented flooding in aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
Tags: Land Mobile Radio Long Term Evolution (LTE) News Policy Project 25 Public Safety Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet System Operation News

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • 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
  • 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

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Newscan: Cyberattacks on DoE national labs draw lawmaker scrutiny dlvr.it/Shvpw3

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

The shine begins to wear off 5G private wireless dlvr.it/Shth0P

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

Phishers trick Microsoft into granting them ‘verified’ Cloud Partner status dlvr.it/Shqngn

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

Shapeshifting robot can morph from a liquid to a solid dlvr.it/Shqk9K

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

Automakers against stampede to BEV dominance dlvr.it/ShpX08

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

FCC nominee Gigi Sohn headed for third Senate hearing dlvr.it/ShpDcZ

1st February 2023
UrgentComm

Sign up to learn how to successfully manage your Motorola ASTRO® 25 System: spr.ly/60143j8fp https://t.co/XcxiUwzN27

1st February 2023
UrgentComm

Hytera parent cites financial health, but unable to make royalty payment to Motorola Solutions dlvr.it/ShlrlM

1st February 2023

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”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 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.