Tammysue41's List: Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy, a late-season post-tropical cyclone, swept through the Caribbean and up the East Coast of the United States in late October 2012. The storm left dozens dead, thousands homeless and millions without power. Total damage is expected to be in the billions of dollars.

 

  Death toll

 

  The death toll from Sandy as of Nov. 1 was at least 149. The confirmed deaths include 42 in New York; 12 in New Jersey; nine in Maryland; six in Pennsylvania; five in West Virginia; four in Connecticut; two in Virginia; and one in North Carolina. One person died in Canada, and at least 67 people were killed in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti. 

n August, 2013, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy, issued by the President’s Sandy Recovery Task Force, mandated that federal agencies work collaboratively across all levels of government and the private sector to promote a regional and cross-jurisdictional approach to resilience.  To address this mandate, the SRO has created the Sandy Recovery Infrastructure Resilience Coordination (SRIRC) group which serves as the primary facilitator for federal agency coordination on recovery/resiliency projects. 

Timeline: <!-- --> 
October 22, 2012 - Sandy develops into a tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea.

 

October 23, 2012 - Sandy develops into a Category 1 hurricane.

 

October 24, 2012 - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall near Kingston, Jamaica, with winds of 80 mph.

 

October 25, 2012 - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in southeastern Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds.

 

October 25, 2012 - Hurricane Sandy hits Haiti, killing 51 people.

 

October 26, 2012<!-- --> 
- Is a category 1 with winds of 80 mph. <!-- --> 
- New York, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and North Carolina declare a state of emergency. <!-- --> 
- Maine Governor Paul R. LePage signs a limited Emergency Declaration that will allow power crews from other states and/or Canada to help Maine prepare for Sandy.

 

October 27, 2012 <!-- --> 
- The National Weather Service downgrades Sandy to a tropical storm.<!-- --> 
- Sandy strengthens to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph. <!-- --> 
- New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts declare states of emergency. <!-- --> 
- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie orders residents living in the barrier islands from Sandy Hook South to Cape May to evacuate. He orders the casinos to evacuate no later than 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. <!-- --> 
- Amtrak cancels several of its runs that originate or end in East coast stations.

 

October 28, 2012 <!-- --> 
- New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspends subway and commuter rail services at 7:00 p.m. Bus services are suspended at 9:00 p.m. <!-- --> 
- Governor Andrew Cuomo directs Army and Air National Guard members to mobilize.<!-- --> 
- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg orders evacuations in low-lying areas of NYC and public school closures. <!-- --> 
- Rhode Island declares a state of emergency.<!-- --> 
- President Barack Obama declares a state of emergency in Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. <!-- --> 
- The Broadway League cancels all Broadway performances for Sunday and Monday nights. <!-- --> 
- The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey suspends all its train service at midnight until further notice.<!-- --> 
- Airlines cancel flights. <!-- --> 
- Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority suspends all services.

After Hurricane Sandy, survivors needed, in addition to safety and power, the ability to communicate. Yet in parts of New York City, mobile communications services were knocked out for days.

The problem? The companies that provide them had successfully resisted Federal Communications Commission calls to make emergency preparations, leaving New Yorkers to rely on the carriers’ voluntary efforts.

We have so far heard few details about why the companies made the particular business choices they did on backup power and what the consequences of those choices were, because the FCC has been blocked from asking -- even though about a third of people rely on mobile service as their only voice-communications connection.

Americans might assume that the U.S. government exercises enough authority over communications networks to ensure that they are responsibly run, reliable and available to all at reasonable rates. In reality, after a decade of steady deregulation, during which communications companies asserted that new wires required new rules, the companies are in charge of themselves.

And consider why the FCC now is unable even to ask communications companies about their contingency plans for responding to a loss of power caused by a hurricane or other natural disaster. Five years ago the FCC, responding to findings that communications companies had supplied too little backup power during and after Hurricane Katrina, moved to adopt rules requiring the companies to have emergency energy sources. In response, the companies sued, claiming that the commission had no authority over them. Before that case could be resolved, the George W. Bush administration’s Office of Management and Budget determined that such rules would require the companies to incur undue costs to gather the needed information, and the commission withdrew its effort altogether.

Hurricane Sandy reiterated something utility customer service teams know all too well – the importance of proactively communicating with customers before a major event. As Hurricane Sandy made her way up the Atlantic coast, utilities used a proactive multi-channel outbound mass notification system from Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) to send hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Sandy related phone, text and email messages to customers within a matter of minutes.  Messages were also automatically posted to Twitter and Facebook, because social media has become a cornerstone of today’s always-connected world.

Later, when Hurricane Sandy hit land on October 26th and the power starting going out, utilities used TFCC’s High Volume Call Answering system to handle the millions of incoming customer phone calls informing the utility that the power is out.

TFCC’s hosted, multi-channel notification solution enables you to perform scheduled and ad hoc campaigns to quickly and reliably communicate all kinds of critical and important information to your customers via landline, cell phone, email, text and even through Facebook and Twitter.

TFCC has been delivering mission-critical information to customers at a moment’s notice for over 22 years and our multi-channel expertise combined with our ability to host and deliver time-sensitive information in a preferred channel allows utilities to capitalize on our unmatched capabilities.

With TFCC’s massive capacity,every outage call is answered while keeping your call center lines open to meet your customers’ ongoing needs without interruption.

 

No caller receives a busy signal, and customers immediately receive information and peace of mind. HVCA enables utilities to maintain operations and provide superior customer service — even during an emergency.

Evidence of how Twitter has become a go-to platform for many in an emergency or crisis occurred when Hurricane Sandy hit the mid-Atlantic and Northeast a year ago. People sent more than 20 million tweets about Sandy from October 27 through November 1, according to Twitter. In New York, which suffered a widespread power outrage and many neighborhoods sustained severe damage, usage of Twitter peaked around 9 p.m. on October 29, the day the brunt of the storm hit the metro area.

From the day the storm made landfall on October 29 through Wednesday the 31st, news, information, photos and video made up more than half of all the Twitter conversation, according to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, using Crimson Hexagon technology.

The city is disheveled but the people aren't. The stories of courage are tremendous. The preemie 2-pound baby rescued by staff from NYU hospital as the ventilators failed and elevators stopped. The Coast Guards who risked their lives to rescue 14 from HMS Bounty. The state police who saved countless from floating cars and barely standing rooftops.

Around midnight on October 29, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, tweeted "Proud of Twitter right now." As well he should be. After my New York City apartment lost power around 8 p.m., my smartphone's data plan suddenly became my only connection with the outside world. I could have used any number of online resources to stay informed during Hurricane Sandy but I ended up using Twitter almost exclusively.

Facebook is featuring a Disaster Relief and FEMA page to keep people up-to-date. Facebook says all of the top 10 phrases in the US related to the storm. Facebook's Instagram service reported before the storm hit that 10 pictures per second were being posted with the hash tag Sandy.

Throughout Hurricane Sandy, the public turned to social media for updates and assistance, and more than ever before, response agencies, organizations and community groups used social media to organize and direct resources where needed. Twitter and Facebook were used extensively by individuals, first responder agencies and utility companies to relay messages and information, share evacuation orders and provide updates on the storm. For example, the New York Office of Emergency Management provided hourly updates and evacuation orders via Twitter, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie relayed updates about the storm, aid and evacuation orders via his personal Twitter account.

With Hurricane Sandy, Mr. Christie used Twitter and YouTube again, as did governors, mayors and emergency management officials from North Carolina to Massachusetts, cementing Twitter’s role as an emergency broadcasting service. In the aftermath of this storm, as we report, Twitter and other social media tools are also proving vital to helping officials deliver important and timely updates.

For example, the top three apps in the Apple App Store at this very moment are YouTube, Hurricane by American Red Cross, and Flashlight by iHandy inc.

 

As you may already know, YouTube hooked up with The Weather Channel to stream live coverage of the storm around the clock. YouTube has been the number one free social app since iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 gave Google the boot, but it’s now the top free app overall.