Increasing resilience of telecommunication infrastructure in Puerto Rico (Hurricane Maria, 2017)

Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017 as a high-end Category 4 storm. Emergency response, recovery and coordination efforts were hampered due to the collapse of telecommunications in Puerto Rico. Lack of maintenance was identified as the main cause of this lack of resilience. Use of extensive above-ground telecommunication infrastructure, as opposed to underground ducts, also contributed to the extent of network outage and infrastructure damage. The recovery plan highlights activities in public and private sector capacity building as pre-requisites to create the right enabling environment for investments in telecommunications and other infrastructure. Key activities include building up GIS capabilities, infrastructure deployment planning, improving emergency response, upgrading Land Mobile Radio Systems (LMRS), implementing standardized power backup, developing communications networks in rural areas, use of submarine cables to reduce redundancy, performing periodic audits, etc.

Source: Sandhu, H. S., & Raja, S. (2019, June 1). No Broken Link: The Vulnerability of Telecommunication Infrastructure to Natural Hazards. Open Knowledge Repository. Retrieved December 12, 2022.