Hurricanes are some of the most deadly natural disasters on Earth. The destruction they leave behind is detrimental to the population in the affected area. For example, Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico with a blackout across 70% of the islands hospitals. This lead to many difficulties for communication on the island and its capabilities of delivering assistance. Communication is an integral step in coordinating relief efforts and maintaining stability in an area.
Our mission was to develop a communication infrastructure that will remedy this situation. To begin, the team generated an initial list of stakeholders by brainstorming. After initial brainstorming, this list was pared down to the most relevant stakeholders: the residents and government of Puerto Rico, first responders, and volunteer organizations.
From this list, we determined key needs for the system. Namely, the system must be reliable, durable, accessible, safe, and cost-effective. These needs were ranked according to importance, and a set of requirements were made to enforce these needs on the design. Initial risks considered include weathering, debris, power surge and/or loss, and societal breakdown in the form of looting, theft, or attacks. These were later defined into specific events accounted for in risk assessment
From these needs and risks, some initial concepts were generated. The final concept is based upon the pre-existing technology of emergency buttons on college campuses. These emergency buttons, placed all over the island of Puerto Rico, will provide communication between residents and call centers. These terminals will be coordinated by a central hub in San Juan, the capital. Terminals will be staffed by workers responsible for allocating resources post-disaster. Terminals will be built off the current 911 call centers in Puerto Rico. Emergency buttons will be placed outside of public buildings such as high schools, hospitals, and police stations. The terminals and central hub will be connected via an underground system of fiber optic cables. Each terminal has a power system independent of the current Puerto Rican power grid. Solar panels added to the emergency buttons serve as a redundant power source. We estimate the cost of this system to be approximately $8.1 million.
Key assumptions include that the communication system will be deployed after an initial hurricane. The cables discussed will be installed in straight lines, with minimal difficulty in obtaining land for the connected emergency call buttons. Said buttons are available commercially and can be customized to fit our needs. Finally, it is assumed that the citizens of Puerto Rico will comply with the proper use of said buttons.
The next steps in implementing the Hurricane Communication System would be allocating the budget and gathering the resources needed. The speed on how fast the system could be implemented depends on numerous factors including the importance FEMA and the national government places on relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
In conclusion, we believe this emergency call button system will provide much-needed communication infrastructure to the island of Puerto Rico when under distress.