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Case Study

The Importance of Mobile Broadband Communication in Disaster Situations

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Overview

One of the most fundamental needs for responders in a natural disaster is reliable communication. Emergency response teams race against the clock to scale their services and collaborate with others on evacuation, search and rescue, and medical care. Plum Cases provide reliable, secure, portable internet so response teams can connect immediately in the field and focus on saving lives.

About

A critical part of any emergency response is coordinating medical care and ensuring continuity of health services. Central to many of these efforts in the region is the Western Kentucky Healthcare Coalition (WKYHCC), which helps healthcare agencies with preparedness, response, and recovery during emergencies. The WKYHCC is a cooperative alliance of hospitals, emergency management agencies, emergency medical services, local health departments, long-term care, mental health, first responders, and other stakeholders, comprised of 24 counties in Western Kentucky, the area hit hardest by this family of tornadoes.

Challenge

In December 2021, Western Kentucky was devastated by a series of tornadoes, including the most deadly and devastating tornado in the state’s history. The path of destruction reached nearly 170 miles across 11 counties. At least 80 people lost their lives, hundreds more were injured, and damage is expected to exceed 18 billion USD.

  • More than 26,000 homes and businesses lost electricity
  • Destruction spanned 11 counties over 170 miles
  • Damage expected to exceed $18 billion
  • At least 80 people lost their lives

Emergency response scenarios often share two challenges: an overflow of data and a lack of resources to handle it. As researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s NASA Ames Research Park have noted, this surge of data within a resource and bandwidth-constrained network can cause congestion collapse and prevent critical data from reaching decision-makers in time. In the aftermath, Emergency Operation Centers, ambulance services, and pharmacies across the region all faced connectivity failures that put critical services at risk.

Our coalition-owned Plum Cases were stored with different emergency managers and EMS providers across the region. We have a really strong coalition, which enabled our emergency managers to self-mobilize and quickly get cases to Emergency Operation Centers with connectivity issues.
BJ Newbury, WKYHCC Coordinator

Solution

The WKYHCC deployed 11 Plum Cases during response and recovery: six owned by the healthcare coalition, three from neighboring coalitions, and two additional non-coalition assets. The cases were stored across six counties and were ready to deploy immediately. With 24 emergency managers in the coalition, one per county, teams could self-mobilize the moment connectivity failed.
During the response phase, Plum Cases were deployed to establish connectivity at Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs). Newbury explains, “The EOC is the central hub for all events in an emergency, consisting of an incident commander and representatives from hospitals, health departments, ambulatory services, police, and fire departments. It’s basically a round table of all involved parties.”
Plum Cases also supported ambulance services. “Bremen, Kentucky in Muhlenberg County was hit hard, they had 11 fatalities from a population of about 175 people. The ambulance service director knew there was a lot of down communication and deployed a Plum Case to maintain 911/ambulatory services,” Newbury said.
Pharmacies faced a distinct problem. “We were getting calls where pharmacies needed to be opened. People needed a place to get their medication, but they were almost at a standstill because they couldn’t get into any of their platforms to process,” Newbury said. Plum Cases were sent to pharmacies in Dawson Springs, Nortonville, and Mayfield and supported their operations for three weeks until cell coverage was restored.
The patented Plum Case technology allowed emergency managers to reach cell towers outside the disaster zone, which let them provide communication inside it.

Outcome

Plum Portable Broadband Kits helped address a range of communication challenges in the aftermath:

  • Immediate deployment to establish connectivity at Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs)
  • Caldwell County used a Plum Case to run 911/ambulatory service
  • Contributed to more than 1,800 families being able to request support online within the first few days
  • Baptist Health Medical Group in Dawson Springs was demolished; to administer care, the team deployed a mobile clinic with a Plum Case for redundancy
  • Sustained pharmacies in Dawson Springs, Nortonville, and Mayfield for three weeks, enabling them to keep distributing medication until service was restored