Re: Hurricane Maria: Dominica partial communications restored

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

At Sept. 21, 2017 01:00 UTC, partial telecommunications service was 
restored to Dominica. However, essentially 100% of the island does not 
have electric service, cell service is still out, and most people do not 
have service.

CDEMA/RSS has delivered 5 satellite telephones to the Dominica government 
and island emergency services.  About 50 relief workers arrived from 
Barbados and now working to re-open the port and airport for further 
relief supplies and personnel.

Some people asked about satellite phones on Dominica earlier.  Satellite 
phones are very useful after a disaster, but have some limitations 
during a catagory 5 hurricane. Satellite phones only work outside, not 
where you want to be during a hurricane. Satellite signals also 
experience rain fade in heavy storms, so you need to wait until the 
hurricane clears from the area. Satellite phones also need batteries or 
power, which tend to fail just when you need them. I don't know the 
exact details yet about what happened to the telecommunications on 
Dominica.

Some ham radio operators have been verified as operating from 
Dominica. Its an unfortunate, but necessary thing that needs to be 
verified during disaster communications.