When a devastating tornado struck Uxbridge, Ont., Residents came out and helped, the first responders were overwhelmed with calls for help, and the city’s emergency operations center was activated.
But there was an obstacle.
The emergency management team was battling the poor Internet and cellular services at the Uxbridge Fire Department, where they were set up, said Christy Honey, chief administrative officer of Uxbridge and head of the emergency operations center, told CBC News.
“We were paralyzed,” Honey said.
“We literally had to send people in cars to control the mission to discuss key operations.”
Using people to physically transmit messages, which are usually sent by phone or text, is a common unforeseen situation where everything else fails in disaster communications. That was true in Uxbridge, a city 77 kilometers northeast of Toronto, when a funnel cloud struck on May 21. He left a trail of destruction four kilometers long, leveling trees and power lines and tearing the roofs off buildings. He also removed backup telecommunications options by cutting off some local connections to cell towers.
Alan Harrison, a resident of Uxbridge, Ontario, is pictured here cleaning up his property three days after a tornado tore through southern Ontario. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
“The problem is that all our layoffs have failed,” said Uxbridge Mayor Dave Barton.
Barton knew Doug Williamson, who runs his own IT services company, WillX in Uxbridge. So he sent a message asking if he “knew anyone at Rodgers” to help stabilize their relationship.
Williamson said he was not sure the ISPs in the area, Rodgers and Bell, would be able to establish a stable connection soon.
So he had another option in mind; he recently established his own residential relationship with Starlink, a service provided by SpaceX, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk. The system uses satellites in low Earth orbit to connect customers to the Internet. He carried his round, knee-high plate to the fire station and placed it in the parking lot with a clear view of the sky.
Williamson set up his own Starlink kit in front of the Uxbridge Fire Department to restore telecommunications at the city’s emergency operations center after the tornado hit. (Submitted by Doug Williamson)
Williamson ran a cable through a window to power the Internet and a VOIP cell for an operations center where about 10 to 15 people used it at a time.
Within 30 minutes, he says, everything is done and working.
“Everyone has to do what they have to do,” Williamson told CBC News. “Uxbridge is a pretty small town. It’s a place where people need to get together and just do what they can to help their neighbors.”
Honey says Durham regional police officers have also come to use the fire station connection, and the speed and stability of the connection do not fluctuate.
“It was a great sense of relief,” she said.
“It has brought all our systems back online,” she said, allowing constant emails and calls to the province, outside agencies and the police.
“To know that he gave up his own internet … just to create a secure internet for us in the fire department, that speaks to the culture of the city of Uxbridge, the neighbors are helping the neighbors, everyone is getting stronger.”
From left to right: Uxbridge Chief Administrative Officer Christy Honey, Deputy Mayor Willie Pop, Public Affairs Director Ben Kester and Mayor Dave Barton played a critical role in Uxbridge’s emergency response. (Submitted by Christy Honey)
SpaceX says it aims to deliver high-speed broadband to remote and rural areas around the world with its Starlink project. It also received attention for its disaster emergency applications. Starlink is used to it enhancing internet access in Ukraine after the Russian invasion and arm the first to respond to natural disasters in Washington, Kentucky and beyond.
“There is no doubt that we will purchase a Starlink system for emergencies like this. We need absolutely unnecessary communications, “Barton said. Williamson told CBC News that setting up the system cost him $ 811 and the monthly cost is $ 160.
“I will tell my fellow mayors that this is something that is really important.”
Experts advise to be careful
The company is now launching a portable version of the Starlink Disaster Emergency app.
But while emergency and telecommunications experts agree that Starlink has the potential to become a powerful tool, especially for small towns in Ontario with relatively flat terrain, some advise caution.
The “relatively low” price, easy setup of Starlink and its satellites, which are in a much lower orbit than traditional satellite ISPs, makes it an attractive option, said Peter Anderson, director of Simon Fraser’s telematics lab at the university.
But he warns that the company is in its infancy, launching in Canada only last year, so its reliability and capacity must first stand the test of time.
Jack Rozdilski, an associate professor of disaster and emergency management at York University in Toronto, advises an “in-depth cost-benefit analysis” before purchasing a Starlink city kit. He says it is important to keep in mind that it was built by a private person with his own “idiosyncrasies”.
Barton, in the center, says the city is looking to get its own Starlink emergency kit. (Submitted by Indira Barton)
Rozdilski cites cases where Musk’s promises never materialized, such as a rescue operation in Thailand in which he offered help to a team trying to rescue 12 young Thai footballers from a partially flooded cave.
This is not “necessarily to be done on purpose,” he said.
“We need to look at the company’s entire experience when considering whether we want to make arrangements with companies for infrastructure that could be crucial to disaster response.
Rozdilski suggests that the Uxbridge tornado case offers an important case in Ontario.
Federal and provincial governments have invested more than $ 1 billion in low-Earth orbit technology through Canadian company Telesat, saying the technology could provide much better performance than traditional satellite constellations and terrestrial networks in emergencies. But this service is still years away of availability.
For Barton, it comes down to one thing.
“We accept help from those who can help us. It doesn’t matter if it’s one of our neighbors with a chainsaw or Elon Musk.”
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