[EAS] DIRS Activation for Hurricane Isaac

[Richard_Rudman]

Greetings:

The FCC just activated their Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) system 
for the approaching Gulf storm, Hurricane Isaac. If you do not know about DIRS, you should!

Richard Rudman
Core Member, BWWG

===============

Disaster data collection has been activated for Hurricane Isaac.  The Federal 
Communications Commission (FCC) has activated the Disaster Information 
Reporting System (DIRS) to receive information on the status of your 
communications equipment in the affected area.  In DIRS, the storm will have 
the following name:  HURRICANE ISAAC.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE COMMUNICATION ASSETS IN THE AFFECTED COUNTIES LISTED BELOW, 
PLEASE DISREGARD THIS REQUEST.

The area of interest for this activation includes the following counties:

Alabama: Baldwin, Mobile

Florida: Escambia, Santa Rosa

Louisiana: Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Catahoula, Concordia, East Baton 
Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lafourche, 
Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, Saint Bernard, Saint Charles, 
Saint Helena, Saint James, St John the Baptist, Saint Landry, Saint Martin, 
Saint Mary, Saint Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Washington, West Baton 
Rouge, West Feliciana

Mississippi: Adams, Amite, Franklin, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, 
Lincoln, Pearl River, Pike, Walthall, Wilkinson 

If you have communications equipment in these counties, the FCC requests that 
you provide daily reports on the status of your equipment by using DIRS.  There 
is no need to report on stations, equipment, switches or PSAPs that are fully 
operational. 
The FCC will monitor the storm's progress closely and may extend DIRS 
activation to additional counties as needed in the coming days. 

Time Schedule: We request that you provide the first set of initial reports by 
11:00 am (Eastern Time) tomorrow August 29.   Subsequent reports should be made 
by 11:00 am (Eastern Time) every day while DIRS is activated. If you have any 
information early on, we would appreciate if you would provide that information.

Accessing DIRS: The URL for DIRS is https://www.fcc.gov/nors/disaster/.  

Login:  If you have a User ID, please use your User ID (it is usually the 
characters before the @ sign on your e-mail address - it is case-sensitive).  
If you do not have a login, there is a link on the login page which will allow 
you to get a User ID and password.  If you do not remember your password, 
please use the forgotten password link on the login page.  

After you log on, please fill in the reports for the types of equipment that 
you have in your network in the area of interest that have been affected by the 
storm.  

There is a User Manual available at the DIRS website.

Coverage Maps:  NCS has requested that Wireless companies provide coverage maps 
for the area of interest.  If you are providing Wireless service in the area of 
interest, we further request that you provide coverage maps with your DIRS 
submission.  Please provide these maps in Adobe PDF format and email them to 
John.healy at fcc.gov, Julia.Tu at fcc.gov, and Michael.Caiafa at fcc.gov.

Please feel free to contact any of the following if you have any questions:

o
John Healy, FCC, at 215-847-8094 (cell) 
o
Julia Tu, FCC, at 202-418-0731 or at (202) 321-4399 (cell) 
o
Michael Caiafa, FCC, at 202-418-1311 or at 202-277-5690 (cell) 
o
Jeff Goldthorp, FCC, at 202-418-1096 or at 202-253-1595 (cell) 

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this effort.  

John Healy  
Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau
Federal Communications Commission