It quickly stopped working when the backup batteries ran out, and the back-up generators overheated due to the failure of water cooling. And the public safety organizations did not know how to take care of the system. For example, they had no training in how to adjust the angle of the satellite dishes once they had been upset by the quake. Only two calls were logged in on the entire system on the morning of the calamity. None of this should be surprising.
Governments usually get an incomplete and often slow picture from their field agents.
Emergency systems can never be built to be fool- and disaster proof. If anything, modern communications become more vulnerable as their electronics are hard to fix in the field, and as they become more dependent on outside power supply. It is time to learn from these experiences and revise the basic philosophy of emergency communication. Emergencies are no time to maintain the attitude of military-style emergency operations that keep information close to the official vest. It would be used by public safety agencies and insurance companies an a planning tool, and could send messages and instructions to targeted individuals, or areas.