It stopped working after three hours when the backup batteries overheated due to the failure of water cooling, which in turn required power. Also, 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. 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. What is needed instead is a robust, decentralized, and open physical information system where individuals and emergency workers can deposit and collect information about the state of their block, family, business, and whereabouts. Public safety agencies could send messages and instructions to targeted individuals, groups, or areas.