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PRESS
RELEASE
 SHIPCOM
ASSISTS COAST GUARD IN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, RESCUE OPERATIONS
(MOBILE,
SEPTEMBER 7, 2005) ShipCom
LLC, which operates radio station WLO for ship-to-shore communications,
made its facilities available during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
to the Coast Guard and other emergency agencies.
“Shortly after the worst of the storm passed us on Monday afternoon,
we received a telephone call from the Coast Guard’s ATC [Aviation
Training Center] Mobile, informing us that the roof was damaged over
their operations center and they had lost all communication capability
with their assets,” reported ShipCom president Rene Stiegler.
“In response, ShipCom prepared a VHF radio, power supply, and
emergency antenna , transporting it to ATC Mobile. With this radio,
ATC could communicate with ShipCom.”
Using ShipCom’s advanced interoperability systems, Stiegler
said “we took over all communications for over 24 hours, relaying
hundreds if not thousands of messages from aircraft back to ATC Mobile,”
which had been chosen as the main staging site largely because it
was the closest suitable facility to the worst of the storm-stricken
area.
ShipCom was able to provide these services to the Coast Guard and
other agencies despite sustaining substantial damage to its own facilities.
“We lost 50 percent of our antenna field,” said Stiegler,
“and part of our roof is damaged. We lost 70 to 80 percent of
our capacity but we repaired it sufficiently within 24 hours to be
able to stay on the air throughout the crisis.”
Stiegler
noted that ShipCom “devoted most of our normal capacity –
the channels ususally reserved for our ship-to-shore clients –
to the Coast Guard’s emergency communications.”
“Some of the messages we received were chilling,” said
Stiegler. “Reports of bodies floating near the Superdome, and
of rescue aircraft being fired at, raised the hairs on the back of
our radio operators’ necks.”
As search-and-rescue operations grew, Stiegler said, “ShipCom
relayed coordinates of victims stranded on rooftops to the rescue
aircraft and relayed reports of their rescue back to the ATC command
center. The vastness of message traffic that passed through our radios
is too large to describe in detail.”
In addition to ATC Mobile, ShipCom also established communications
links for the command center in Alexandria, Louisiana, and with the
NCS (National Communications System) SHAred RESources (SHARES) High
Frequency (HF) Radio Program.
Rene
Stiegler is available for media interviews. He can be reached by email
at info@shipcom.com. For more
information about ShipCom LLC, visit www.shipcom.com.
CONTACT:
Rene Stiegler, 251-666-5110
URL:
http://www.shipcom.com
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