Lessons From China
MOST civil defence managers rate their organisations’ preparedness for a major disaster at “three” or “four” out of five, but two admitted they were at the bottom of the scale, according to a survey by BayCity, which says they could benefit from its satellite broadband service.
General manager Duncan Boennic says 142,072 telephone poles and 3897 phone switches were flattened and destroyed during the recent earthquake in China, and authorities turned to satellite phones and terminals to communicate. New Zealand civil defence planners rely heavily on two-way radios, which are cheap but can’t be used to send videos or mass communications or help with telemedicine, he says.
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