[aaroninsf]

The part of this story I don't understand myself, is how so many people had bandwidth to download and use an app, in an environment in which I would have assumed both power and the cell network–especially data–were limping or just down.

The implicit question is, what percentage of people in the disaster zone did, and did not, have a channel out through this app? Does this story represent the 10% case or the 50% case or...?

Not sure where to find the answer...

[imglorp]

Some of the cellphone network can operate with no wired power or network. Towers can have p2p microwave links and battery backups. That doesn't really answer your question about how/if/how-long it worked this week.

http://ups-battery-backup.com/cell-phone-ups.php

https://enterprise.spectrum.com/solutions/carrier-services/c...

[jpindar]

Some of the ones near me even have small wind generators.

[TomMarius]

These probably were super-effective during this occasion

[jofer]

Keep in mind that power outages in Houston were pretty rare and localized. Cell phone towers had power and the vast majority of homes had power (even a lot of the ones that were flooded, before it was explicitly cut off to flooded areas).

There were just a _lot_ of stranded people and not enough boats.

[cat199]

yep.

not in a badly effected area, but definitely there was flooding nearby. most of my friends/family/etc (irrespective of area) had power/phone/etc throughout, even those with flood damage. Which is not to say the flood damage was exaggerated however.

I personally only had a power outage for 4h only after the electric company blew some equipment trying to restore service for others.. (again not in a bad area)

we are pretty sprawly and most power lines, etc are above ground except in the very center of town. not sure if that helped or not, but perhaps worth mentioning - but as for trees falling etc, this storm had very low wind, etc for those in the HTX area (same def not true for those who experienced the actual hurricane)

[swalsh]

I understand the security of the responder's aspect, but I was curious why the people couldn't make their own tickets. Why do they need to use an app, and talk to a dispatcher?

[davidbanham]

Probably because they were terrified for their lives, crouching on top of their kitchen counters trying to stay out of the snake infested water.

Not a great environment to be trying to get _just_ the right level of zoom to hit the form input field on your smartphone.

[danielvf]

A lot of times, people using the app were freinds of those being rescued, and were in touch with them over SMS or phone.

However, many were using the app, and it's a great showing on the part of the Houston cell network.

[sixothree]

Right. I know of people who lost power and cell phone coverage.