Modern GSM technology and disaster communications

With the recent destruction by Hurricane Katrina, one has to wonder how communication, given all the great devices we have today, remains so poor among victims, their families and local authorities within the disaster areas. I have spoken to many friends with relatives in the New Orleans area, and many still have had no word (or they’ve recently heard) from their loved ones after the evacuation. It’s understandable that phone lines and Internet connections are down and that they are not easily repaired, which is understandable. One common factor among people these days is that those from even the poorest areas often have cell phones, so communication is supposedly easier these days than it was a while back. Read on over at CoolTechZone.