Verizon Equips Florida and the Southeastern United States to Endure Hurricane Irene

Verizon Wireless, the operator of the nation’s advanced 4G network and largest, most reliable 3G network, claimed that it is equipping Florida and the Southeastern United States with an emergency communication plan to withstand the fury of Hurricane Irene.

Verizon released a set of tips for the residents of areas that are anticipated to be affected by Irene and some of those tips include: placing mobile devices and chargers in dry and accessible location and also covering them with waterproof materials or packs; have wireless phone batteries charged always and not to wait for warnings to be issued; familiarize the phone numbers of friends and family and also of police and fire agencies and power and insurance companies; utilize Backup Assistant, a free Verizon Wireless application that stores a phone's address book on a secure server in case the phone is lost or damaged; and more.

During the stormy weather Verizon advises its subscribers to avoid unwanted calls to preserve battery power and this would also reduce the load on the network for emergency services and operations. In cases of emergencies, users are also advised to send brief text messages instead of voice calls and keep updated with current weather and news reports.

Verizon claimed that at several Florida markets its 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) services are available and it has installed more than 700 high-speed 3G cell sites across the state; installing new in-building network systems at hospitals, government and emergency facilities, high-traffic public venues and other key locations. The company also deployed five “super-switch” network processing centers across Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa Bay, Jupiter and Pembroke Pines), which are designed to withstand Category 5 hurricanes.

Officials with the company commented that of course they hope Irene turns out to be harmless here in Florida but early preparation is the key to staying safe.

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