RECOMMENDED PRACTICES IN THE EVENT. OF A POWER OUTAGE The FCC has established the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) to allow wireless, wireline, broadcast and cable providers voluntarily to report on the status of their infrastructure and operations during times of crisis. This information is not made public, but allows the FCC to monitor and evaluate communications services during a crisis. DIRS supplements the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS). Through NORS, the FCC requires wireless, wireline, cable and satellite companies providing voice and paging services to report significant disruptions or outages to their networks, and disruptions affecting 911 facilities or airports. Again the data is not made public, but allows the FCC to monitor and evaluate disruptions and outages. If there is a power outage during an emergency, your wireline phone, wireless device or VoIP service may not work unless you have a back-up power supply. If you suffer only an electrical power outage, you should still be able to use a traditional wireline (but not cordless) telephone, because electrical and telephone transmissions use different circuits or wires and telephone company facilities have back-up power available. If you keep the battery on your wireless phone or other device fully charged, these devices should also continue working during a power outage. Note that because wireless networks may be congested during an emergency, sending a text message may work better than placing a voice call. Finally, unless you have a battery-operated TV or radio, these devices will not work during a power outage. 911 call centers or PSAPs currently lack the technical capability to receive texts, photos and video.
