How Verizon is helping connect first responders during hurricanes

AccuWeather

AccuWeather speaks with Cory Davis of Verizon Frontline about the company's role in helping connect first responders, so they could conduct public safety in the South during the recent hurricanes.

Transcript

00:00Corey Davis is vice president with Verizon Frontline. Thanks so much for joining us, Corey.

00:05Yeah, a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

00:07First, can you tell us about the Verizon Frontline

00:10crisis help across and what you guys do exactly?

00:16Yeah, absolutely. First and foremost, though, I want to, you know, our thoughts are with the

00:19communities and the families that have been impacted across Florida and the entire South.

00:24So a huge thanks to all the first responders, the local state, local federal law enforcement,

00:29they've been working around the clock supporting these life-saving missions.

00:34Really, what we've done is we partner year-round with public safety agencies. We've held over

00:39nearly 70 exercises with state, local, and DOD. So this is something that we plan for year-round.

00:45We have a saying that we don't want to pass a business card during a gray sky event,

00:49and we want to know who is who and has that capability. Year to date, the crisis response

00:55team has over 1,200 responses. We've been able to deliver over 7,400 solutions to 590 agencies

01:02across 46 states. Incredible the mission, the work that you do. Since Hurricane Helene,

01:08how have your teams been supporting public safety agencies across the impacted southeastern states?

01:14Yeah, absolutely. So it's been a massive effort across all of the Verizon network and recovery

01:19teams who have been working around the clock with those first responders to help repair and

01:23restore that damaged infrastructure. So we've had 160 responses, and we've been able to provide

01:29nearly 600 solutions to over 150 federal, state, and local public safety agencies. And those

01:35solutions include things like drones, smartphones, routers, mobile hotspots, and portable satellite

01:41assets. They're all in support of emergency response and recovery operations. And really,

01:46our main focus for Helene has been in that western North Carolina, greater Asheville area.

01:52It's been an amazing effort across all Verizon teams. And again, I want to thank all the first

01:56responders that are out there supporting the communities. Yeah, we echo that here too at

02:00Acura, and thank everyone who is working together to help those communities. With Hurricane Milton

02:05and some of the impacts arriving tomorrow and landfall early, early Thursday morning,

02:10how are your Verizon frontline teams preparing to respond across Florida?

02:14Yeah, absolutely. So we've been watching this storm for the last couple days. We actually

02:19have teams that are in Florida right now staging equipment, like portable generators, because we

02:24know commercial power failure is going to be an issue. We have folks staging network mobile

02:29satellite assets as well. And we're also doing things like refilling generators and making sure

02:34that fuel transport is ready to go. So we have teams locked and loaded. We're also supporting

02:40many of the most critical emergency operation centers across the state of Florida, and we are

02:45in lockstep with the government agencies there in the local community.

02:49Wow, what an important perspective you just brought us. Corey Davis, Vice President

02:52with Verizon Frontline, thanks again for joining us.

02:55Thank you. Stay safe.

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