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A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 21 March 2019
Puerto Rico lures tech developers as hurricane season looms

By DANICA COTO spread out on flat surfaces.
Associated Press Programmed drones could
ISABELA, Puerto Rico (AP) fly overhead, read the sym-
— In the dark and isolating bols and process them into
days after Hurricane Ma- data about needs and lo-
ria, people across Puerto cations for emergency re-
Rico invented new ways sponders.
to communicate: Elderly The idea came to him when
couples in need of food or he was physically unable
water would raise a flag at to reach his grandmother
their home. Neighbors cre- after Maria. He could not
ated amateur security sys- communicate with her and
tems, banging on pots for a worried about her respira-
minute each night to mark tory and heart conditions.
the start of a curfew after So he flew his drone to her
which any human noise house, and she waved
would be considered a call through the window.
for help. “She heard the drone and
With telephone service knew it was me,” Cruz said,
blown away by the Cat- adding that his grandmoth-
egory 4 hurricane, the er died two months after
governor took to the only Maria from respiratory and
radio station still operating cardiac failure at an inten-
and asked listeners to tell sive care unit in a hospital
the mayors of all 78 mu- hit by frequent blackouts.
nicipalities to drive to the As he continued to fly his
capital and update au- drone across Puerto Rico
thorities about their needs in the days and weeks af-
in person. Access to dev- ter Maria, he noticed that
astated areas was impossi- In this March 13, 2019 photo, self-taught Puerto Rican tech developer Pedro Cruz, right, and Maria sometimes food and wa-
ble, and police, firefighters M., test the Clusterduck system, that provides a low-frequency Wi-Fi connection, in Isabela, Puerto ter were being delivered
and emergency respond- Rico. to neighborhoods that al-
ers were unable to talk to Associated Press ready had been supplied,
each other for days. ect OWL, which stands and eventually to emer- to introduce the technolo- while others went begging:
“The biggest crisis after Ma- for Organization, Where- gency officials. gy to young users in hopes “There were a lot of dupli-
ria was communication,” abouts, and Logistics. It The team recently made they could teach and cated efforts.” He said his
said Nazario Lugo, presi- won a $200,000 prize at its first large-area test of share it with their neighbors. system might help avoid
dent of Puerto Rico’s Asso- a Call for Code competi- system in the northwest Isabela’s mayor, Carlos that.
ciation of Emergency Man- tion late last year in which coastal town of Isabela. Delgado, said he was im- Other tech companies
agers. “That unleashed an 100,000 developers from One group got into a car pressed by the project and have jumped at the op-
endless number of prob- 156 nations participated — and stopped repeatedly to wishes it was invented be- portunity to provide con-
lems.” an event focused on natu- affix transmitters around a 1 fore Maria shredded the is- nectivity in the storm’s af-
Now several groups of ral disaster preparedness square-mile area while an- land’s telecommunications termath, including Google,
young tech developers are and relief. other group led by Knouse system. He lamented how which obtained an experi-
trying to prevent that from “We were thinking, ‘How stayed at the home base, city officials had to walk to mental license from the U.S.
happening the next time a can we make this in a way which that day consisted dozens of neighborhoods Federal Communications
major disaster strikes. They so stupidly simple to be of the roof of a barbecue to learn about people’s Commission to provide
are roving Puerto Rico with used that you don’t even joint that provided enough needs after the hurricane, emergency cellular service
laptops, transmitters and have to think about it?’” height to collect the sig- which delayed the delivery through Loon balloons. The
drones to test new systems said Project OWL team nals. Further boosting the of food, water and medi- project helped connect
that could help survivors leader Bryan Knouse. “It’s signal were two large cine. “It was a bit like going more than 200,000 people
communicate with authori- really hard to tell people cream-colored balloons back to the start of human- and began winding down
ties and speed up response who have been through bought at Party City fitted ity: everything was done on in March 2018.
times to minimize the num- a disaster, ‘Download this with a transmitter. foot,” he said. However, Lugo, a former
ber of deaths. app or go to this website.’ The transmitters are pow- Another project is led by emergency management
Puerto Rico is considered an Not gonna happen.” ered by batteries and may- Pedro Cruz, a self-taught director for Puerto Rico,
ideal site to test and refine The tiny transmitter boxes be eventually solar power, Puerto Rican tech devel- warned the U.S. territory still
these inventions due to the emit a low-frequency Wi-Fi and the team envisions the oper who recently won needs to strengthen and
Sept. 20, 2017, storm and its connection that users can system working in places a local hackathon with a update its communications
aftermath that claimed an link to via smartphones. from the U.S. mainland to project called DroneAid. system before the hurri-
estimated 2,975 lives. Tech- Once connected, a pop- India to Japan. He recalled seeing mes- cane season starts on June
nology is also lagging on up box in English and Span- Every couple of minutes, sages such as “SOS” and 1. He also stressed that au-
an island where police and ish automatically appears Knouse’s computer ding- “WE NEED FOOD” scrawled thorities should allow regu-
firefighters lack an interop- and people can enter in- ed with messages that in- in big letters on roads so lar citizens and amateur
erable system to communi- formation including name, cluded names, location they could be seen from radio operators to partici-
cate with each other. location, number of pets, and details of the roving the air after Maria. He envi- pate in that system.
One team of developers medical needs and haz- group that popped up on sions before a storm giving “Communication should
backed by IBM is sticking ards such as fallen trees, a map with messages such people 5-foot-long mats not be restricted,” he said,
transmitters to trees with downed power lines, fires as “Help me please!” and with standardized symbols adding that the govern-
Velcro as part of a hard- or blocked roads. “NEED WATER!!!” The team indicating needs — such ment needs to embrace
ware and software system The information is relayed later met with members of as food, water or medi- new technology. “We’re
they invented called Proj- back through the network a local Boys and Girls Club cal care — that could be still far behind.”q