Hurricane Crisis Response Actions April 24, 2020 Resource Type Videos Categories: Retail Managed Networks When Hurricane Maria crashed into Puerto Rico in 2017, the entire island was without electricity. Cable and telephone lines went silent. Cell towers were destroyed. Businesses and residents were left without reliable communications. One of my clients, a big-box warehouse store, has four locations on the island. They, like many other businesses there, relied on wireline Internet connections, so when the storm hit and the communications infrastructure was destroyed, they were in trouble. This client provides stable items to sustain life. For many of those impacted by Maria, these stores were the only place to get critical items like medicine and water. Driven by the urgency to help, the client reached out to Hughes for a network solution capable of getting these stores up and operating immediately. We knew it would be a challenge because our installers in Puerto Rico had lost everything. There would be no supplies or resources on the island, so we needed to mobilize a team and send help from the States, and everything we designed would have to be self-contained. We designed a satellite network from scratch, packed it up, and had it on a plane in only four days, and because there would be no communication from the mainland, our installer would be completely on his own. He would have to configure and test each site install without any of the usual assistance from our network support team. With each passing day, the situation in Puerto Rico worsened. Residents needed water, they needed food, they needed medicine and fuel, and to be able to communicate with their loved ones in the outside world. We knew we had to make this happen fast. Installing a network typically takes a day per location, but this wasn't a typical job: Lives were at stake. Our installer took off-road vehicles into flooded, dangerous conditions and installed three satellite locations in just one day. Then, once conditions allowed safe travel, he was able to reach the last site and complete the install two days later. Hughes maintained a presence in Puerto Rico for months, and our network is still in place. Should another storm hit, that client will be able to keep its stores open and continue to serve the needs of its local customers and communities. Focusing on client success is built into all we do at Hughes. Our support to our client with the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico made a real difference in the lives of those affected by Hurricane Maria. I am so proud of our team's work and willingness to go the extra mile for our customers. Related Resources Videos Restaurant POS and Security Upgrade April 24, 2020 2:32 Whatever IT Takes for the Holidays April 24, 2020 4:01 Environmental Disaster Averted April 24, 2020 3:14 Managed Security December 10, 2018 1:06 Location Analytics December 10, 2018 1:01 Managed SD-WAN December 10, 2018 1:31 Introducing HughesON-Improve application performance across all your business locations April 20, 2013 1:42 Solution Sheets Hughes Fixed Wireless by 2pifi April 17, 2020 HughesON™ Managed Security Services August 21, 2018 Hughes HR4700 Branch Gateway May 30, 2018 HR4860 Secure SD-WAN Gateway May 18, 2018 Hughes Managed Services December 28, 2017 Infographics Why Hughes as a Managed Service Provider April 10, 2020 HughesON Managed Services October 31, 2019 Digitally Empowered Stores Stretch Data Networks to the Breaking Point November 01, 2018 Managed SD-WAN November 15, 2016 eBooks State of the Brick and Mortar Stores March 25, 2020 Major Changes Coming to Your Network? February 25, 2020 Retailers, Are You Addicted to Bandwidth? November 14, 2019 Report Restaurant and Retail Technology Study May 09, 2019 Hughes Networks SD-WAN Managed Service Ticks All the Right Boxes February 05, 2019 White Papers Getting Stakeholders on the Same Page, Part I March 15, 2019 Getting Stakeholders on the Same Page, Part II March 15, 2019 Managed SD-WAN: Delivers a Better Experience for Highly Distributed Organizations November 15, 2016 HughesON ActiveTechnologies August 02, 2016 Case Studies Global Brand Deploys Pan European Managed Network Solution February 05, 2019 A Leading Retail Petroleum Franchisee Enjoys Faster Network via HughesON ActiveTechnologies July 10, 2018 M&T Bank Case Study April 10, 2017 VoIP Adoption Leads to Free PCI Upgrades for Major Quick Service Restaurant March 17, 2017 Articles AI in the Brick-and-Mortar Store September 10, 2018 Data Sheets Fortigate 30E April 17, 2017 News Articles Hughes Launches Fully Managed SD-WAN Solution for Distributed Organizations April 09, 2017 'Best-kept secret in SD-WAN' publicly rolls out managed service January 19, 2015 4 Items That Omnichannel Forgot April 10, 2014 Retail EMV Adoption: Eyes Wide Open March 01, 2014