Can NG911 Standards Save Lives in the Next Disaster?

Can NG911 Standards Save Lives in the Next Disaster?

Published: March 11, 2025

Emergency communications systems nationwide—built decades ago—are struggling under increasing pressure from aging infrastructure and natural disasters (devastating hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.)

Unfortunately, the reality for many is that they are just one large-scale disaster away from failing miserably.

Miami-Dade is one example that stands particularly vulnerable, with nearly one million residents teetering on the edge of displacement.

Miami-Dade operates seven Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), with the primary center at the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office Communications Bureau handling emergencies for unincorporated areas and 31 municipalities.

Additionally, several municipalities operate their own emergency communications centers (ECC), operating alongside the primary PSAPs to enhance emergency communications.

Despite additional municipal call centers enhancing communication, the sheer scale of potential disaster dwarfs their resources due to a lack of interoperability between these disparate systems.

Consider the following hypothetical…

A Signal for NG911 Standards

As a Category 4 hurricane bears down on Miami and flood waters are rising, the many residents who ignored evacuation orders are ready with boarded up windows and extra water and sand bags. By evening, conditions worsen dramatically and they are warned that the threshold for emergency communications and services has passed the point of being too dangerous; they are on their own. By nightfall, powerful wind gusts spark multiple fires across the county, including a major blaze near downtown Miami.

Suddenly, an already overwhelmed system must manage two severe emergencies simultaneously, pushing resources beyond their breaking point.

By midnight, Miami-Dade fields more than 2,500 emergency calls that they can not answer or respond to as they have to prioritize the calls from the fire, perform hundreds of water rescues, and battle more than 20 individual fires—while still grappling with flooding across neighborhoods.

It’s pure chaos.

And Miami-Dade isn’t alone.

Think back to Hurricane Harvey… Houston’s 911 system buckled under a wave of desperate calls from trapped residents. Operators were forced to choose who to rescue first, scrambling for boats and trucks that could maneuver through flooded streets. Despite their heroic efforts, outdated technology and limited resources made their job nearly impossible.

Then consider Los Angeles County this past January. The Palisades Fire ignited in the morning, quickly followed by the Eaton Fire that evening. More than 3,000 emergency calls and 50 building fires overwhelmed responders already stretched thin by both wildfires.

These events are not isolated – they’re signals. Our outdated emergency response systems weren’t built for today’s extreme disasters and not built to expand operations like fire, police, EMS and emergency management. Adding fuel to that fire, the disparate systems used to manage emergency response can not easily “talk to one another” or paint a single picture of the size of the incident due to a lack of data interoperability.

Unless we modernize and strengthen these vital lifelines, the next catastrophic event could leave your city helpless.

Are we ready to answer the call?

The NG911 Solution

The truth is: America’s 911 network and systems are dangerously outdated—and it’s putting your community at risk.

Most PSAPs rely on aging, incompatible technology.  While it is not uncommon for many PSAPs to fall under a single 911 authority who is responsible for the NG9-1-1 network, "home rule" leaves each local emergency call center on their own to  choose their own dispatch technology. Sounds like a good idea? Maybe, until a large-scale emergency hits. Then, these mismatched systems fail to communicate effectively, causing resources to be misused and opportunities for more efficient response and recovery to be overlooked..

PSAPs typically depend on two critical technologies: call handling equipment (CHE), which swiftly answers calls and locates emergencies, and computer-aided dispatch (CAD), which allocates emergency resources and manages crucial information. Ideally, these systems ensure fast, accurate responses. Due to how often two side-by-side response jurisdictions use different technology, it is almost impossible to run a single event with multiple response entities in a single system. Complicating matters further, 911 is not built to leverage the National Incident Management System (NIMS) or the Incident Command System (ICS). Without integration, PSAPs will struggle to expand operations during large emergencies, leaving dispatchers to juggle overloaded neighboring centers, causing costly delays.

Here’s the hard truth: the current system wasn’t built for today’s massive disasters. It’s obsolete, fragmented, and, in moments of crisis, dangerously unreliable. Your safety hangs by a thread—a patchwork of antiquated technology and outdated bureaucracy.

So, what's the solution? The answer is Next Generation 911 (NG911) and data interoperability.

At the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) 2025, we'll demonstrate how NG911 can seamlessly connect Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) nationwide. By enabling the sharing of near real-time data and coordination of resources—even under the most challenging conditions—NG911 transforms emergency response.

When implemented using national standards and the FCC's latest rules, NG911 removes significant technological barriers that currently limit PSAP-to-PSAP coordination. NG911 standards also enable near-instant incident management, allowing emergencies to be handled efficiently—even when they escalate beyond a single PSAP’s capacity.

Attend our keynote to discover how NG911 standards not only eliminates dangerous delays but also saves lives.

The future of emergency response is here, ready or not—and it starts with next gen 911.