In preparation for the 2024 hurricane season, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct an exercise of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) from June 10-12, 2024.
As the Commission sees it, the planned exercise will help ensure that broadcasters and other communications providers can access and file in the DIRS system and update DIRS contact information.
On December 4, 2023, the legacy DIRS system was decommissioned in favor of a new platform, which is accessible here. Instructions for updating or creating a DIRS account that can access the new DIRS system can be found here.
The exercise will begin with the FCC’s Public Safety Bureau sending a mock activation letter to all registered DIRS participants on June 10. The letter will state that this is only an exercise. The letter will provide a list of pre-selected counties in the mock disaster area.
Providers will be asked to report data on any communications assets it has in the affected area. If a provider does not have any communications assets in the affected counties, it can still participate in the exercise by reporting mock data for the pre-selected counties.
The FCC asks that exercise participants provide their initial data sets by 10am Eastern on June 11 with an updated report filed by June 12 at 10am Eastern.
The Bureau will send a deactivation letter by 3pm Eastern on June 12.
Stations that wanted to participate in this voluntary exercise should have e-mailed [email protected] and [email protected] with the following information in Excel format by June 3:
- Name of the provider
- Names of all participants from the provider
- Email and phone numbers of all participants from the provider
- Specific geographic areas (counties, state) that the provider would like to have included in the disaster area for this exercise (optional)
It is not clear if an extension is being honored for those just learning of the DIRS exercise at this time.
No response is necessary if you do not wish to participate in this exercise. More information can be found here.
