BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Emergency responders working during a disaster can now receive and send a signal on their portable radios throughout 95 percent of hurricane-prone south Louisiana.
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s chief emergency management officer told a legislative committee Tuesday that level of radio coverage should extend through the entire state by the end of the year.
Mark Cooper, director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said the state has taken strides to broaden radio coverage for emergencies by acquiring three mobile command posts with telephone, radio, computer and teleconferencing capabilities.
Cooper said the number of radio towers has also been increased from 46 sites statewide before Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to 117 now.
 
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