Verizon has Secret Cave for Emergency Backup Equipment

Verizon is known as an innovative and progressive company, and their secret disaster relief cave in Kansas City is just another example of this.  The cave – known as “The Farm” – stores backup equipment that can be quickly deployed when, for example, a cell phone tower gets damaged by high winds.

A Look Inside the Verizon Storage Cave

For an inside look at this incredible storage facility, check out this video.  The Farm, in a nutshell, has all the equipment necessary to replace a full cell site.  In addition to the equipment itself, Verizon has optimized its asset deployment processes, which means that damaged equipment can be replaced in a matter of hours.

The Farm has enough backup equipment that Verizon can respond to multiple crises concurrently.  In fact, the facility likely stores enough equipment to fully restore 5-6 cell sites.  Power generators are also part of the equipment, which is critical because the power is often out when the infrastructure repairs are needed.

Verizon’s ability to utilize backup technology from the Farm to quickly restore communication networks is critical from an emergency preparedness perspective.  Communication networks enable utility systems (SCADA, OMS, etc.) to work in harmony when a restoration is needed, and also ensures that crews can be dispatched and allocated efficiently.  Without communication ability, outage restoration can slow to a crawl.

This is a model that utilities in all sectors should consider. Access to replacement equipment is necessary to restore damaged infrastructure assets, so having crucial backup equipment ready to deploy at a moment’s notice can only improve and accelerate the overall restoration effort.