Disasters occur in short time periods and are usually unexpected, leaving in their wake large numbers of casualties and severe infrastructure damages. These disasters can be due to natural causes (earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, epidemics, or combinations of thereof) or manmade (industrial accidents, terrorism, and war). Essential communications breakdown is one of the common characteristics of all disasters. By causing delays and errors in emergency response and disaster relief efforts, the partial or complete failure of telecommunications infrastructure leads to what might have been...