We had live streaming video last year on our new site,
http://www.hurricanelivenet.com and it worked very well. We provided live feeds of hurricanes as they happened and allowed (still do) emergency management and first responders to view at no charge. Of course, streaming media is very costly, and I could not provide it to everyone free of charge. So, we set up a subscription of $24.95 for an entire year of unlimited use. Mike Watkins and I first deployed the project during Katrina in Florida and then along the MS GC. As some of you know, the "black boxes" that housed the equipment to make this possible were swept away in the massive storm surge there in Gulfport. However- I know for a fact that the NHC and FEMA group called HLT or hurricane liason team- were monitoring the live feed from Gulfport- before it went down.
As the season went on, I got better at setting up the equipment and our live coverage improved. Rita was a night time landfall and so there was not much to see. By the time we got to Wilma, we had it nailed down to a science. We placed one of our units on top of a concrete building in Everglades City and streamed the video back live to hurricanelivenet. Collier Co. EM was able to monitor the feed in real-time and know to the second when the storm surge came in- which of course was NOT on the front side, but rather the back side of Wilma. Our camera system at Marco Island also streamed live for us to see- and we knew there was minimal flooding there.
Point is, first of all, it will cost a lot of money for FEMA to stream this live to anyone who wants to see it. Secondly, we use the Sprint network to stream our data and it worked very well in all hurricanes last year. But in the aftermath, which is when FEMA will want to "go live", the towers and infrastructure may well be down. There is a new Inmarsat product called BGAN which will allow for global broadband of up to 492kbps up and down- but it will be costly. We are going to look at purchasing one unit for the HLN crew so we too can broadcast live even after the hurricane has left an area without power. So there are some hurdles to clear to make this happen. Mike, Jesse and I should know- we did it many times last season with very good results. However, it takes a lot for it to come together and I certainly hope that FEMA contracts with the proper people to pull it off. I see it as a great benefit for post-storm information getting out. We use it for pre, during and some post and hope to work harder to get more info out in the post-event days after something like Katrina, Rita or Wilma. Technology is awesome- but it can be tricky. We'll see what happens.
for some). I haven't noticed this mentioned yet. Seems that it will serve as another reason for sleepless nights during landfalling hurricanes... endless hours watching live video. Anyone know if this will be publicly accessible?
Well at least Mike Brown was. If they continue that they will probably be watching the wrong feed (area). 
