As Hurricane Milton heads toward Western Florida, carriers have initiated their storm preparedness plan. That includes pre-staging supplies for post storm use, topping off generators with fuel at cell sites and protecting those sites from flooding. Milton strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane on Monday in the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters predict it will make landfall on the west coast of Florida on Wednesday. Mandatory evacuations were underway on Monday, as many in the storm’s path are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall less than two weeks ago.
Concerning Helene, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel traveled to Asheville, NC to gain a firsthand account of communications recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. She also visited wireless carriers’ satellite cell on light truck locations in the impacted areas and spoke with the CEOs of the largest wireless providers to discuss their restoration progress, what more can be done, and any unmet needs. Commissioner Brendan Carr visited the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh.
Overall, 4.7 percent of cell sites in the affected areas weren’t working as of Sunday. The FCC narrowed the scope of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for Helene, dropping Florida and Virginia, and narrowing the amount of impacted counties in Georgia and Tennessee.
In North Carolina, out of 1,448 cell sites, 244 or 16.9 percent (down from 19.1 percent) of cell sites were out of service. Sixteen out of 22 sites were not operational in Yancey County, or 72.7 percent. That was followed by Mitchell County, where 10 out of 20 cell sites or 50 percent were not working.
Out of 7,563 sites in South Carolina, 131 or 1.7 percent were not working. Out of 1,450 sites in Georgia, 98, or 6.8 percent, were not operational. Of the 425 sites in Tennessee, 39, or 9.2 percent were not working.
Cable and wireline companies reported 332,701 (up from 324,549 Saturday) subscribers out of service in the disaster area. This includes the loss of telephone, television, and/or internet services.
The number of television and radio stations off the air remains stable. There were three TV stations off the air in Georgia and two in North Carolina. No television stations were off-air in South Carolina and Tennessee.
Several FMs remained off the air. Five were off-air in Georgia and four in South Carolina. Two FMs remained off-air in North Carolina and no FMs were off-air in Tennessee.
The AM situation is improving with five off-air in Georgia, but none in the Carolinas, and Tennessee.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
Reader Interactions