Hurricane Sally moved toward the Gulf Coast yesterday, threatening to bring “extreme life-threatening” flash flooding, according to forecasters. The eye of the storm was expected to pass near the coast of southeastern Louisiana before making landfall last night or this morning in the hurricane warning area, which stretches from east of Bay St. Louis – a city in Mississippi – to Navarre, Florida, reported CBS News.
The FCC launched its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for Sally. Carriers provided the first reports yesterday morning. Nearly 4,000 cell sites (3,942) are part of DIRS for this storm. Only 18 were not working yesterday before the hurricane made landfall.
Louisiana has the most cell sites in the DIRS coverage area for this hurricane. At 1,283 cell sites, only 15, or 1.2 percent were not working Tuesday. Most of those (12) were due to transport issues, (typically sites served by wireline networks that route communications traffic to and from the sites) and three had no power.
For Alabama, out of 1,177 sites in DIRS, only one was not working; it was damaged. Florida has 786 cell sites in the affected area and all were working yesterday. Finally, of Mississippi’s 696 sites, only two were not operational; both were out because of transport issues.
Cable and wireline companies reported 1,096 subscribers out of service in the affected areas; this may include the loss of telephone, television, and/or internet services. All broadcasters reported being on-air.
The following counties are in the current geographic area that is part of the disaster area:
Alabama: Baldwin, Butler, Clarke, Conecuh, Covington, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, Washington
Florida: Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton
Louisiana: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St Bernard, St Charles, St John the Baptist, St Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington
Mississippi: George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Lamar, Marion, Pearl River, Stone, Walthall
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