At deadline, the latest forecast on Hurricane Dorian showed the storm will strengthen over the coming days and has the potential to become a Category 4 as it moves toward the southeastern United States, reported NBC. The National Hurricane Center forecast Thursday that Hurricane Dorian could reach maximum winds of 130 mph, putting it at a Category 4 on Saturday. It’s still too soon to tell exactly where the storm will make landfall along the east coast of Florida and possibly as far north as South Georgia, but the Center added: “there is an increasing likelihood of life-threatening storm surge along portions of the Florida east coast late this weekend or early next week.”
Communications infrastructure companies are preparing for the storm. For example, NATE Chairman and President/CEO of MillerCo. Jimmy Miller tweeted that NATE members were, “having meetings/planning with wireless providers to move in after Hurricane Dorian to restore wireless service.”
All the major carriers are monitoring the storm and prepared to move anticipated restoration equipment and personnel to affected areas. Preparations include topping off generators at fixed and portable cell sites. Carriers are also preparing COWS, COLTS, SatCOLTS and other mobile cellular infrastructure for potential deployment to areas where coverage may be needed.
AT&T is monitoring the storm as it heads towards Florida and Georgia. Personnel are protecting physical facilities against flooding by moving electronics essential to network operations above expected flood levels.
“Our local and regional Network support teams and the Network Disaster Recovery team, in partnership with the FirstNet team at AT&T, continue to stage network assets along the Southeast coast for quick deployment if needed,” the carrier said in a statement. T-Mobile said its teams are ready to respond in both locations and it has a range of recovery equipment and supplies on hand including generators, network recovery equipment and community response trucks, should they be needed in the aftermath of the storm.
Carrier preparation/update links:
August 30, 2019
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