Hurricane Helene swamped the southeastern U.S. after making landfall on Sept. 26 causing major damage and flash floods
The FCC has documented outages across six states
Operators are working to pick up the pieces of their wireless and wireline networks, but are still trying to gain access to some areas and waiting for power restoration in others
More than a million residents in the southeastern U.S. started the week without fixed broadband and plenty more without cell phone service after Hurricane Helene brought never-before-seen levels of flooding to the valleys of Appalachia.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) documented outages across six states, though western North Carolina and eastern Georgia are among the hardest hit.
As of Sunday, an estimated 1,004,610 subscribers were without wireline broadband service, with South Carolina and Georgia both reporting more than 300,000 affected customers each and North Carolina 200,000. While high, the total figure was actually down from a high of 1,199,087 on September 28. By Monday, the FCC said the number of subscribers without cell service decreased to 886,139.
Additionally, more than 2,500 cell sites remained out of commission on Monday due to the storm, with the vast majority of these in Georgia (787), North Carolina (784) and South Carolina (694). This marked an improvement from Sunday, when more than 3,400 cell sites were offline, including 1,034 in North Carolina, 952 in South Carolina and 931 in Georgia.
Fierce reached out to operators to learn more about the extent of the damage and how long recovery efforts are expected to take. Here’s what they told us:
Verizon
Verizon said its engineers continue to make progress in network restoration with Florida, Upstate South Carolina and areas of East Georgia seeing a return to service, but a substantial amount of work remains in the hardest hit areas, like Asheville, North Carolina.
The fiber infrastructure needed to carry data traffic from cell sites to the core command centers of the network was damaged in some areas with a number of cuts from the high winds, debris and flooding.
“With many areas throughout the region suffering extensive power failures, we continue to rely on generator power until commercial power is restored,” said a Verizon spokesperson. “Massive refueling operations continue to ensure those sites without commercial power remain in service for Verizon customers and first responders.”
The company also suffered the collapse of several cell towers within the footprint.
Verizon has deployed more than 70 temporary connectivity assets, including a cell-enabled tethered drone, cells on wheels and satellite trailer emitting equipment. However, the spokesperson said, “Customers may experience slower speeds and capacity constraints until fiber connections can be restored, so we recommend using text and call and to avoid data-heavy applications.”
Verizon has also deployed three Wireless Emergency Command Centers, with two stationed in Asheville and one in Chuckey, Tennessee. Another is expected in Augusta, Georgia on Tuesday. These facilities are open to the public so they can power their devices and contact friends and family over the Verizon network.
Brightspeed
Brightspeed, whose footprint includes many states in the South and along the Atlantic seaboard, said that downed trees, flooded communities, washed-out roadways and bridges significantly impacted its network as well as local power companies.
However, a company spokesperson said, “Nearly all of our Brightspeed Fiber customers who experienced service interruptions due to Helene are back online. Additionally, two thirds of our DSL customers impacted by storm damage now have service. Nearly 90% of our Ethernet circuits that were damaged or out of service are now operational.”
Unfortunately, two roadside cabinets in Tennessee were washed away by the storm. But Brightspeed had built redundancies into its network and is working to ensure services are restored.
The company does not have an estimate for the cost of damage or the repairs. It’s still focused on restoring services. It not only has its own local teams on the ground repairing cut lines, but it has also engaged third-party partners and its material suppliers to help in its efforts. Additionally, it has deployed Brightspeed teams from neighboring states. Often its crews are waiting for or even working together with the local power company crews.
Charter Communications
Like Verizon and Brightspeed, a Charter representative told Fierce that it is engaged in restoration efforts across the areas impacted by Helene. The rep didn’t provide details about the damage, but noted “as of yesterday, there were some impacted areas that were still inaccessible.”
“As soon as an area is deemed safe and power has returned, Spectrum technicians are working to restore service as quickly as possible,” the rep stated.
In the meantime, Charter has opened to the public nearly 90,000 Spectrum out-of-home Wi-Fi access points across Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and bordering areas.
AT&T
An AT&T spokesperson said, “The unprecedented destruction and flooding have mobilized our Emergency Operations Center to provide round-the-clock support to all AT&T teams, ensuring they have the resources they need to restore vital connectivity to the affected areas.”
Since AT&T is also the operator of the nation’s FirstNet network, the company said its teams are also in continuous coordination with federal, state and local authorities. “We continue to prioritize public safety's communications needs with FirstNet, the nation's public safety network,” said the spokesperson. The FirstNet Response Operations Group is on the ground, having responded to more than 100 requests to support emergency communications.
“While the recovery process will be lengthy in some areas, we are prioritizing areas we can access immediately to restore connectivity as quickly as possible,” said the spokesperson. “However, severely damaged areas will require additional time for repairs.”
This story will be updated as more detail becomes available.