FCC Extends Disaster Reporting System to Cover Georgia, South Carolina

The FCC extended its disaster information reporting system Friday to cover counties in Georgia and South Carolina hit by Hurricane Ian, which headed north after pummeling Florida. The FCC said it acted in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FEMA. The FCC also set up a dedicated website on Ian.

“All of us have our eyes on Hurricane Ian, which caused catastrophic destruction in Florida and is now bearing down on Georgia and South Carolina as another landfall looms,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday: “At the same time, Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Fiona, with many still left without power. … We have committed our resources now and for the long haul to help ensure communications recover and are rebuilt in the communities affected by both storms.”

The Friday FCC DIRS report said 7.7% of cellsites were out in the Hurricane Ian disaster area in Florida, down from 10.9% Thursday. The counties with the most towers down were Glades (82.8%) and DeSoto (65.4%), the report said. Cable and wireline providers reported 457,343 subscribers out of service in the disaster area, down from 526,000 Thursday, the report said. Five TV, 15 FM and six AM stations reported outages. That means since Thursday only one additional TV station is online, with no additional radio stations.

The DIRS report said 911 calls were being rerouted with location information to other call centers from the Highlands County Sheriff’s Department and Sanibel Police Department Headquarters. Calls to the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department are being “rerouted to admin lines without location information.”

“Hurricane Ian still presents an extreme threat to everyone in its path," said Anne Bink, FEMA associate administrator-response and recovery, in a briefing for reporters Friday. “We’re already seeing the impacts of this storm in South Carolina as we speak and in Georgia as well.”

Florida reported a few new developments in a Friday update. T-Mobile now has four community support trucks loaded with supplies -- including chargers, charging cords and cellphones, plus three Wi-Fi trailers with the ability to charge up to 80 phones each, in the state, ready to be deployed, said an announcement by the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). T-Mobile continues to offer unlimited talk, text, and data through Oct. 3 for those most affected by the storm, he said.

“Verizon residential and small business customers in affected ZIP codes impacted by Hurricane Ian will have access to unlimited domestic Talk, Text & Data through October 4,” DeSantis said: “Verizon Wireless’ crisis response team will also provide free communications support to public safety agencies responding to the hurricane, setting up portable cell sites, Wi-Fi hotspots, free charging stations and other services.” Charter Communications “opened Spectrum Out-of-Home WiFi access points in response to Hurricane Ian,” he said. The state Division of Telecommunications is working with law enforcement, supplying aerial and drone assessments, he said.

As of Friday, federal, state, Tribal nation, territorial and District of Columbia agencies may start applying for read-only access to reports filed in the FCC’s network outage reporting system and DIRS, said a Friday notice by the Public Safety Bureau. “This marks the culmination of the Commission’s efforts to provide access to critical outage and network status information that will improve these agencies’ situational awareness, enhance their ability to respond more rapidly to outages, and to help save lives, while safeguarding the confidentiality of this information,” the bureau said.

“Limit non-emergency calls,” the office of South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said in a Friday release: “Be sure to keep calls brief to minimize any network congestion. Wait at least 10 seconds before redialing a call. For non-emergencies, try sending text messages.”

CISA said consumers should stay vigilant. “Fraudulent emails -- often containing malicious links or attachments -- are common after major natural disasters,” the agency said: “Exercise caution in handling emails with hurricane-related subject lines, attachments, or hyperlinks. … Be wary of social media pleas, texts, or door-to-door solicitations relating to severe weather events.