FCC Expands DIRS to South Carolina; Idalia Causing Power and Wireline Outages
Hurricane Idalia’s eye left Florida around mid-day Wednesday, but the state is still having effects from the storm, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said at a 12:30 p.m. news conference livestreamed from Tallahassee. The FCC’s disaster information reporting system shows initial communications outages in Florida -- including for 58,941 cable and wireline subscribers -- from the storm, and the agency expanded the system’s coverage to include 16 counties in South Carolina, according to a number of public notices released Tuesday and Wednesday.
DeSantis said about 262,000 electricity accounts have been restored after losing power, while about 250,000 are still down. The hurricane most affected Columbia, Dixie, Jefferson, Levy, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor counties, he said. Hardest hit was Perry, a city in Taylor County, said Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. He said 99% of Madison County was without power. The Florida Public Service Commission’s Tallahassee headquarters was closed Wednesday due to the hurricane, said a spokesperson: The PSC posts updates on power outages every three hours.
Georgia and the Carolinas are under states of emergency. “Although South Carolina may avoid the worst of Hurricane Idalia's impacts, this State of Emergency is issued out of an abundance of caution to ensure that we have the necessary resources in place to respond to flooding events and are able to respond quickly if the forecast worsens," Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said Tuesday. Heavy rainfall and localized flooding are the gravest threats for North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said: “Even though North Carolina isn’t its first stop, this storm’s heavy rains can do damage.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau on Wednesday approved emergency waivers for Federated Wireless and Google to use environmental sensing capabilities to detect and protect federal incumbent users in the citizens broadband radio service band in storm-affected areas. The bureau said hundreds of devices in the area could be affected. “Petitioner asserts that, Hurricane Idalia, which will bring intense winds and rainfall, is likely to cause extended power outages, ‘with the loss of commercial power lasting longer than the approximately 24-48 hours of available battery backup time for most sensors,’” said the Google order: “If such outages occur, the Impacted Systems will lose commercial power and will be unable to operate normally.”
“At this time, we are beginning to see limited impacts to both our wireless and wireline network in the Big Bend area,” AT&T said in a Wednesday update: “Our teams are also monitoring for potential network impacts as the storm moves through Florida and additional states, including Georgia and South Carolina.” Meteorologists at AT&T’s Weather Operations Center are monitoring the storm, the carrier said. FirstNet is ready to “deploy assets as needed across the region.” More than 80 disaster recovery team members have been dispatched to the region, AT&T said.
“As Hurricane Idalia continues inland, it’s leaving behind commercial power outages, extensive flooding and significant structural damage throughout the area in its wake,” Verizon said Wednesday: “Despite the extensive devastation, Verizon’s network remains resilient and our teams are actively assessing the situation to engage rapidly in recovery efforts when it is safe to do so.” Verizon has sites down in the Big Bend area: “Sites remaining in service running on generator power are offering wide coverage to residents and first responders who remain there.”
"As Hurricane Idalia intensifies to Category 3 and continues its path toward landfall, T-Mobile has activated its emergency plan so when needed, teams can quickly begin recovery efforts to keep communities, first responders and customers along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic seaboard connected," T-Mobile said.
The DIRS release shows two public safety entry points were rerouted in Dixie and Gilchrist counties, two FM stations and one AM station were reported out of service, and 1.2 % of cellsites in the affected areas are down. “The number of cell site outages in a specific area does not necessarily correspond to the availability of wireless service to consumers in that area,” said the DIRS release, which also references “the difficulties in accurately depicting the ongoing status of a wireless provider’s service during emergencies.” Comcast opened 141,000 public Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots for customers and non-customers to use free, the DeSantis office noted in a Wednesday update.
The agency also issued public notices on emergency contact procedures for licensees that need special temporary authority, priority communications services and 24-hour availability of FCC staff. The Public Safety Bureau also sent a reminder to entities working to clear debris and repair utilities to avoid damaging communications infrastructure.