Hurricane Michael: Communication Service Provider status

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
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Electric power outages (percentage out of service)

Florida
   Bay County - 98%
   Calhoun County - 100%
   Franklin County - 97%
   Gadsden County - 100%
   Gulf County - 99%
   Holmes County - 99%
   Jackson County - 100%
   Leon County - 91%
   Wakulla County - 97%
   Washington County - 98%

I haven't found power outage reports from other states yet.

1 Public Safety Answering Point out of service
   Jackson County FL

15 Public Safety Answering Points re-routed

Counties with over 60% cell sites out of service

Florida
   Bay County - 78.3%
   Gulf County - 69.6%
   Holmes County - 74.1%
   Jackson County - 77.1%
   Liberty County - 88.9%
   Washington County - 69.2%

Georgia
   Schley County - 66.7%
   Webster County - 64.7%

Cable and Wireline subscribers reported out of service (likely more out of service than reported)

   Alabama - 14,855
   Florida - 185,841
   Georgia - 63,473

Radio and Television
    4 TV stations out of service
    30 FM stations out of service
    4 AM stations out of service

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I haven't found power outage reports from other states yet.

My bad, DOE moved its reports to a different URL on its site. Here are the electric grid status for other states, along with some other status info I found.

Electric power outages as of October 11, 2018 at 4:00pm EDT

Statewide averages don't reflect severe damage in specific counties:

Alabama: 3% (87,706 customers)
Florida: 3.7% (389,639)
Georgia: 6.4% (268,461)
North Carolina: 9% (361,879)
South Carolina: 2.6% (117,221)

Utilties in the region report 30,000 personnel in position for restoration efforts.

The following sea ports are closed

Panama City, FL
Pensacola, FL
Wimington, NC

Retail gas/fuel stations shut (lack of fuel, power or both)

Florida: 6.0% shut
Georgia: 2.6% shut
Alabama: 1.3% shut

Regional fuel stocks available: 28.1 million barrels

NOAA Weather Radio transmitter outages

Columbus, AL
Americus, GA
Macon, GA
Lafayette, LA
New Bern, NC
Beaufort, SC

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Note: although the FCC encourages independent ISPs to report outages, none have.

13 fatalities reported as of 10/12/2018

Public Safety Answering Points (9-1-1) outages:
16 Public Safety Answering Points rerouted

Curfews:
Florida: Bay, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Liberty

Electric grid outages:

Alabama: 25,652 customers (1.01%)
Florida: 351,433 customers (3.34%)
Georgia: 304,862 customers (6.44%)
North Carolina: 492,058 customers (9.94%)
South Carolina: 7,422 customers (0.29%)
Virginia 523,304 customers (13.92%)

Florida Counties with more than 90% customers outage:
Bradford (91%), Calhoun (100%), Franklin (97%), Gadsden (100%), Gulf (99%), Holmes (93%), Jackson (100%), Liberty (100%), Washington (100%)

Airport status:

All commercial airports have re-opened. Various temporary flight restrictions announced in NOTAMs.

Sea port status:

Panama City, FL closed
Wilmington, NC closed

Retail fuel stations (out of fuel, power or both):

6.3% of all Florida stations closed
   41% of Florida panhandle stations closed
3.2% of Georgia stations closed
1.7% of Alabama stations closed

NOAA Weather Radio transmitters out of service (hurricane area):

Columbus, AL
Talahassee, FL
Sneads, FL
Westville, FL
East Point, FL
Panama City, FL
Pelham, GA
Lafayette, LA
New Bern, NC
Henderson, NC

Cellular Service (more than 50% out of service):

Bay County, FL (72.8%) 238 sites out of service
Gadsden County, FL (58.10%) 36 sites out of service
Gulf County, FL (65.20%) 15 sites out of service
Washington County, FL (56.40%) 22 sites out of service

Cable systems and Wireline subscriber reported outages (likely more, since customers may not have reported problems yet, e.g. no outages reported in Virgina)

Alabama: 18,244
Florida: 252,748
Georgia: 103,755

Broadcasters:

4 TV stations out of service
27 FM stations out of service
5 AM stations out of service

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“Note: although the FCC encourages independent ISPs to report outages, none have.”

Where to?

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26 fatalities reported so far, 4 hospitals closed.

Telecommunications:

FCC Chairman Pai and Florida Governor Scott issued loud complaints about the speed of restoration of cell sites and telecommunications after Hurricane Michael. This seems to be an over-reaction to the lack of action after Puerto Rico last year. This issued several demands for actions that cellular providers almost always do after major disasters. So I expect them to claim victory when the carriers do the standard thing.

1. After disasters cell providers almost always implement "open roaming" allowing customers to use any working cell tower, even of different carriers. This was implemented in Puerto Rico for months. If cellular carriers in Florida haven't already done this, I expect they will.

2. Waive subscriber bills in the disaster area. Again, due to how open roaming works, most carriers will waive bills during the disaster. Mostly because billing doesn't work with open roaming, so make it a public relations benefit.

3. Deploy more disaster cell sites (COWs, COLTs, flying cell sites, etc.)

AT&T put out a happy, happy, joy, joy press release saying "nearly fully restored in most affected areas." AT&T provide no details what that means, what affected areas, or what is not restored yet.

https://about.att.com/pages/hurricane_michael

Verizon put out more details about the impact on their network.

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/hurricane-michael-network-updates

Bay County, Florida still appears the most affected. Major fiber and roadway damage in the county. Verizon is using flying cell sites in Bay County, and deployed several satellite connected COWs/COLTs.

Spectrum Cable (Charter, Time-Warner, etc. merged)

Spectrum has some generic informatino that its service has been interrupted by damaged from Hurrican Michael.

https://www.spectrum.net/page/weather-center/

Electric Power:

Braford County: 56% out of service (65,859 customers)
Calhoun County: 98% out of service (6,930 customers)
Gasden County: 68% out of service (14,781 customers)
Gulf County: 88% out of service (9,695 customers)
Jackson County: 83% out of service (21,621 customers)
Liberty County: 69% out of service (2,796 customers)

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Gosh, I can predict the future (by minutes). Verizon has issued a statement. It will automatically issue 3 months of mobile service credits for each consumer and business line in the affected areas (Bay and Gulf counties).

I predict similar statements from the other major carriers shortly :slight_smile:

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/statement-issued-ronan-dunne-hurricane-michael-network-recovery
Oct 16, 2018 5:10pm

Statement issued by Ronan Dunne, on Hurricane Michael network recovery

Verizon is 100 percent focused on repairing our network in the Florida Panhandle. We are making progress every hour, and we expect that trend to continue at a rapid pace. We won�t rest until service is completely restored.

Every Verizon customer in Bay and Gulf counties will be automatically credited for 3 months of mobile service for each line. This free service is for both consumer and business accounts.

We will continue to regularly update our network recovery information at: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/hurricane-michael-network-updates/

As our recovery work continues, we have deployed portable cells to support the critical effort of first responders and other mission critical organizations, including:

Bay County Emergency Operations Center and 911 Center
Bay County Sheriff�s Office
Blakely Emergency Operations Center
City of Parker Police Department
FDOT Chipley Office
FEMA Office
Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center
Gulf County Emergency Operations Center
Lynn Haven Emergency Operations Center
Mexico Beach
Miller County 911
Panama City Police Department
Springfield Police Department
TECO Peoples Gas, Panama City
Tyndall Air Force Base
Washington Emergency Operations Center in Chipley