Hurricane Helene has carriers providing temporary cell sites, but cell site outages still remain extraordinarily higher than in past hurricanes tracked by the FCC
When Hurricane Helene swept through and inundated communities across the Southeast with flooding and destruction, many towns were in crisis mode, struggling to recover without one of the most critical lifelines: cell phone service.
According to the FCC, over 2,500 cell sites were still out of service yesterday. Although this marked improvement from the September 28, 2024, outage report of 4,562, it was still twice the outage of recent hurricanes.
According to Canton, North Carolina Mayor Zeb Smathers, the loss of cell service at the height of the storm “crippled” the community’s ability to respond to the devastation.
In the immediate aftermath, residents were left stranded without the means to communicate with loved ones or get updates on the emergency.
Canton, in Haywood County, saw 58% of its cell sites out of service.
Fifty miles away in Burnsville, North Carolina, residents saw even greater outages.
A resident who traveled to Cocoa Beach, Florida, on Wednesday informed Wireless Estimator that they have not been able to reach any neighbors to find out how their homes fared in Yancey County, which was devastated with nonexistent cellular service, with 20 of its 22 cell sites out of service, the second highest cell site outages at 91% caused by Hurricane Helene, according to the FCC.
Mitchell County, North Carolina, officials tell residents that cell phone service is unreliable. Residents who need help should go to the local fire department.
The county says cell service is “basically nonexistent ” for contacting 911 and urges people to “go to your local volunteer fire department station if you need assistance.”
Cell service and power outages in Asheville, North Carolina, complicate officials’ efforts to locate residents. As of Monday evening, almost 600 people were still unaccounted for.
North Carolina has the highest number of Hurricane Helene-related deaths, 56. Other states reporting deaths are South Carolina, 30; Georgia, 25; Florida, 11; Tennessee, 6; and Virginia, 2.
The absence of reliable cellular networks severely hampered rescue efforts in many states. Officials expressed their deep frustration and anger with mobile carriers for not providing enough to ensure that families and emergency personnel can stay connected when it matters most.
The nation, however, has never come close to seeing as many cell sites out of service in any previous hurricane.
Whereas Hurricane Helene had 4,562 sites out of service, in 2023, Hurricane Idalia only took out 174. Category 5 Ian, in 2022, took out 747. In 2018, Hurricane Florence crippled 1,063 cell sites. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 caused 365 cell sites to go out of service.
