From the Tri-Cities of Virginia and Tennessee through the Great Smokey Mountains and southward to eastern Georgia, large swaths of land impacted last week by Hurricane Helene and its remnants were left without cell phone service — let alone electricity, potable water and, in Western North Carolina, any navigable thoroughfares.
This reinforced the need for broadcast media services in an emergency situation — even as stations themselves struggled to find a way to bring information to communities in peril.
As of Sunday (9/29), information provided by the FCC showed that communities stretching from Hendersonville north to Asheville, N.C., and to the north and south of this hard-hit area of Western North Carolina, largely remain without cell services.
The FCC offered county-by-county details across several stations, distinguishing cell sites out due to damage from those “due to transport,” or power outages, and even if operation via backup power was transpiring.
In Pinellas County, Fla., home to St. Petersburg and Clearwater and companies such as broadcast technology firm CP Communications, flooding and wind wreaked havoc. Some 5.3% of cell sites were reported down.
In Georgia, Atkinson County reported 82.4% sites out, with five down due to transport and eight down due to lack of electricity. Five of Glascock County’s six cell sites were down. Emanuel, Charlton, Clinch and Candler Counties were also hit hard, with two-thirds of cell sites reported down as of Sunday.
In Jefferson County, 32 of 38 cell sites were non-functioning, with eight out “due to transport.”
The situation was worse in McDuffie County, as 17 of 40 cell sites were also inoperable due to transport.
As expected, North Carolina’s catastrophic flooding experienced in the western part of the state rendered mobile phone and data service all but useless. In Buncombe County, where Asheville is the county seat, some 79.4% of all cell sites were out; 213 were lost due to transport.
Speaking to Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, Saga Communications’ Asheville Media Group Market President Tom Davis commented, “This doesn’t happen in Asheville. People were just not prepared for what I’ve heard some people say is a thousand-year flood.”
The staff of Asheville Media Group is safe, Davis said, but the community is hurting; the immediate danger still hasn’t gone away.
AMG is keeping their seven radio stations on the air one five-gallon fuel can at a time, feeding generators at the tower site.
It could be worse. In Erwin, Tenn., the building housing Jet Broadcasting’s all-news WXIS-FM 103.9 “Livewire Radio” and FOX Sports Radio affiliate WEMB-AM, which serve Johnson City and Kingsport, to the north, was completely washed away.
For television stations seeking to cover the storm damage, access is the likely issue. For Asheville and Hendersonville, N.C., stations based in Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C. cover a two-state DMA that was still largely inaccessible as of Monday morning. Sinclair Inc.-owned WLOS-13 is the Asheville-licensed ABC affiliate serving the market. This morning’s local newscast was delayed due to an unspecified medical emergency.
WLOS-13 in Asheville morning news anchors Charles Perez and Katie Killen
With meteorologist Meghan Danahey explaining how the viewing area got the worst of Helene, local reporter Neydja Petithome was at a BP gas station offering updates on where those in need of filling their vehicle could go, as Sunday brought frustration to many.
Connecting with family, updates from Duke Energy and road closure updates permeated the nearly three-hour newscast on Monday morning.
In North Carolina, according to the FCC, three TV stations remain out of service; it did not disclose which stations were off the air.
In Georgia, two stations were off the air as of Sunday, with one returning after being knocked off the air from Helene’s remnants.
Incredibly, just two FM radio stations in North Carolina were off the air on Sunday, down from 4. In Georgia, the situation was improving, but 15 FM radio stations remained dark, down from 19.
