WASHINGTON, D.C. — As previously reported, the Chairwoman of the FCC on Friday traveled to Western North Carolina to get a firsthand account of communications recovery efforts in the storm-battered region. This included a stop at a vital iHeartMedia AM providing information and connectivity to the area.
At the same time, her chief legislative rival at the FCC also visited the state, devoting his time to the Triangle region to the east of the battered Pisgah National Forest and Asheville region.
Jessica Rosenworcel traveled to Asheville, meeting with officials at the Buncombe County emergency operations center. She also received updates from staff from the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau deployed to North Carolina to support communications recovery efforts, visited wireless carriers’ satellite cell on light truck locations in the impacted areas, and dropped in on a local library serving as a community Wi-Fi hub.
Importantly, Rosenworcel visited iHeartMedia’s WWNC-AM “NewsRadio 570” in Asheville, a station that has seen its coverage simulcast across the company’s FM stations and serve as a vital communications link between those in the region left with questionable cell phone service, electricity outages and transportation challenges.
“When disaster strikes, the FCC will always have boots on the ground,” said Rosenworcel. “We collect outage data, conduct spectrum surveys to understand the state of coverage, determine the impact on radio and television, and assess capabilities for emergency services. This is our standard practice during and after hurricanes. But the area where Helene left her mark was especially broad and includes mountainous communities like those in western North Carolina that do not regularly see these kinds of storms. This terrain makes communication more challenging, with many wireless towers in areas that are high up and hard to reach, often because the roads to them have been blocked by debris and decimated by flooding.”
Despite these challenges, Rosenworcel saw firsthand how the public sector and private sector are working together to help with recovery.
To the east, Brendan Carr, the Republican FCC Commissioner, visited the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh to meet with emergency management and public safety officials as well as telecom providers that are coordinating the disaster response and efforts to restore communications services in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
During the visit, Carr met with representatives from federal, state, and local agencies that have been working to maintain and bring communications services back up across the disaster area, including 911 services. The discussions focused on the near term and ongoing efforts to coordinate restoration efforts, including the FCC’s role in promoting roaming across networks during disasters.
Carr expressed his thanks and appreciation to the officials at North Carolina’s Emergency Operations Center that have been coordinating efforts to restore vital communications and infrastructure services. “I appreciated the chance to hear directly from them about their ongoing efforts,” he said.
