Internet and phone outages cut some Hurricane Helene victims off from the world

Some of the victims of Hurricane Helene are cut off from the outside world.

Beyond collapsed roads and bridges, many affected areas, especially in western North Carolina, have experienced severe to total communications blackouts, as cell towers and internet services are down from the hurricane and subsequent flooding, power outages and landslides.

Edward Hinson, the chief marketing and sales officer at SkyLine/SkyBest, a small telecommunications company that provides TV and internet service to rural western North Carolina, said the damage to the communications infrastructure there is catastrophic.

“It’s hard to foresee what the next stages look like, because we’re still just assessing so much damage,” he told NBC News. “I don’t know how to articulate how bad the damage is.”

The damage is difficult to analyze and transmit given the limited communications abilities in the area. So far, over 120 people have died as a result of the hurricane, and hundreds are still missing.

The Federal Communications Commission produces daily updates about connectivity in counties affected by Helene. As of Monday, 370 of North Carolina’s 1,452 cell sites are out because of a lack of power, 103 are on backup power, and three are too damaged to function, the FCC stats show.

The situation is particularly dire in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties, where 10% or fewer of the cell sites are fully functioning.

Two local television stations and two FM radio stations are also out of service in North Carolina, the FCC said.

Internet providers often have disaster contingency plans, such as keeping backup generators and fuel on hand to keep service going during power outages. But the flooding was severe enough to override them, Hinson said.

“Our goal right now is to get our core network back up and running. We had some of our facilities chest-deep in water. A backup generator won’t help you when the building’s on its side or upside-down or chest-deep in water,” he said.

Companies that track internet connectivity say much of western North Carolina’s broadband internet speeds are slow and, in some areas, nonexistent.

NetBlocks, a U.K. company built to track global internet censorship, said some cities and towns in the area expect severe to full broadband outages. Waynesville and Hendersonvile are completely offline, while Weaverville and Morganton have gone from full disconnection to extremely limited service. 

Asheville is still at only around 10% of connectivity, said Isik Mater, the company’s director of research. “Asheville and its vicinity haven’t seen any recovery since the landfall,” she said.

Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at the analytics company Kentik, confirmed to NBC News that Asheville’s internet presence has not yet recovered.

Dee Davis, the president of the Kentucky- and Tennessee-based Center for Rural Strategies, an organization that helps coordinate nonprofit organizations to benefit rural America, said it can be agonizing for people affected by severe flooding not to be able to check on loved ones. Davis lost a close friend in the eastern Kentucky floods of 2022.

“A lot of mamas and daddies who wake up and they don’t know where the kids are and they don’t know what to do, they’re limited. That moment of powerlessness has a real effect,” he said.