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)
