Hurricane Florence is affecting communications primarily in North Carolina, but South Carolina also is feeling the effects, said Monday’s FCC disaster information reporting system report. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Monday that South Carolina is eligible for federal disaster funds. The FCC report shows 187, 885 cable and wireline subscribers out of service in North Carolina, up from 164,892 in Sunday’s report. South Carolina outages are down to 5,073, compared with 5,883 from Sunday. Six percent of cellsites in the storm-affected area are out of service, but the affected sites are concentrated in North Carolina, the report said. Onslow County, on North Carolina’s coast, has more than 50 percent of cellsites down, the report said. Three public safety answering points in North Carolina are having their 911 calls rerouted to other PSAPs, the report said. The report lists five TV stations out of service, all in North Carolina. Twenty-five FM stations and three AM stations are listed as out, also concentrated in North Carolina. Three radio groups are working together to provide emergency information in Spanish in South Carolina communities affected by the storm, said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the League of United Latin American Citizens. Cumulus Media, Spanish Broadcasting System and Dick Broadcasting responded to a request from MMTC and LULAC for emergency broadcasts targeted at Spanish speakers affected by the storm. SBS is providing the Spanish-language emergency information for Cumulus and Dick to broadcast, the release said. “The 22,000 Hispanic residents of the Myrtle Beach radio market and 21,000 Hispanic residents of the Hilton Head radio market are receiving life-saving information.” Frontier Communications has resumed full operations in its service areas with repair and customer contact employees returning to work in South Carolina, and didn’t cease providing repair and installation service to North Carolina, said release Monday. Charter Communications brought in additional supplies before the storm and opened more than 5,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in affected areas, it blogged Saturday. : We have approximately 14,000 employees and three million subscribers in the parts of North and South Carolina that are in the path of Hurricane Florence." Florence postponed Thursday's emergency alerting test (see 1809170035).
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in coordination with the FCC, Monday delayed a nationwide test of the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert system until Oct. 3. The test was scheduled for Thursday but postponement was expected (see 1809140040) because of Hurricane Florence (see 1809170046) related problems. The WEA test is expected to get the most attention because this is the first time that system will be tested nationwide.
The FCC is considering delaying Thursday's first national test of wireless emergency alerts, followed by an emergency alert system test, because of Hurricane Florence, wireless industry officials said Friday as the storm was hitting. The agency granted some telecom leeway during the storm, and also released its first outage report.
The FCC continues preparing for Hurricane Florence in coordination with state and federal partners, Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday. It activated the disaster information reporting system, with reports requested from some counties in Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas starting at 10 a.m. Thursday, said a public notice. “Staff have already been deployed to survey the radiofrequency spectrum across critical areas of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, and our Operations Center is open 24 hours a day,” Pai said. “Our staff has also reached out to broadcast associations, wireless carriers, and other telecom companies in the areas expected to be hit by Hurricane Florence. We will closely monitor communications outages data in the coming days and work to support restoration and recovery.” Pai urged people in affected areas to charge devices and sign up for emergency alerts. Carriers announced preparations this week (see 1809110046). Some state commissions also released alerts, with North Carolina and South Carolina agencies announcing closures. The FCC Public Safety Bureau should ensure emergency information in Spanish is available in four radio markets in the path of Florence that lack sufficient Spanish-language radio stations, said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the League of United Latin American Citizens in a letter Wednesday. “Intervention is necessary because it does not appear that the region’s broadcasters have [emergency alert system] plans that address the urgent needs of speakers of Spanish." Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, have Hispanic populations of more than 10 percent, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is 5.8 percent Hispanic, the groups said. The Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville, North Carolina, radio market is 8.5 percent Hispanic, a population of more than 59,000 people, the letter said. “We ask that lifesaving information be broadcast in the referenced markets” at periodic intervals throughout the day “by at least one station in each market that survives the hurricane,” they said.
The FCC doesn’t need to impose additional reporting requirements on emergency alert system participants to combat false alerts, said NAB, CTIA, NCTA and the American Cable Association in docket 15-94. A few local governments and public TV interests disagreed.
The Public Safety Bureau approved limited waiver of emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert rules to let broadcasters and carriers take part in a test by the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau. PREMB's simulation is scheduled for Wednesday, with a backup of Thursday. New rules allowing such joint tests kick in May 1. The exercise will "help educate and prepare the public and will help the PREMB to determine the readiness and effectiveness of Puerto Rico’s public warning system, plans, and infrastructure as it prepares for the peak of the 2018 hurricane season,” the FCC bureau said. “Given the disasters suffered by Puerto Rico during last year’s hurricanes and in preparation for this year’s peak hurricane season, we find waiver relief is warranted ... the proposed test would provide alert initiators and emergency managers information of immediate value to ongoing restoration and emergency preparedness efforts.”
Puerto Rico sought FCC waiver to test live-code wireless emergency alerts and the emergency alert system. The 30-minute test is planned for Sept. 12 at 11 a.m., the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau (PREMB) said Thursday in docket 15-91. Puerto Rico has been rebuilding communications infrastructure since two storms devastated the territory last year, the bureau said. “As we enter the peak of hurricane season, it is important PREMB be able to test and validate its [Integrated Public Alert & Warning System] origination capabilities and the participants’ ability to disseminate emergency messages to the public.”
FCC Republicans Ajit Pai, Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr have voted together the vast majority of the time. Carr partially dissented once and has been mostly in step with Pai since he became a member a year ago. O’Rielly, a commissioner throughout Pai's chairmanship, has disagreed more, based on our review. O’Rielly has had partial dissents 12 times and a full dissent once.
GCI customers can now receive wireless emergency alerts on mobile devices, the carrier said. GCI launched an alerts app in 2011 and did a test Aug. 15 that confirmed subscribers in WEA service areas can get alerts. “For the past year, GCI has been working to implement network and device updates that will enable Alaska customers to receive enhanced messages directly to their device through the national WEA system,” GCI said Saturday.
The nationwide combined test of the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert is scheduled for Sept. 20, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said in a reminder public notice Monday in docket 15-94. The test backup date is Oct. 3, the PN said. Monday was the deadline for all EAS test participants to register with the EAS reporting system and make their initial filings for the test. A second filing is due the day of the test, and a third Nov. 5, the PN said.