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Irene's wrath leaves 6,500 cell towers out, FCC says

29.08.2011
Updated figures released by federal officials on Monday showed 6,500 cell towers and sites were damaged or disrupted as a result of Hurricane Irene. That number includes about 44% of all cell sites in Vermont, which suffered massive flooding that cut off dozens of towns.

The Federal Communications Commission updated its count of outages at 3 p.m. EDT Monday, based on reports to the FCC by registered communications providers.

The FCC reported more than on Monday it did Sunday afternoon, taking into account the more recent ravages of Irene in New England states such as Vermont and Connecticut. Monday's count was 6,500, compared with 1,400 cell site outages on Sunday.

The Monday figures also showed 210,000 wired customers out of service Monday afternoon, compared to 132,000 on Sunday. Twice as many customers, 1 million, were without cable service on Monday, compared with 500,000 on Sunday, the FCC said.

Also, two TV stations and 10 radio stations were down as of Monday afternoon, the FCC said.

The updated FCC figures show about 44% of all cell sites were out in Vermont, 35% in Connecticut, 31% in Rhode Island and 25% in Virginia. In North Carolina, the percentage dropped to 11% of cell sites down, an improvement from 14% of the total registered Sunday, the FCC said.