Chairman Pai Statement on Hurricane Michael

Data from the Federal Communications Commission’s Disaster Information Reporting System shows that Hurricane Michael caused substantial communications outages along its destructive path. [The morning of Oct 11], my office and staff from the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau reached out to representatives of carriers and broadcasters to discuss the situation on the ground and how to restore service as quickly as possible In particular, we were pleased that carriers had pre-positioned equipment and were in the process deploying cells on wheels (COWs) and cells on light trucks (COLTs) in order to get wireless service up and running in many locations. In the hours and days ahead, the FCC will continue to work with our federal partners and the private sector to ensure that communications services are restored in those areas affected by Hurricane Michael. Our thoughts are with all of those who have been impacted by this historic storm.