Milton's Four Horses Ride Through Florida

Tornadoes, heavy rain, hurricane-force wind, and storm surge. Any of these could devastate a community. Hurricane Milton delivered them all to Florida earlier this month. Milton made landfall on October 9 in Siesta Key, south of Sarasota, as a Category 3 hurricane and continued out to the Atlantic as a Category 1 the next morning. The storm dropped nearly two feet of rain in some areas, causing flooding inland and adding more water onto the storm surge that was hitting parts of both coasts. Sustained winds were 120 miles per hour, toppling trees and ripping the roof off of Tropicana Field, where first responders were staging operations and thousands of people were taking shelter. More than 3 million people lost power across the state. The National Weather Service counted 45 reports of tornadoes across the southern half of the state. According to network outage data submitted by communications providers to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), as of 9 a.m. (EDT) October 10 over twelve percent of cell sites in areas impacted by Hurricane Milton were out of service, mostly due to a lack of power. The counties impacted most were Sarasota and Polk, where nearly half of all cell sites were down, along with Hardee, Highlands, Manatee, and Pinellas where at least a third of cell sites were down. Cable and wireline companies reported 1,273,354 subscribers out of service in the disaster area, including the loss of telephone, television, and/or internet services. Florida, of course, knows firsthand how extreme weather can have an adverse effect on infrastructure. Due to its location and unique geographical ecosystems, the state faces unique weather risks and hazards that can cause damage to broadband infrastructure or delay its deployment. Florida has always been more vulnerable to hurricanes and tropical storms than any other U.S. state because its exposed, southern location is surrounded by warm waters. There are almost twice as many hurricanes that hit Florida as Texas, the second most impacted state. But shifting atmosphere and ocean conditions are making hurricane season even worse for Floridians. As Milton illustrates, natural disasters can severely damage broadband infrastructure, causing network failures that interrupt the continuity of many commercial, governmental, and social activities. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program requires states and territories to plan for how BEAD-funded networks will withstand climate-related disasters.