Verizon continues to work around the clock restoring cell sites damaged by Milton

Now that Hurricane Milton has left Florida after spreading death and destruction throughout its path, over one million people are still left without power in the area. Verizon has started repairing its network with crews working overnight. 70% of cell sites that went down due to Milton are now back up and running. That figure is 80% in Polk County after third-party fiber providers had serious damage done to the fiber backhaul cutting off the transfer of signals carrying voice and data from cell towers to the core network.

Just because a cell site gets restored, that doesn't mean that Verizon's crew is done with it. Right now, System Performance engineers are going through the restored cell sites optimizing these sites to return them to performance levels seen before the storm hit. Today, Verizon says that it is focusing on Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota Counties refueling generators (an important task necessary to keep everything humming) and moving mobile cell sites, satellites, and other assets providing temporary service into the areas hardest hit by the storm.

The mobile assets are being used to support first responders, emergency operations centers, staging areas, and other critical operations. Helping first responders with their recovery operations in the region is the Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team. According to the carrier, the team has "provided 76 solutions to 16 public safety agencies conducting operations across central and western Florida." Debris powered by the storm turned into missiles that cut fiber and replacing this fiber is an important job that is near the top of Verizon's "to-do list."

If you live in an area that was impacted by Hurricane Milton, Verizon asks that you refrain from touching or cutting any cable that was moved by the storm. Calling 811 before starting to clean up and remove debris will reduce the chance of underground and aerial fiber getting damaged. The carrier notes that preventing fiber from getting damaged will help keep customers and first responders connected during critical times.

Having gone through a week without cellular service myself following a hurricane, I can tell you from that experience that without having your wireless service operating, you feel isolated and cut off from the rest of the country. Verizon customers in the impacted areas are surely happy to see that the nation's largest wireless carrier is working 24/7 not just to get service restored, but to get service restored to the performance level that Verizon customers expect and normally experience.