In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene, many residents within Buncombe County have been left without internet, an essential service needed for those working from home or students participating in online school.
During the Hurricane Helene Community Briefing Wednesday morning, County Manager Avril Pinder stated Spectrum experienced a major cut to an underground fiber line in Marion Tuesday night. As of Oct. 16, 31,500 Spectrum customers have remained offline, she said. According to Pinder, Spectrum crews are currently working on repairs.
Although Spectrum is the largest internet provider in the region, other internet providers have also experienced disruptions storm. Here is when you can expect your internet to be restored.
As of Oct. 16, Spectrum said it expects full restoration for accessible homes with power in Buncombe County by Monday, Oct. 21.
Buncombe County spokesperson Lillian Govus said Wednesday morning that with the fiber being in the ground, more cuts can be expected. She said that Spectrum originally anticipated restoration in the county by Friday, Oct. 19. However, Spectrum updated its website Wednesday afternoon stating that complete restoration on Oct. 19 can be expected for all counties in North Carolina except for Buncombe, McDowell and Polk. Full restoration for those three counties is anticipated for Oct. 21.
As of Oct. 16, 68% of internet services have been restored in Buncombe County, according to Spectrum.
As of Oct. 10, T-Mobile stated it was able to fully restore all but two sites impacted by Tropical Storm Helene. One site is in Piedmont, South Carolina, and the other is outside Morganton, North Carolina, the company stated. Bennet Ladyman, a member of T-Mobile's PR team, said that internet for customers in Buncombe County has been restored.
A spokesperson for Verizon said that 99 percent of the cell sites impacted by Tropical Storm Helene have returned to service. Engineers are now focusing on optimizing and returning the network to pre-storm performance levels for sites that have returned to permanent fiber and commercial power, the spokesperson stated. Non-stop refueling efforts are continuing to ensure sites powered by generators remain in service for Verizon customers and first responders until permanent commercial power is fully restored, they said.
According to Verizon, secondary fiber cuts from debris clean-up and power restoration continue to impact its network.
"Residents can help in restoration efforts by remembering to not touch or cut any cable that may have been displaced during the storm. Debris clean up and property repair are important tasks after a storm, but contacting 811 before any clean up project, large or small, is the easiest step toward reducing the chance of damaging fiber," the Verizon spokesperson said.
According to an AT&T spokesperson, only a small number of customers in Buncombe County may still be experiencing internet service disruptions. This is primarily due to remaining commercial power outages and storm damage. AT&T said they have made significant progress with our restoration efforts and technicians are continuing to work as quickly and safely as possible until all service is restored.
94 percent of North Carolina home and internet customers where known service was affected have since had their service restored, according to AT&T. Customers experiencing service issues can visit, att.com, the myAT&T app or call 800-288-2020. Wireline customers can also visit att.com/outages to sign up for one-time service restoration text alerts, the spokesperson stated.
The Buncombe County website states that the following sites are open for free charging and internet access: