Helene created an unprecedented communications blackout; a year later, vulnerabilities remain

When western North Carolinians needed to communicate with one another more urgently than ever before, the region’s telecommunications systems went dark. High winds and floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in September of 2024 destroyed more than 1,700 miles of fiber optic cables, according to North Carolina Statewide Interoperability Coordinator Greg Hauser. This knocked out most of the area’s cell towers, leaving residents starved for basic information. According to the Land of Sky Regional Council—a local government and development nonprofit that serves Buncombe, Madison, Henderson, and Transylvania counties—and West NGN Broadband research, $100 million worth of communications infrastructure was damaged, 200,000 internet and phone line customers lost connectio,n and residents lost about 12,000 communications devices, like cell phones and computers. Crews scrambled to restore networks as quickly as possible, a task made impossible at times by the devastation. Roads were washed away, blocked by landslides or clogged by traffic. Power outages that lasted for weeks compounded the crisis. A year later, networks have mostly returned to normal, but there are still gaps, and no comprehensive public reports have been issued about exactly why western North Carolina went dark for so long, experts say.