Internet Service was better for Hurricane Harvey but not perfect. Much improvement needs to be done to harden the cellular structure of our cell network and to keep service going when the poop hits the fan. Encouraging news from CNET concerning this story can be read in more detail here.
When major Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans back in 2005, it knocked out more than 1,000 cellular tower sites, according to reports from the FCC. When Hurricane Sandy hit the eastern US in 2012, roughly one forth of the wireless networks in the hurricane affected area went down.
By contrast, only 4 percent of the 7,804 cell sites in Harvey’s path experienced outages during the storm, according to the FCC. That’s less than 400 cell towers.
The use of cellular equipment is vital to the safety and security in our modern world. Losing the use of cellular communications in a major city make us extremely vulnerable to injury and loss of life, especially in an emergency situation and catastrophe such as a hurricane.