Nearly 18 months after Hurricane Helene knocked out cell service across parts of North Carolina, Verizon showed Channel 9 the major upgrades it says are designed to keep people connected during the next disaster. The company said the changes include larger backup generators, redundant cable systems, and mobile satellite units that can be deployed on demand.
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Channel 9’s Ken Lemon spoke with an assistant director at Verizon and a resident who said cellphones are much more than just for calls and texts.
They are an essential means of communication during a natural disaster.
In 2024, Helene shut down roads in Lincoln County, damaged homes, and left Matthew Bennett and others across the county without cell service for days.
“Panic, at first,” Bennett said.
He couldn’t reach his six-year-old son during the deadly storm. The child lived with his mother in Gaffney, South Carolina, which was also hit hard.
“Being able to use their device no differently than on a normal day,” said Brian Roe, assistant director at Verizon.
He said they have two large generators now, not just one as they had during Helene.
The generators provide power to banks of batteries for their systems.
Each call and text runs through hundreds of thousands of cables twice, so if one line goes down, the information is still sent.
“It’s our job to make sure that system is going to work,” Roe said.
The biggest change includes staging mobile satellite units in fixed locations and adding more of them when it’s needed.
Those can be more stable than wires.
“In a disaster situation, that satellite backup is on demand instantaneously for the system,” Roe said.
He said they are trying to stay ahead of powerful storms.
Bennett said that’s the system he wanted during Helene.
“It’s a good thing to have,” Bennett said.
The Verizon facility is the only one like it in North Carolina.
Lemon and his crew had to go through security and promised not to reveal the location for safety reasons.