Communications Status Report for Areas Impacted by Tropical Storm Marco & Hurricane Laura September 8, 2020 The following is a report on the status of communications services in geographic areas impacted by Tropical Storm Marco and Hurricane Laura as of September 8, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. EDT. This report incorporates network outage data submitted by communications providers to the Federal Communications Commission s (FCC) Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). Note that the operational status of communications services during a disaster may evolve rapidly, and this report represents a snapshot in time. The following counties are in the current geographic area that is part of DIRS (the  disaster area ). Louisiana: Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Sabine, Vernon 1 911 Services The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) learns the status of each Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) through the filings of 911 Service Providers in DIRS, reporting to the FCC s Public Safety Support Center, coordination with state 911 Administrators and, if necessary, direct contact with individual PSAPs. " Louisiana: Cameron Parish Sheriff s Office has rerouted 911 calls to another PSAP with location information. Wireless Services The following section describes the status of wireless communications services and restoration in the disaster area, including the percentage of cell sites out of service for each county. 2 The following table provides cell sites out of service by county. There are 22.1% of the cell sites out of service in the affected area. The information shown was provided by the signatories to the Wireless Network Resiliency Framework Cooperative Agreement. Louisiana Cell Cell Sites Cell Sites Out Cell Sites Affected Cell Sites Sites Percent Out Due to Due to Out Due to State Counties Served Out Out Damage Transport1 Power LA BEAUREGARD 58 6 10.3% 1 3 2 LA CALCASIEU 185 62 33.5% 6 28 25 LA CAMERON 29 6 20.7% 1 2 3 LA SABINE 39 3 7.7% 0 3 0 LA VERNON 100 14 14.0% 0 10 5 TOTAL 411 91 22.1% 8 46 35 The number of cell site outages in a specific area does not necessarily correspond to the availability of wireless service to consumers in that area. See Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks, Order, 31 FCC Rcd 13745, para. 10 (2016) (recognizing the difficulties in accurately depicting the ongoing status of a wireless provider s service during emergencies). Wireless networks are often designed with numerous, overlapping cell sites that provide maximum capacity and continuity of service even when an individual site is inoperable. In addition, wireless providers frequently use temporary facilities such as cells- on-wheels (also known as COWs), increased power at operational sites, roaming agreements, or take other actions to maintain service to affected consumers during emergencies or other events that result in cell site outages. Cable Systems and Wireline (Combined) Cable and wireline companies reported 74,181 subscribers out of service in the affected areas; this may include the loss of telephone, television, and/or Internet services. Broadcast: " No TV stations reported being out of service. " 6 FM radio stations reported being out of service (K246CK, K272EI, KLXN, KQLK, KRLR, W252AQ). " 2 AM radio stations reported being out of service (KEZM, KXZZ). 1 These are cell sites that are out due to issues with the (typically wireline) networks that route communications traffic to and from the cell sites. 3