The morning after Hurricane Helene hit the U.S. East Coast, Thomas Witherspoon surveyed the damage at his home in western North Carolina. The night before, he listened as the wind snapped trees and downed power lines along the two-mile access road that connected his family to their few neighbors in Buncombe County.
Like tens of thousands of other North Carolinians, power is in Witherspoon’s neighborhood he was completely absent. It was impossible to communicate with the house beyond, let alone anyone several miles away. Unable to send text messages or make phone calls, radio became the only form of communication left in rural North Carolina. After repairing everything he could on his property, Witherspoon, a longtime amateur radio enthusiast, began distributing radios to neighbors.
“Amateur radio is one of those fields where you get into it because of your love of radio communication and the technical aspects of it, and the community and the challenges you get to overcome,” Witherspoon says. “It’s great fun, but at the heart of it all is the basic directive of amateur radio, that it is always available as an emergency communication when all else fails.”
Other amateur radio enthusiasts also helped. Last Tuesday, carriers filed requests for medications like insulin and announced when grocery stores like Sam’s Club would reopen. Most of the messages were to let friends and family know they were OK.
“Mom, your son is fine. No telephone service. Happy birthday,” WIRED heard the caller asking the operator to send his mother live broadcast of the broadcast.
Last month, hurricanes wreaked havoc across the United States. More than 200 people have been confirmed dead resulting in the loss of Helene and many others, making it the most destructive U.S. hurricane since Katrina in 2005. Nearly a week after Helene made landfall, cell service dead zones they harassed Karolinaleaving thousands of residents unable to contact friends, family or even emergency services. Hurricane Milton is strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico this week, and radio operators in Florida are doing just that they are also preparing to launch their network—a group of operators communicating live by radio. Scott Roberts, amateur radio section manager for North Florida, said operators in his area began checking their equipment and planning their shelter deployments on Monday.
According to a Federal Communications Commission spokesman who spoke to WIRED last week, there are more than a million licensed amateur radio operators in the U.S. like Witherspoon and Roberts. Some amateur radio bands are miniature bands that reach only miniature communities of people, while others cover hundreds or even thousands of miles. When communications infrastructure such as cellular networks fail during a natural disaster, the FCC allows amateur radio operators to assist in recovery efforts.
Gordon Mooneyhan, a spokesman for the American Radio Relay League, said he was aware of three main repeaters used to relay messages in the area affected by Hurricane Helene, including the Mt. Mitchell, which sits at the highest point in North Carolina at 6,600 feet and amplifies local radio broadcasts across a broader network. This is where Witherspoon reads requests for deliveries and road closures.