Buncombe County, NC, USA

In September 2024, Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic flooding, landslides, and infrastructure collapse to Buncombe County, despite it being hundreds of miles from the hurricane’s landfall in Florida. The storm resulted in 42 fatalities and widespread destruction, including power outages, road collapses, and the loss of water supply in Asheville.

The press reports claimed it was worse than the flood of 1916, which wiped away railroads and powerplants. All commercial communications such as cellular, internet, and fiber were disrupted, leaving the county without conventional means of communication.

15 radio sites lost microwave backhaul due to damaged antennas, and despite this the overall network continued to function, ensuring continuous communication. Using Tait EnableMonitor, the county’s IT team quickly identified affected sites.

“We use Tait EnableMonitor,” said Jason Haynes, Radio Systems Manager, Buncombe County Information Technology. “We knew immediately which sites were down but getting them back on was tricky. With one of the sites that went down, there was no longer a road leading to it, and it was part of the river.”

The team were running all sites on generators and emergency fuel deliveries enabled rapid restoration: two sites were back online within 24 hours, and the fourth within five days. A portion of these deliveries were undertaken by helicopter, due to the changed landscape.

The town of Swannanoa, North Carolina, was the hardest hit area of the county but still had LMR service. Swannanoa is located between Asheville and Black Mountain along Interstate 40, and the P25 communications network was critical to the first responders the week after the hurricane devastated the area, Jason said.

“We didn’t see cell service in any significant amount until two weeks later,” he added. “There were pockets of cell service because FirstNet and Verizon brought in cells on wheels (COWs), but it was very localized around local fire departments and various places in the smaller towns in the county.” 

Buncombe County’s experience during Hurricane Helene reinforced the importance of resilient infrastructure, real-time system monitoring, and interoperable communications. The performance of the Tait P25 network under extreme conditions validated its role as a mission-critical asset for emergency response and demonstrated the strategic value of investing in robust communications systems.