Staying connected after Hurricane Michael

Please forgive my delay in posting. You see, I have been in some sort of limbo lately following the destruction left behind by Hurricane Michael. When I woke up in my home in the Florida Panhandle on the morning that the storm was set to make landfall, I knew that we should have evacuated. I was not located in a designated evacuation zone and even all of my neighbors had decided to stick it out. Once we lost power I was able to monitor the path of the storm from my phone. Before I knew it, the dot reflecting back to me on the interactive map, which marked where my home was in the path of the storm, was showing me that we would be facing the eastern edge of the eye and its 155 mph winds. It immediately dawned on me that there was a possibility that we may not make it....that there was no way of knowing what to expect from this storm. And, for what may have been the first time in my life, I was scared. Not just for myself and my family, but for those around me, my friends, and anyone else who made the decision not to evacuate when they had the chance. While I am grateful and blessed to say that we survived and that my home received mostly exterior damage, there are so many who were not so fortunate so that is all I will say about that out of respect.

Following the storm, many people, specifically those with Verizon Wireless service, were left without a way of contacting their relatives, their insurance providers, or emergency services. I have service through AT&T and was one of few in my direct area with an accessible means of contacting people. Social media became the quickest way of notifying those closest to me that I was safe and had made it through the storm. Now that restoration efforts have begun, I am seeing several posts down my Facebook timeline about where to go to get a hot meal, supplies, shower stations, WiFi hot spots, and much more to help those in need. Any slice of normalcy at this point feels like a luxury to most of us in the Panhandle.

Since retreating from the area to stay with relatives in Alabama until the power is restored, I have been just slightly obsessing over the role technology would play in the recovery efforts to help keep all these people connected. Many people are having to travel several miles to obtain service to make important phone calls and talk to relatives. One thing that stood out to me was the use of drones by AT&T to bring cell service back to those in Mexico Beach, FL. The drone is attached to nothing more than a thin tether which connects to their equipment on the ground. Hovering in the air at 400 feet, the drone is capable of connecting up to 6,500 users simultaneously in a 14 square mile area. A resident of Mexico Beach said that up until just yesterday, he was having to drive up to 35 miles to connect to his service provider. To see the short video on this story, click here. A small, yet great, relief to those in Mexico Beach thanks to this impressive technology

I, again, want to thank those of you who have followed me along my blogging journey. I truly hope that you have been able to take something away from at least one of my posts. This will be my last post covering topics of emerging media for a while, but I am excited to say that you will continue to see posts coming from me over the course of the next 8-weeks as I have begun another course! So, please stay tuned to see whats next at https://savannahchats.blogspot.com/.