Hurricane Helene Devastates Network Connectivity in Parts of the South

Summary

In this post, we dig into the impacts from Hurricane Helene which came ashore late last month wreaking destruction and severe flooding in the Southeastern United States. Using Kentik’s traffic data as well as Georgia Tech’s IODA, we detail the impacts in three of the hardest-hit states: Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Hurricane Helene came ashore late last month wreaking destruction and severe flooding in its path. As of this writing, over 200 people tragically lost their lives, and countless others have been displaced from their homes (including one Kentik employee).

As the hard-hit regions continue to recover from the storm’s devastation, let’s take a moment to review what we’re seeing in terms of the impacts on internet connectivity in three of the hardest-hit states: Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

State-level impacts

Based on Kentik’s aggregate NetFlow data, traffic volumes to numerous providers in affected states experienced similar changes before and after the arrival of Helene. As the storm approached on September 26, providers handled a surge of traffic as residents of the southeast used the internet to closely follow the latest news about the storm.

Following the arrival of Helene, drops in traffic were seen around the region as the storm washed out roads and caused power outages. The immediate decline in traffic can also be attributed to people focusing on addressing their immediate needs that don’t require internet service.

Georgia

In Georgia, there were service impacts around the state. The graphic below illustrates traffic volume to three Georgia-based service providers: Clearwave Fiber (AS400511), ATC Broadband (AS11240), and the Brantley Telephone Company (AS394473).

Seen below, the impact on Alma-based ATC Broadband is also well