More than a dozen broadcast television and radio stations in Florida were knocked offline by the powerful effect of Hurricane Milton this week, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The storm, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane late Wednesday evening, was responsible for outages at three TV station and 14 radio stations, the FCC said in a statement on Thursday.
Most of the affected radio stations are on the FM band, though four radio stations broadcast on AM. The specific location of the radio and TV stations knocked off the air was not disclosed by the agency, though the count was accurate as of Thursday morning.
The outages were largely attributed to disruptions in electrical service, which knocked TV and radio transmitters offline. Nearly 3 million Florida residents and businesses were plunged into the dark between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, as the storm spawned dozens of tornadoes and caused flash flooding that damaged electrical equipment throughout the state.
More than 1.27 million cable TV and land-based Internet customers are also offline, for much of the same reason, according to figures released by the FCC. More than 12 percent of wireless towers used by AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and others were also offline, the agency affirmed.
Commercial TV broadcasters in major markets like Tampa, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach and Orlando simulcast the audio of their signals through AM and FM radio partners during the storm. A handful also streamed their newscasts through YouTube, Facebook and other platforms. Stations owned by Hearst Television, Nexstar Media Group, Fox Television Stations and the E. W. Scripps Company were among those to simulcast their TV news coverage through the radio and online.
That coverage likely helped save lives in Florida, particularly in areas that were afflicted by tornadoes that spawned from the outer band of the hurricane — an unexpected and unusual development that caught residents, businesses and meteorologists off guard.
At least five people were killed when a series of tornadoes swept through St. Lucie County on Wednesday, according to local emergency officials there. A senior living community was among the areas impacted the worst, with an unspecified number of fatalities reported.
A total of eight people were confirmed dead as of Thursday morning, emergency officials said. The death toll is expected to climb, they warned.
The state was already reeling from the effects of Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida’s western coast as a Category 4 storm about two weeks ago. That storm impacted TV and radio stations across six states, mostly due to power outages and damage from wind.
Hurricane Milton moved eastward, impacting the Tampa and St. Petersburg media market on the western coast of Florida before moving across the state toward Orlando.
