Service restored following multi-day Spectrum outage caused by Helene

Hurricane-related damage to a regional data center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is said to be the cause of the widespread multi-day Spectrum outage that began Friday and continued through Saturday morning.

Service went down Friday morning in most of Hampton Roads, including customers in Isle of Wight County. Service in downtown Smithfield was restored shortly before 1:50 p.m. on Sept. 28.

The town of Smithfield posted to its Facebook page that the outage was caused by remnants of Hurricane Helene, and specifically damage to a major hub and fiber optic lines in South Carolina, which has caused service issues across the Southeast.

Charter spokesman Scott Pryzwansky said, in a 12:26 p.m. statement Saturday, that “network lines at our regional data center in the Spartanburg, SC area, were damaged as a result of Hurricane Helene. The network at this location is integral to providing our services to this area. Our technical teams are onsite working to restore services as quickly as possible for those impacted customers. We are communicating with impacted customers about the service interruption and that our restoration process is underway. We apologize for the service interruption.”

Hurricane Helene made landfall over the Florida panhandle on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm with winds up to 140 mph. By Friday afternoon, the storm had killed at least 44 people across four states, including Virginia, according to Associated Press reporting. By Saturday afternoon the storm had weakened to a post-tropical depression and had moved westward over the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

While southeastern Virginia never found itself in Helene’s projected cone, the outer bands of the cyclone passed over Hampton Roads Friday afternoon according to satellite imagery from the National Hurricane Center’s website.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 2:05 p.m. to note service had been restored in Smithfield, and with Associated Press reporting on damage from Hurricane Helene.