Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk agreed to provide the company’s satellite internet service, Starlink, for help in response to Hurricane Ian in areas of Southwest Florida still without connectivity.
“We are working with Elon Musk and Starlink satellite. They are positioning those Starlink satellites to provide good coverage in Southwest Florida and other affected areas,” DeSantis told reporters on Saturday. “We are expecting 120 additional large Starlink units to deploy to Southwest Florida.”
Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina faced a massive cleanup on Saturday from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian, after one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. mainland caused tens of billions of dollars in damage and killed dozens.
New images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed several beach cottages and a motel building that lined the shores of Florida’s Sanibel Island HAD been wiped away by Ian’s storm surge. Even though most homes were still standing, they appeared to have roof damage, the images showed.
Ian, now a post-tropical cyclone, continued to weaken on Saturday but was still forecast to bring treacherous conditions to parts of the Central Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center, which added that flood watches were in effect across southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. more
@UncleAl said he was using Starlink yesterday.
I’ve seen this report of 120 satellites but I don’t think that’s right. DeSantis said, “We are expecting 120 additional large Starlink units to deploy to Southwest Florida.” I’m sure those are commercial size antenna setups, not satellites.
Thank you, Elon! Comcast is still scrambling to fix their stuff. I wouldn’t have internet access if it weren’t for my Starlink account. My next door neighbors have two families from south of here whose homes were heavily damaged staying with them. I set up my router outside in our screen cage and gave them the SSID/password. They can connect just fine from their house. We’ve had as many as eight devices connected at one time and we all seem to be playing well together.
Elon, born in South Africa, I hope he chooses “African American” on all those forms.
Like a good neighbor,
Uncle Al is there.👍
Uncle Elon is there too. Good on him!
Is my comment still being moderated?
Must have been triggered by some Air Force people who didn’t have good Wi-Fi in their TDY hotel rooms.