It will take up to nine months to completely restore cell phone service in the north Pacific County region after a Feb. 24-25 windstorm toppled a cell tower at the Holy Cross Mountain site.

T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T are working to get service back up and running. In the meantime, residents and travelers passing through the area may encounter “dead zones.”

The Pacific County Emergency Management Agency (PCEMA) activated the Emergency Operations Center on March 1 to Level II to assist with the problem.

“This tower collapse has significantly degraded wireless telephone and data transmission capability within an approximately 5-mile radius surrounding the Raymond and South Bend areas,” PCEMA Director Scott McDougall stated in a press release. “Other areas of the county are served by other towers and therefore only minimally impacted.”

According to McDougall’s press release, the objectives at the moment are to ensure citizens can adequately reach 911, expand the cell phone coverage area to ensure safety, and fully restore a tower to serve the entire region being affected.

New update

PCEMA, the Pacific County Board of Commissioners and the Pacific County General Administration held a March 4 workshop to write a situation report. The biggest takeaway is that there is a long road ahead to restoring permanent cell service.

At the moment, each of the temporary mobile towers that have been deployed, including one from T-Mobile stationed in South Bend and Raymond and one from Verizon stationed in Raymond, provides coverage within about a 5-mile radius.

The three carriers are currently exploring options for placing Cellular on Wheels (COWS) at a semi-permanent location to broaden coverage. The companies are considering a site in South Bend and the Pacific County PUD tower in Raymond.

COWS allow for a wider coverage area compared to the mobile units already in place, which are designed for rapid response following a disaster to quickly restore limited coverage. AT&T has since placed a COWS at Bendiksen Landing at the Port of Willapa Harbor in South Bend, serving both Raymond and South Bend.

Walking a fine line

The commissioners’ only concern was ensuring McDougall walked a fine line when assisting the cellular companies, such as providing a semi-permanent site. Otherwise, the county could fall into an ethical gray area.

Commissioner Jerry Doyle was the primary questioner during the meeting and wanted to ensure the county was “looking at it under a broader spectrum.”

“Obviously, these types of things don’t happen all the time; towers-don’t-fall-everyday type of things,” Doyle said. “I just want to make sure that there is an understanding who the stakeholders are in this, and obviously the county through PCEMA, the commissioners through you being under the board and that every player is involved in this.”

“I just, I just wanted to make sure that is clarified and that we don’t muddy some waters with, you know, Verizon is their own profit, T-Mobile, and AT&T, and we don’t get into bouts of finding properties for these people. That is kind of something they should do in some manner, so it leaves the county out of the liability of it all,” Doyle added.

Pacific County Risk Manager Marie Guernsey chimed in and stated, “I agree.”

Ensuring safety is a top priority, says McDougall

McDougall responded to the questioning and comments and reiterated that he is providing a support role following a localized disaster. The only money the county has spent so far on the situation, and will, is for the time McDougall and Deputy Director Marcia Medina have spent providing support — of which most can likely be reimbursed by the carriers.

“PCEMA operates following a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, and that emergency management plan includes both critical infrastructure and it also includes communications,” McDougall said.

“And because of the potential impact to the community, because communications were so badly disrupted … we provide support to get those communications back up and running. It is really kind of an interesting situation… because we are, in essence, providing logistical support to three private-for-profit companies.

“It is not my intent to be supporting them. They have their own people, but by facilitating and supporting their efforts to get their systems back up and running then, I am directly supporting the well-being of the community and making sure that our community is advocated for and represented in terms of getting their ability to communicate back,” McDougall added.

There was only one minor hiccup with the Verizon mobile unit in Raymond, which was partially placed on private property. Verizon quickly resolved the issue and negotiated a deal with the property owner.

Waiting game

Engineers have had limited access to the Holy Cross tower site following the collapse due to unsafe conditions. The Pacific County PUD has cut off the site’s power, and an inspection cannot take place until the entire site is de-energized.

Backup generators also had to run dry, and now engineers are waiting for backup batteries to run out to ensure the site is safe. Once safe, they plan to thoroughly inspect whether a partial or complete tower replacement is necessary.

The road up to the site is currently closed on both sides, with personnel monitoring each gate to ensure no one enters. Engineers plan to conduct road repairs once it’s safe to do so to get equipment and infrastructure up to the site.

The tower at Holy Cross isn’t the only major outage affecting the area. An amateur radio antenna at the KO tower site near Menlo was also affected.

The antenna is part of the broad BeachNet system that connects a significant portion of the southwest Washington coast and is part of the county’s disaster communication plan.