SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday stepped up the deployment of Starlink's direct cell communications service to areas expected to be hit by Hurricane Milton, marking the aerospace company's latest aid effort.
This rollout is new partnership Starlink and T-Mobile will launch a direct-to-cell satellite that will issue emergency alerts to all phones and carriers affected by Hurricane Milton. Musk made the announcement Wednesday night.. Activation is free and applies to carriers other than T-Mobile, he added.
Milton is currently a Category 4 storm and is expected to make landfall in Florida as early as Wednesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Forecasters say Milton is the worst storm to hit the state's west coast in more than 100 years.
Milton is expected to bring “life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds,” and as many as 5.9 million people in Florida are under mandatory evacuation orders.
Basic texting will also be enabled exclusively for T-Mobile phones in affected areas, allowing users to text others, call 911, and receive emergency alerts. Now it looks like this. SpaceX announced on Tuesday.
SpaceX added that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) immediately granted emergency temporary authority to the Florida partnership.
Milton is expected to hit Florida less than two weeks after Hurricane Helen battered parts of the Sunshine State and wreaked havoc in Georgia and North Carolina.
SpaceX sent more than 10,000 Starlink terminals last week to North Carolina and other areas affected by Helen. One Starlink was expected to be deployed to every county's emergency operations center to assist with communications.
Musk, who also owns social media platform X, came under fire last week. to make a point He was told that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is “actively preventing” SpaceX volunteers from assisting with recovery efforts in North Carolina.
In another post, he falsely claimed that the federal government had “closed” airspace and that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was “curtailing aircraft operations” carrying deliveries to Helen victims. .
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg condemned the statement, insisting that the airspace was not closed and that the FAA was “not interfering with legitimate rescue and recovery flights.”
The two chatted offline, and Musk later posted a message thanking Buttigieg for the conversation.
Mr. Musk's false claims were part of a widespread flood of misinformation witnessed across social media platforms in the aftermath of the Helen incident. Federal, state and local leaders are warning that the spread of falsehoods by online users, including some politicians, is complicating the South's already difficult recovery process.
Falsehoods about government funding were among the most shared claims on social media, with former President Trump claiming last week that while FEMA was directing disaster relief funds to immigrants, the government intentionally He baselessly claimed that aid was being withheld from disaster victims.
Both of these claims have been denied by FEMA, whichA page titled “Responding to Hurricane Rumors”Here users can see debunked rumors about government agencies' responses.
FEMA Administrator Dean Criswell said Wednesday that the amount of misinformation before Milton appears to be decreasing, and administrators won't let it become a “distraction.” he told reporters.
The White House on Tuesday set up a Reddit page with official updates on Milton.
Musk supports Trump's re-election bid and has recently become more involved in politics as the election approaches. The tech billionaire appeared alongside Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last week and lambasted Democrats.
Musk supports the Save America PAC, an outside group that has played a leading role in the Trump campaign's efforts to get out the vote.
