Cox crews making significant progress restoring service after hurricane

Press release from Cox Communications

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Cox crews from around the region have helped restore services to thousands of customers since Hurricane Helene made landfall. Following the storm, over 50% of Cox customers in Central Florida were offline. As of this morning, that number has been reduced to under 6% offline, and it will continue to improve as commercial power is restored and repairs are completed. As a reminder, Cox follows commercial power restoration. Once power crews have completed their work in an area, our crews move into the neighborhoods. Most often, services are automatically restored once power comes back on.

“I’d like to thank our power partners for restoring electricity and repairing damaged poles, so that Cox teams can quickly follow with telecommunication restoration to our customers,” said Aimee Pfannenstiel, market vice president of Cox Central Florida. “The energy power path to your home may not mirror the one of our telecommunication services. Power and cable are independent of one another, so we could be working on a customer’s services several miles from their home.”

Cox crews have made significant progress reconnecting the market, with more extensive work to be done in some small pockets where network infrastructure was more heavily damaged.  

“We appreciate everyone’s patience while we continue to restore services, and we won’t rest until all customers are back online,” added Pfannenstiel.

All storm-related outages in Marion County have been restored, and all Cox stores in Central Florida are open normal business hours.

As Cox continues to restore services in Central Florida, we’d like to remind customers:

• If your power has come back on but only some of your Cox services are working, reset your receivers and modem before reaching out to Cox. This can be done by unplugging your equipment for a minute, then plugging back in to reset. You can also do this via the Cox Connect App and at Cox.com. If this doesn’t solve your service issue, you can schedule a service call through SmartHelp in the Cox app or at 877-556-7815.
• If you visibly see a line to your home disconnected, you will need to schedule an appointment for a technician to make repairs. Log onto the Cox app, Cox.com or call 877-556-7815 to get the appointment scheduled.
• Keep away from loose, dangling, or down lines. Treat every line as if it is an active power line.
• Avoid placing storm debris near telecommunications and utility infrastructure in your yard to prevent further damage and to allow easier access for our technicians.
• To help customers keep up to date with the latest news, weather, and information while services are out, they can download the Contour app on Apple or Google Play. Visit watchtv.cox.com for more information on your viewing options.  
• All technicians, whether employee or contractor, must display a Cox logo badge at all times. Also, the vehicle in which the technician will be operating will have the large Cox logo or a contractor magnet that will display the contractor company name along with the Cox logo.
• If you have damaged equipment please return it to a Cox Solutions Store. New equipment can also be delivered to your home and you can arrange for UPS to pick up damaged equipment for free, or you can drop it off at a nearby UPS store.

More details and answers to questions can be found at Cox.com/hurricane or chat with one of our care agents via Cox.com/chat or in SmartHelp in the Cox app.