MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Killingsworth Cove is still recovering from the damage that an EF-2 tornado left behind last week, but a longtime project has finally been completed that could possibly help that community moving forward.
“To see the outpouring of support, the constant messages through Facebook and on my personal phone of people want to come out and help the organizations that have disaster relief supplies and money that want to donate that to the to the affected families, it’s been awesome,” Killingsworth Cove Volunteer Fire Captain Nathan Aston said.
The storm damage cleanup process continues, but on Thursday, the community received an announcement: 600 homes in Killingsworth Cove will have access to fiber optic broadband internet.
“It just makes it more evident that how this underserved community, how important this broadband project is to them,” Madison County Commissioner Craig Hill said.
In addition to a lack of internet resources, Killingsworth Cove has poor cell reception. Broadband means more access to services that could come in handy for future severe weather, like WIFI calling.
“A lot of family members could not get in touch with their family members, and we have generator power on all of our systems,” said New Hope Telephone Cooperative General Manager Daniel Martin. “So, if they have a battery backup at the house or they have a home generator, those services will continue to work always.”
The Killingsworth Cove Volunteer Fire Department has relied on dial-up internet, and Aston said this change will help them better connect with the community they serve.
“We’ve been trying get our department, as remote as it is, access to the broadband Internet so that we could get access to training materials, lifesaving things, even our AEDs have to update over Internet for their services and supplies, and we just weren’t able to do any of that,” Aston said.
This is Madison County’s first public-private broadband partnership, and Hill said he hopes to see broadband availability spread to other communities like Maysville and Gurley. The two-million-dollar Killingsworth Cove project was funded by the American Rescue Plan and New Hope Telephone Cooperative.
Hill said he has been working on this project for several years. The infrastructure is officially in place, and some living in Killingsworth Cove are already connected.
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