AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – We are now almost three weeks removed from the historic destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in the CSRA.

While power is back on in most parts of Augusta, many customers still do not have internet.

Neighbors on Jamaica Drive are still waiting for the piles of rubble to be removed, but some like Patricia Golson are also waiting to get back online.

“We lost power for a week, Friday to Friday. But since the storm, we’ve been without internet,” Golson said.

Golson’s back deck was badly affected by Helene, but she is one of many Comcast customers who were unable to reconnect.

“The biggest challenge was getting in touch with my insurance company and trying to get the paperwork in with them because they want it quick, fast and in a hurry – I can’t do that, I don’t have internet.” I tried “To find someone who has it,” Golson said. “Besides, we’re just trying to keep track of what’s going on: we don’t know what’s going on because we don’t have a TV.”

Comcast has opened more than 11,000 hotspots around Augusta to get the city back online, and other neighbors have benefited.

“We found a hotspot where we can actually have internet – it’s not as fast as Comcast, but we get things done,” Joseph Bauer said.

So the question is: When will the internet be fully restored?

We spoke with Comcast Regional Senior VP Mike McArdle to get more answers.

He recently visited Augusta to see for himself – and called the damage “staggering.”

“I’ve seen storms in the Northeast, blizzards where there are piles of snow and drifts on every corner – but in Augusta there are tree drifts,” McArdle said. “Piles of trees block roads, houses and access roads. It’s just a catastrophic impact that I really haven’t seen in my 28 years in office.”

McArdle said 150 Comcast employees currently live and work in Augusta and are working around the clock to restore internet access as quickly as possible.

“We needed more help, so we quadrupled our staff in Augusta for storm response efforts,” McArdle said. “We bring in crews from across the southern region, across our organization and, frankly, across the country.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, he confirmed that 80% of Comcast customers in Augusta are back online.

Comcast has changed the full recovery date for customers twice – according to McArdle, this is because the damage turned out to be a bigger problem than originally expected.

“Faced with some instability, some repeated cuts and even the need to postpone some of the repairs we were doing – that’s why we had to do this,” he added.

So the question is: When will the internet be fully restored?

Wow! Internet tells NewsChannel 6 that nearly 100% of the network is operational and more than 60% of customers are back online.

However, 40% of customers still do not have internet and the company is still working on setting a target date.

Wow! issued this statement from Debra Havins, vice president of corporate communications:

“While we do not currently have an estimated time when services will be fully restored, we are making progress every day and working around the clock to get all customers back online as quickly as possible.”.”

McArdle says her customers will soon see light at the end of the tunnel.

“We expect the vast majority to be restored by October 19th and are actually focused on the longer, more complex repairs by the 24th,” McArdle said. “As we repair the network in these neighborhoods, in addition to repairing the network, we will – and already are – addressing these individual service issues.”

As the waiting game continues, it looks like some neighbors still have a few more days until they can finally get in touch again.

“We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully it’ll come back.” There’s nothing I can do – nothing any of us can do. They can only work as hard and as fast as they can,” Golson said.

Comcast also recently donated $100,000 to United Way of the CSRA to contribute to storm relief.

McArdle says the company continues to work to provide much-needed water to the area.

“We donated over 15,000 cases of water to all of our storm-affected areas – most of which came to Augusta,” McArdle said. “That’s something we’re trying to do in all of this: not only get services back up and running, but also make sure that we’re part of the community and part of those recovery efforts and support.”

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