Rep. Kat Cammack
Residents and first responders in the small Gulf Coast town of Horseshoe Beach, Fla., now have stronger emergency communications after U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) joined AT&T, the FirstNet Authority, and local officials on Tuesday to celebrate the opening of a new FirstNet wireless coverage site.
The new tower expands a dedicated communications network for police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel in the Dixie County community, which has been battered by three hurricanes in just over a year.
“When Helene hit, the men and women protecting Horseshoe Beach couldn’t get a signal. In a storm, that’s the difference between a rescue and a recovery,” Rep. Cammack said during a ribbon cutting ceremony. “I took the problem to AT&T and FirstNet, and today this new site goes on the air.”
Horseshoe Beach was struck by Hurricane Idalia in August 2023, Hurricane Debby in August 2024, and Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Between Idalia and Helene alone, the town lost roughly 175 of its 365 homes, and has been rebuilt twice in three years.
Rep. Cammack worked directly with AT&T FirstNet and the town of Horseshoe Beach to bring the new coverage site to the community after emergency communications failures during those storms left first responders without reliable connectivity.
“Nobody here quits, and neither will we,” the congresswoman said. “This site is the start, and we are going to keep building until every first responder on this coast can count on a signal.”
The new site connects Horseshoe Beach to FirstNet, built by AT&T in partnership with the FirstNet Authority, to provide police, fire, and EMS priority and preemption on the network, meaning first responder traffic goes through even when commercial networks are overloaded during a disaster, according to Rep. Cammack’s staff.
Nearly 30,600 public safety agencies and organizations nationwide use FirstNet, according to AT&T’s congressional testimony in January, and the Horseshoe Beach site is part of a nationwide FirstNet expansion.