Apple urged to activate iPhone’s FM radio chip after hurricanes

A man checks his cell phone next to a road at night in one of a few places with cell signal in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on September 25, 2017, where a 7pm-6am curfew has been imposed following impact of Hurricane Maria on the island. / AFP PHOTO / Ricardo ARDUENGO

For 19 nonstop hours as Hurricane Irma lashed Florida, disc jockey Nio Fernandez broadcast updates in Spanish from the 92.5 Maxima radio studios in St Petersburg, fielding updates from those trapped in their homes as wind and rain whipped through the area. 

”There was a sense of desperation in people’s voices,” he said of callers to the station. “They needed to know what was happening.”