Internet outage!

gf beranek

gf beranek

Old Schooler
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
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God's country, North Coast
Internet service on the Mendocino Coast has been out for a few days. Affecting tens of thousands, business credit card machines, gas pumps, wireless networks, banks, ATM's and private clients.

Service came on for everyone about an hour ago.

Now, I just want to point out this little outage we had outright crippled half of the commerce on the coast for the last 3 days! Most businesses had to go to cash transactions, but with ATM's down it threw a wrench in the gears for many to make cash transactions.

It was a real mess for so many, and it reveled to me just how reliant we are becoming on very a fragile communication / commerce infrastructure. The Internet!

Wake up call for me.
 
Yeah I think about that often. It's amazing how helpless people are when the battery on their smart phone dies!
 
Here if you cause an outage, like a misdirected tree breaks the cable, in addition to the hefty repair costs, any loss of business that results, you are on the hook for as well. It could easily create a minus for the week or a year.
 
Anyone interested in this kind of thing might like to read One Second After by William Forstchen. It's about the first year after a catastrophic power failure. Pretty scary stuff
 
Jeez, Jerry, I read it as " Internet outrage".
Since you are normally a very calm person, that got me out of my chair.

I keep everything to do with the company on paper copies as a back-up.
After 5 years, I dump the copies.
5 years is how much time the IRS has to come after you, here.

Also, I keep a lot of cash in my strongbox and when I go travelling, I bring cash, not a credit card.
Got in trouble in Spain once, when My credit card decided to quit, and learned the lesson.
 
This outage affected nearly every life on the coast, and was a huge eye opener as to the inadequacy of the (1) fiber optic cable that leads from inland to the coast. At&t should be ashamed.
Every business was affected. Grocers, gas stations, medical and dental offices, fire and police, banks and postal, and on and on. No internet means limited commerce, whether we like it or not. No debit / credit card's could be used. No government issued EBD cards issued to the homeless for food could be used for 2 and a half days! It was cash-only. ATM's were down and people couldn't access their cash easily. Hotel/motel/inns that depend on internet reservations during this busy summer season couldn't access their email. Tourism is the only thing left going on around here and it was brought to it's knees. Not to mention the unfortunate travelers in the area that had no means of using debit/credit cards. We were able to function the old school way at the bank, but were limited in what we could do.
Cell service was out. Here on the coast it's sketchy anyway, so we are used to being without service. But a good portion of land line service was out as well. Coupled with no cell service it becomes a critical issue and can be a matter of safety for some.
Until you experience a loss in infrastructure, you don't realize the implications. It has been a real eye-opener to the community. We got lucky this time, we still had power!
 
Most of the cable is underground but there are a few sections where it was too boggy and so it came up out of the ground. One of the poles holding the line was lower than standard and a heavy equipment operator drove by and his equipment caught the line, ripping 450 ft of cable out of the ground. There are a lot of "low lines" around here according to local truck drivers. And it happened quite a ways from town in an isolated area. Getting the men and equipment up here from the bay area to fix it took an entire day in itself.
 
Most of the cable is underground but there are a few sections where it was too boggy and so it came up out of the ground. One of the poles holding the line was lower than standard and a heavy equipment operator drove by and his equipment caught the line, ripping 450 ft of cable out of the ground. There are a lot of "low lines" around here according to local truck drivers. And it happened quite a ways from town in an isolated area. Getting the men and equipment up here from the bay area to fix it took an entire day in itself.
 
Terri, how did customers at the bank respond to delays and the inconvenience? People were cool about it?
 
Pretty much, Jay. Mendocino is a small community and we know our customers very well. The bank is like a hub in the town. It's cool that way. The outage involved the entire area so everyone was in the same boat. Our customers knew we were doing the best we could. On a lighter note, the internet cafe a few doors down from the bank reported that they actually heard their customers talking to each other! Peoples faces weren't glued to their cell phones as they crossed the street!
 
....after Irene town was mess , National Guard in charge and all roads closed....my little bank was a complete flood out...they were set up with a conference room at the other little bank here to do business with laptops and a cashbox...
 
Glad that nobody got irritated, Terri, your customers are decent that way. Good for you. I started doing my banking at the local agricultural bank, much like the way that you describe, casual and friendly in there, and you quickly get to know the workers. I mean that you don't deal with everyone, but there is facial recognition if people aren't too busy to look up, and some welcoming or what is best to call it. It's easy to joke around and talk about unrelated matters with the local folks working there. One of the gals in there was transferred. She was really cool....too bad. She seemed more the consummate professional by being so friendly the way she did her work. Maybe most people don't care, but just a simple errand like going to the bank makes for a better day when the atmosphere is like that. The regular bank type banks are so formal institutionalized around here, it's just all business and nothing at all attractive about the way that they operate. Actually, kind of creepy.
 
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  • #21
old irish said:
SALT is like gold. Gerry was it because of the fires? Our fellerbuncher got called up and it is in Montana. Crazy.
Click to expand...

It was because of a car-pole accident. A local logger was transporting some equipment and it snagged the overhead fiber optic cable and tore it down.
 
Someone fell asleep at the wheel and slammed into the power pole down the road from my shop, mid afternoon. The pole is broken and bent over at about fifteen degrees, but the lines are intact. I heard it, a strange thud. They must have only clipped it, because miraculously they weren't hurt. Cops were all over when i went to take a look, but they had already moved the car, or the driver did on his own. For some reason i wasn't really interested to go down there to see what happened. Three days ago and it is still like that, but they put some cones and a small barrier around it for what purpose i can not tell.
 
Haha, good conclusion. Probably the delay has something to do with the cops and accident report. They aren't too keen on working during the hot months.
 
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