Posted on 08/29/2012 4:22:39 PM PDT by matt04
I live in CT. I lived thru Irene and the freak October snowstorm that left parts of the region without power for over a week in some cases. The supposedly hearty New England residents were crying within two days how they didn't have power and cable.
I decided to take a look at the Facebook page of one of the major cable companies in the path of Isaac. All these screen shots were taken around 6:30 PM Eastern time on 8/29.
http://imgur.com/a/0sVS0
I’m just hoping the forecast is correct and the remnants are going to come across the midwest and dump some major rain on Michigan.
Its too late to save anything but it will help recharge the water table.
You'll also find out after a hurricane when the power is out STOP SIGNS DO NOT WORK! In fact all road signs cease to work. It truly is amazing.
At least my business partner is complaining about the rainy forecast. We're taking Sunday & Monday off and really, I don't care what kind of weather we have. I'm never home on rainy days because I'm never hardly home at all.
Somehow I'll manage. If that means BBQ with umbrella in hand, that might just be fun.
I like the rain. I can pull up a lawn chair in the garage and watch it rain for hours.
I remember after most of CT lost power after the Oct 29, 2011 snow storm that dumped a foot of heavy wet snow on trees with the leaves still on them, people drove like morons.
It was crap shoot is people would stop, slow or just drive thru a intersection, even if it was always controlled by stop signs, not lights. Even worse people would play chicken driving around a down tree in the road.
Cable always goes out first & comes back on last. Probably so the cable company can secure its equipment. ATT phone rarely goes out.
This is why I do not have a cable phone. It is useless in a storm. However, cell service is usually available during a storm, so I am seriously considering dumping my ATT land line.
Hopefully, TV & Internet in the future will go to a wireless, 4G cell type system, where there is little chance of losing connection.
Be carefull what you wish for. When Agnes stalled over central PA the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg was 26 feet over flood. On a tributary, 50 miles away, I saw a Lincoln Continental parked - in a tree 20 feet over the road.
After Ike, a girl in a convertible ran a stop sign coming from my right side.
I managed to stop before that diesel climbed over the top of her, but when she passed in front of me she was so close I couldn't see the top of her head.
She was in complete bliss. Next road down she ran another stop sign.
Dont dump your land line. Cells transmissions get overloaded and you cannot communicate. Sometimes messages and texts get there days later or not at all.
Cell towers also fall or lose power like the one in our town a few years ago.
I am going back to a land line as soon as I finish paying off some bills.
During a rain storm this past week, I had two people come at me the wrong way on one-way streets and a third blow through a stop sign right in front of me, in less than five minutes.
I’m just above the dam. Most the water rises here is about 6 inches.
Me too. But it never rains where I live. :^(
It's the biggest thing I miss about where you live.
Depending on where you live the traditional copper pair land line may not go direct to the CO. Sometimes they run to a Remote Terminal then to the CO by fiber, basically a mini CO either above or below ground. They are only powered by battery backup, though they tend to last 24-48 hours from my experience.
The AT&T VRADS and CebleCo nodes that are used with VOIP telephone service seem to last 8-10 hours on battery.
With copper to a RT you are relying on AT&T getting generators out to them. With VOIP you are relying on the provider getting generators out AND having power to power the equipment in your home to make the phones work.
He honestly thought he could make me back up and was just short of bumping me with that peddle car.
I assure you the Dodge didn't back up. Dodge started creeping forward and he decided it was best for him to back up.
I don't know what the hell gets into people that the stupid just comes out.
I have DirectTV and live in a suburb of New Orleans. I couldn’t tell you if the satellite went out or not, because I haven’t had power since last night. But I remember after Katrina, we didn’t have power for several weeks, but the satellite dish survived the storm. When we got our power back, I picked up the phone and called DirectTV and while I was on the phone, my satellite was back on. But those who had cable had to wait for weeks to get their service back.
I know most, if not all, cell towers in Central Florida now have generators.
When I had my power knocked out last I fired up my generator to get my a/c and computer going. For giggles I hooked up my cable modem and router to my power strip.
I had internet access. No power in town but I did have internet access over my cable.
Most cable companies have somewhere between 8-10 hrs. of battery backup in their network. Those beige/green/gray boxes on poles every few miles supply power to the network. Depending on provider, in extend outages they can attach generators to them.
Ah. Thanks for the explanation!
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