Hurricane Sandy Open Thread

And the hurricane said to the coconut tree, "hold onto your nuts, this ain't no ordinary blow job!"

"What if Gangnam Style was actually a giant rain dance and we brought this hurricane upon ourselves"

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kll86bDn_MgWoo6Ja7oHo_yvI0SCqggEvNWwPWIcrHY/preview?sle=true

»www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/i···477.html

NAC had better have their sh** in gear, as they do have a history of having power-related issues (power failing, generators not kicking in, or whatever). As someone who did datacenter work for a few years I can assure you lots of things can go wrong, but with a proper checklist in advance it's absolutely possible to make sure nothing goes amiss.

I have heard supermarkets have some extra pull. But they have refrigeration, and perishable goods.

..because we all know Fiber Optic lines carry High Voltage.

I swear I just had a brain aneurysm from just reading that.

Large chain stores have crisis response teams that roll generators and potentially wireless/SATCOM networking to the affected stores. (Cash-only business results in a lot of lost sales and today, especially in this economy, it's WAY too risky to do off-line auths.)

ISPs also have generators. The challenge, when is the last time they tested that they can run the data center on them? How much on-site fuel do they have and do they have a plan in place to acquire additional fuel should there be an extended outage.

Of course that's why cloud-based virtualization makes so much sense for critical 7x24 systems. It's bringing down the cost of moving services from the affected data center BEFORE power is lost or flooded or whatever...

Lowes is different than a supermarket -- they have no perishable merchandise. They don't need a huge generator to operate safety systems and the POS. Although some merchandise is sensitive to cold, it doesn't take much electricity to run the blower motors if they have natural gas heat.

It's also important to consider that network communications will also go down and a suitable backup should be available. That's why the crisis response team should also have a SATCOM or wireless alternative for payment auths.

Verizon:
The storm surge from Hurricane Sandy has resulted in flooding at several Verizon Central Offices in Lower Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island causing power failures and rendering back-up power systems at these sites inoperable. While these sites are currently on battery power, the inevitable loss of power requires that all equipment at these sites be powered down to prevent damage. Customers that are served by these central offices will experience a loss of all services including FiOS (voice, internet, video), high speed internet, and telephone services. Some customers may experience intermittent busy signals while attempting to dial 311 service for non-emergency calls. Verizon engineers continue to assess the damage at these locations and we will post updates as additional information is available.

AT&T:
As we continue to closely monitor our wireline and wireless networks for service disruptions, we are experiencing some issues in areas heavily impacted by the storm. We are in the initial stages of performing an on-the-ground assessment of our network for damage and crews will be working around the clock to restore service. We are deploying personnel and equipment as soon as it is safe to do so.

Sprint:
Sprint is experiencing service impacts in the states affected by Hurricane Sandy and the concurrent winter weather conditions, particularly in the New York tri-state area, the Washington, DC metro area, Pennsylvania, and parts of New England. These impacts are due to loss of commercial power, flooding, loss of cell site backhaul connections, site access and damaging debris. Weather and safety conditions are still dire in some areas, but our technicians are assessing the damage and servicing sites as they become known to us and as the areas are deemed safe to enter. Given the on-going weather conditions, we cannot provide a specific number of impacted customers, but we ask that they remain patient at this time and exercise caution in the aftermath of the recent events.

T-Mobile:
Severe high winds and weather conditions continue to affect many areas. Due to the impacts of Sandy, T-Mobile customers may be experiencing service disruptions or an inability to access service in some areas, especially those that were hardest hit by the storm. T-Mobile rapid response engineering teams are assessing the situation and we are moving as quickly as possible.

Sounds like some carriers are also going to lose peering soon:

quote:

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"The flooding has submerged and destroyed the site's diesel pumps and is preventing fuel from being pumped to the generators on the mezzanine level. The available fuel reserves on the mezzanine level are estimated to support customer loads for approximately 5-7 hours. Once this fuel supply has been exhausted the generator will no longer be able to sustain operation and critical customer power loads will be lost. The building itself is being evacuated and no remote hands support will be available to assist in any equipment shutdown."

75 Broad Street in Manhattan, where both Internap and Peer1 Hosting are shutting down operations.

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big failure. Need to have redundant pumps above the first or second floor in a ventilated area.

That's what I was afraid of.

Storm should be over, but good luck getting into Philly airport. They take 2 or 3 days to recover from normal thunder storm.

... Your neighbor's pets!
They should be eaten first -- before resorting to cannibalism.

Survival etiquette is important.

Turn off your TV for 3-4 days. There'll be nothing but Sandy coverage for that time. NYC is the center of the universe with the NE surrounding it. Except for LA the rest of us are in fly-over country and don't exist (except for election coverage).

Could be the 24/7 mud slinging between Obama and Romney.

With hurricane Irrene did you loose uverse service,