Of course, local readers know this already by now. But when it happened, many did not and there was no way to let people know. Some radio stations made mention of the failure, but had little information to go on. Apparently, some contractor, possibly with a backhoe, broke the line (that used to be the fanciful example we used for what could happen). I really think at&t has an obligation to release information to the public immediately so that radio stations and others who can still communicate can spread the word.
I had newspapers, radio stations and clients calling our office to find out what was going on. Obviously, I had no information. Fortunately, for our web hosting clients our servers reside outside the area, so even though our local clients couldn’t reach their own web sites, the rest of the world could.
Gee, I’ve missed you guys. I laughed when I figured out the fiber was down, probably because my first inclination was to call my sources to filter the outrage.
I had a thought that may or may not help in any quantifiable way but I think there needs to be some sort of real dollar amount attached to these outages to wake up the community regarding the importance and lost money that results when this happens. What are we talking about? A thousand, a million, more? Maybe RTC could have some sort of tally count on its website where people can log on and say what they figure they lost. This was a number I was always looking to track down and had difficulty doing.
This is very good reason why you do not want to host a website here in Humboldt County unless you are only servicing local people. Until we get a redundant cable we are toast when some idiot in a backhoe digs up the fiber. We live in an age where this kind of an outage costs some real money.
Hi Bob,
I actually said very few, and who you noted are among those very few. However, there are more that don’t really have the capacity to go live in a meaningful way, meaning they don’t have the staff, etc. to do it.
I completely agree with you that ATT should alert the media when something like this happens. I do believe that certain public officials were notified. RTC, as you recall, suggested that the Sheriff should notify the media when something like this happens. This went to the “someday” pile I think partly because we could not believe that it could happen a THIRD time in less than six months… Let’s put that on the agenda for our next RTC Board meeting.
Thanks! Gregg
KHUM comes on around here when the net goes down. It’s a pleasant way to stay informed, and it was nice of them to officially kick off the weekend at about 2:30 on Friday.
I spoke with a notary yesterday who lost an assignment from outside of Humboldt because of the loss of internet. Multiply that by God-knows-how-many.
Gregg,
KGOE was making live announcements and KHSU also had kind of an announcement early in the afternoon. And KMUD was also working on the story. But none of these stations had any real information. So, while I applaud KHUM folks for their diligence, it’s not fair to say no other media would have the interest or capacity for live coverage.
I think at&t should be immediately forthcoming about an outage that affects so many people on such an immediate level. This would go a long way in allaying rumors, anxiety and confusion.
Is anyone else’s Suddendrop email not functioning?
KHUM was on the issue and broadcasting live updates very soon after the event started. I heard Mike Dronkers and Patrick Cleary talking about it by noon and I went live with them shortly thereafter.
The problem we have here is that very few of our media outlets even have the ability (desire) to go live with these kinds of announcements and give significant airtime to covering events like these. I’m not sure that even if notification did go out, that too many of them would air information in a timely manner (or at all).
By way of full disclosure, I go to work at Lost Coast Communications (KHUM/KSLG/KWPT) in July.
I agree. When they have an area- wide outage like that, you’d think they’d have the sense to call some of the local T.V. and radio stations and give them the heads up on what’s happening.
I figured it wasn’t just my connection because I couldn’t connect even using the sbcglobal dial up numbers. Still, it was one of the few times I called them about an outage. I called twice and got some message that all the lines were busy and to call back later.
Maybe they could even set up some kind of zip code related auto response to phone calls? Something that, when they have an outage, they could intercept all calls from that area and give a recorded message that they’re aware of the outage and are working on it?
The Internets ate my homework!
atm’s were down in arcata, some businesses had card-swipes working…not quite last december, but does anyone know what really happened? highspeed servers at my workplace were up and down the last couple of days, too…likely unrelated, but it’s frustrating, as mike stated. deadlines missed by many.
Ruined my work day. Missed a deadline.