john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (10/19/89)
Last night, a night that will live in infamy, I finally arrived at a
friend's house in the Mojave desert. I was supposed to leave on
Saturday, but because of one thing and another the trip got delayed.
It's about a seven-hour drive from the Bay Area to the High Desert, so
to kill the time I listen to my favorite CDs.
I let myself in, my friend not being at home, and proceeded to check
my machine for messages. Reorder. Again and again. Thinking that the
800 translations might be messed up for some reason, I dialed the POTS
number (you should always know the POTS number for 800 service!).
Again, reorder. So I made a "thing" of it and dialed over and over.
Finally I got an "all circuits are busy" recording. At that point, I
just figured that Contel was messing up and looked elsewhere for
entertainment.
On went the TV, and it comes up with scene after scene of collapsed
buildings, freeway structures, and then suddenly a shot of a very
familier structure--the Bay Bridge. It seemed that while I was driving
through Bakersfield, it was the "big one". With mouth hanging open, I
watched all of the damage footage. Then they revealed the epicenter.
No it was not SF or Oakland but in the Santa Cruz Mountains --
thirty-five miles CLOSER to my house than to the area so badly
damaged.
At that point I became a little anxious. How were my relatives in
town? Was my house still standing? How were my clients faring (that I
had left in the hands of an assistant)? No amount of dialing could
break through. Then I realized that my desert friend had a 950
Telesphere account. SUCCESS! I made call after call using that
account, noting the sluggishness of the Bay Area COs, which were
probably completely overloaded.
But the point is that I got through and determined that everyone was
OK, my house was OK, but my clients were hit hard. I came home.
On the way home, I listened to SF radio to get a feeling for what was
going on and at one point spokepersons for AT&T and Sprint were
crowing about how they were blocking calls from outside the area so
that the local Bay Area network would not be overworked. Well, I am
about to write a letter of appreciation to Telesphere and a show-cause
request why I shouldn't cancel my AT&T and Sprint accounts. Thanks to
Telesphere, I was able to handle some emergencies over the phone (not
to mention putting my mind at ease). That was NO THANKS to AT&T and
Sprint. Now, who is backing up whom?
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !edg@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Edward Greenberg) (10/21/89)
I kinda think that it's a good idea to divide traffic capability between incoming and outgoing during a disaster. John H. suggests that he should have gotten through on ATT or Sprint, but if this was true, not only would we have a massive jam incoming, but no outgoing service either. As it was, I made one outgoing ATT call and reassured everybody outside the area by notifying my parents. Someone put it well: Better to let the people in trouble call out for help. -edg Ed Greenberg uunet!apple!netcom!edg
klg@dukeac.UUCP (Kim Greer) (10/26/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0462m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: + [stuff deleted about finding out there was an earthquake] +At that point I became a little anxious. How were my relatives in +town? Was my house still standing? How were my clients faring (that I +had left in the hands of an assistant)? No amount of dialing could +break through. Then I realized that my desert friend had a 950 +Telesphere account. SUCCESS! I made call after call using that +account, noting the sluggishness of the Bay Area COs, which were +probably completely overloaded. +On the way home, I listened to SF radio to get a feeling for what was +going on and at one point spokepersons for AT&T and Sprint were +crowing about how they were blocking calls from outside the area so +that the local Bay Area network would not be overworked. Well, I am +about to write a letter of appreciation to Telesphere and a show-cause +request why I shouldn't cancel my AT&T and Sprint accounts. Thanks to +Telesphere, I was able to handle some emergencies over the phone (not +to mention putting my mind at ease). That was NO THANKS to AT&T and +Sprint. Now, who is backing up whom? John, I sympathize with you. I really do know the feeling - I had the same experience trying to call my parents and brother in Charlotte in the aftermath of Hugo (the hurricane, not the car :^). I was mad at "the phone company" for not letting me through. Little did I know at the time that it really wasn't their fault, as there were thousands of lines down, as the eye of Hugo went right over Charlotte. (My neighbor who works at Duke Power told me that they had replaced over 4500 utility poles in Charlotte, to say nothing of Rock Hill, Gastonia, etc., and they still weren't through.) My folks got their power back seven days later, and the phone was back working on the eighth day. Anyway, what has this got to do with the Digest and your posting? I think the thing to remember is that AT&T and Sprint were not "crowing"; they were trying to do exactly what was the best option under the circumstances: prevent the network from crumbling under the weight of NON-EMERGENCY calls. I head on ABC at one point in a 5 minute period, there were over a million calls that were logged trying to get into San Francisco. (I think I got those numbers right). The tv networks were telling people not to call in, explaining the problem. Let's face it, the vast majority of incoming calls would do nothing the help the situation in the face of big time destruction. The system *had* to be alive to respond to outgoing EMERGENCY calls that had to do with saving lives and getting outside help in. I agree with the decision to block incoming calls, even if the lines were not down. Again, I sympathize with you, but I think you are wrong. What is the alternative? - letting literally millions of people trying to call into SF, SJ, etc. with little or no chance of getting through tie up the circuits? Most incoming calls were low priority; the outgoing were the most critical at the time. Kim Greer Duke Univ Med Ctr klg@orion.mc.duke.edu