rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu (Linc Madison) (10/22/89)
Thanks for your concern, Patrick. I and most of Berkeley came through unscathed. FIRST OFF, I WANT TO **SQUELCH** A RUMOR that has spread internationally. The library system of the University of California at Berkeley DID NOT burn down! There was a fire at Hustead's Towing Co., which is across the street from Berkeley High School and one block down from the city's main public library. Speculation got garbled into "UC Berkeley Library on fire." OK, on to telecom-related issues. Here at my home, I had uninterrupted service on all utilities, including telephone and hot water (the latter much the envy of my friends across the bay). I was out and about at the time of the quake, and didn't realize how big it had been until about 6:30. I promptly tried to call my parents. My roommate (who has his own line) was trying my line because his line was "dead." Not true; we just had to wait up to a minute for dialtone. (I guess maybe one of the transbay pipelines carrying the raw dialtone from the wells or mines broke ;-) I dialed Texas on my default carrier, US Sprint, to a fast busy. I redialed 10288-1+ and got through on the first try. My parents were then able to field calls from and place calls to at least a dozen concerned relatives/friends across the country. I, for one, think that giving outgoing calls priority was a good move. Even as late as yester- day (Friday) there were major problems getting connections Transbay. Areas of S.F. and Santa Cruz County are just now getting phone service. (For those unfamiliar with the area, San Francisco is opposite Berkeley and Oakland.) Ole's comment about slow dialing was true, but you didn't need to dial slowly *pulse*, just slowly. Dialing at my normal clip got a fast busy 9 times out of 10, but pausing three to five full seconds between digits greatly improved things. Pulse was easier only because it built in a certain level of delay. Phone service into Santa Cruz, even from within this area, was dicey Tuesday evening until nearly midnight. The usual hacks of dialing a 950 number to use a long distance company other than Pac*Bell didn't work. Friends have told me they had problems dialing in even Friday and Saturday from outside California. Call volume this weekend is expected to be quite heavy, as all the people who just got "I'm alive" messages out Tuesday call back with all the details. I'm still reeling in disbelief: I frequented both collapsed freeways and have been to many other of the devastated areas. I called my parents out of pure reflex before I even realized the state of things. I've only yesterday and today managed to contact some people in S.F. I haven't logged on earlier because I haven't been on campus since Tuesday at about 4:35 pm. and I had my Macintosh disconnected to guard against aftershocks and power irregularities. I'm sorry if this is rambling, but perhaps my incoherence even this many days afterwards tells something of its own story. Linc Madison = rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu