myerston@cts.sri.com (10/19/89)
Small sampling of the effects of the Big One in the SF Bay
(mid-peninsula and the City):
Our 4000 line PBX come through unscathed, all earthquake-braced
gear didn't miss a beat, late-install T-1 Mux "walked" about 18 inches
but stayed upright and within the slack in the cable. Local service
was amazingly unaffected, emergency calls within the first 1/2 hour
(before the 1st after-shock) went through on 1 or 2 tries. Outgoing
LD not much problem. When I called out-of-state numbers I invariably
found they had been trying unsuccessfully to call this way.
AT&T has implemented some kind of "flow-control" giving us (NPA
415 and 408) a better Outgoing GOS. Most people I have spoken to have
lost, at most, A/C power. Those with limited battery backup may go
down soon. Some major hotels in SF are in this boat. Cellular was
jammed as a result of resulting (road) traffic jams. I had not
problems calling my home from outside the area but got fast-busies on
almost every other call. All-in-all Disaater Recovery Planning seemed
to pay off.
(Personal Note: If you have cable TV at home keep a residual
antenna around. Cable was out, most local TV stations came up in
fairly short order).