Radio Amateur KC2HMZ wrote:
Power went out here at about 4:15 PM, came back on at about 6:30 PM.
However, two blocks from here, the power still isn't on yet, and as
I'm writing this it's now past 11PM. On my way home, saw lots of folks
sitting out on their porches with gas lamps. Some of them even think
the phones aren't working. If they tried a real phone instead of their
$5 drugstore cordless whose base unit is without power, they'd find
that the phones are working just fine - the landline phones that is.

I don't know how it works in your city, but here in Toronto
the low voltage on the telphone lines is provided by
telephone carrier's various central offices, which have
about 8 hours of backup power supply. I'm not sure what the
situation is beyond the central offices, but needless to say
that the landline telephone service would be affected by
prolonged power outages.

--
M2