"Aaron" wrote in message t...
September 2004
LESSONS OFF THE GRID

A HURRICANE ALLEY STORY



Sean Steele



Hurricanes Charley and Frances blew threw our homestead in central Florida
over the past there weeks. From them we learned quite a few things I would
like to share with you. If you live in other parts of the country and have
never experienced significant loss of infrastructure, some of this may be
eye opening. We had been warned of these things before the Y2K scare and
had made many preparations, but we had never actually seen disaster come
about in real time. We were prepared for many of the surprises but still,
there was a learning curve. This story describes a hurricane event. The
same scenario will develop in other local or regional events such as
bioterrorism, nuke terrorism or loss of civil control for ANY reason, but
along a much more extended timeline. What follows is a step-wise discussion
developed for quick reading. Please note that this story relates to only a
partial loss of infrastructure of less than a week!

snip

COMMUNICATIONS: We held onto our telephone land line signal until well
after the hurricane had past. We lost cell phone during the hurricane,
probably due to loss of local power to the cell phone tower. Soon after the
storm was over, the cell signal came back. Then; inexplicably, the land
line went dead for around 72 hours under clear skies (as I write it is still
dead). When the land line went dead, everyone immediately loaded up the
cell phone towers to the point that calling out or receiving was impossible.
For over a day we were totally locked out of cell phone AND land line
communications. Not even the local pay phones were operational. We had a
12V portable television so that we could receive storm reports with unbroken
reliability using its rabbit ear antenna. Cable was gone nearly everywhere.
Direct TV (satellite) and XM Radio was fully functional with power from the
battery bank or the generator. The land line phone system is "usually" more
robust and reliable in "most" areas than the power grid. And the simpler
the phone, the more reliable it is. A cheap, direct plug phone will usually
(not always) work when the power is lost and there is still a phone signal.
An advanced, portable or other powered phone will appear dead even though it
is receiving phone signal! My strong advice is to have a cheap $5.00 phone
ready to bypass the fancy, hi-tech phone. If it doesn't work, you can
"usually" be sure there is no signal to your house.

snip

Hmmm?

William wrote:

"Aaron" wrote in message t...

September 2004
LESSONS OFF THE GRID

A HURRICANE ALLEY STORY



Sean Steele



Hurricanes Charley and Frances blew threw our homestead in central Florida
over the past there weeks. From them we learned quite a few things I would
like to share with you. If you live in other parts of the country and have
never experienced significant loss of infrastructure, some of this may be
eye opening. We had been warned of these things before the Y2K scare and
had made many preparations, but we had never actually seen disaster come
about in real time. We were prepared for many of the surprises but still,
there was a learning curve. This story describes a hurricane event. The
same scenario will develop in other local or regional events such as
bioterrorism, nuke terrorism or loss of civil control for ANY reason, but
along a much more extended timeline. What follows is a step-wise discussion
developed for quick reading. Please note that this story relates to only a
partial loss of infrastructure of less than a week!


snip


COMMUNICATIONS: We held onto our telephone land line signal until well
after the hurricane had past. We lost cell phone during the hurricane,
probably due to loss of local power to the cell phone tower. Soon after the
storm was over, the cell signal came back. Then; inexplicably, the land
line went dead for around 72 hours under clear skies (as I write it is still
dead). When the land line went dead, everyone immediately loaded up the
cell phone towers to the point that calling out or receiving was impossible.
For over a day we were totally locked out of cell phone AND land line
communications. Not even the local pay phones were operational. We had a
12V portable television so that we could receive storm reports with unbroken
reliability using its rabbit ear antenna. Cable was gone nearly everywhere.
Direct TV (satellite) and XM Radio was fully functional with power from the
battery bank or the generator. The land line phone system is "usually" more
robust and reliable in "most" areas than the power grid. And the simpler
the phone, the more reliable it is. A cheap, direct plug phone will usually
(not always) work when the power is lost and there is still a phone signal.
An advanced, portable or other powered phone will appear dead even though it
is receiving phone signal! My strong advice is to have a cheap $5.00 phone
ready to bypass the fancy, hi-tech phone. If it doesn't work, you can
"usually" be sure there is no signal to your house.


snip

Hmmm?

Hmmm. Sounds like the cell phones went dead, then the land phones went
dead, and the cell phones went out due to overload after the land lines
went out.

My lesson is that phones are *not* a good comm method during and after
a hurricane type event.

And he is correct that a simple phone is a real good thing to keep
around the house. At the University where I work, Salvage often has a
number of the first generation touch tone phones available at rock
bottom prices. Those phones were made with to the construction standards
of the moldy oldy Bell (or was that Western Electric?) dial phones. Side
note, my parents had one of those old dial phones from 1960 until 2000.
40 years of service. Most phones I buy now last around a year.

- Mike KB3EIA -