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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Internet 1, Backhoe 0
Unnamed Administration sources reported that Christopher X. Candreva said: > > > [Atlantic County, NJ] While attempting to wreck > > havoc on the world's telecommunications infrastructure, > > a backhoe mistook a gas main as a fiber optic cable. > > The evil yellow beast was destroyed in the resulting > > fireball. > > While this is funny, I really hope the backhoe driver was OK. Having worked in the pipeline business, I can say he's likely dead. When you break a Schedule 3000 pipe w/1000psi natural gas, you don't have long to worry about things. You get nice 50+ foot tall flares, usually hot enough to melt steel on the hoe. While fiber hits discussed here are very disruptive, they seldom kill folks. That's (alas) far from true in general. Running into things underground is a major problem, and it's growing, the more we bury. Newark Airport was shut down when a contractor's pile-driver shorted the main power feeds a few years ago. In Venezuela, a GTE-related dig severed a gas line and wiped up a small village. If you are ever contracting for a dig, be sure the contractor knows WTF they are doing, AND ask your attorneys early-on about this. Let's be careful out there. -- A host is a host from coast to [email protected] & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
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