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Re: Tornados in Ashburn (Equinix affected)

  • From: Robert E.Seastrom
  • Date: Sat Sep 18 10:26:54 2004

John Starta <[email protected]> writes:

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29911-2004Sep17.html

Printer-friendly version for your signin-bypassing pleasure:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29911-2004Sep17?language=printer

I was a little closer to the Ashburn one than I really wanted to be -
was able to see it in the distance to the north (heading south to
north as would be expected given it was from the eastern edge of a
northbound heading hurricane remnant) as I drove along the Greenway.

Notwithstanding an incident report sent out by Equinix at 2012 stating
"The Chiller plant is fully functional", our temperature graphs
indicate that there was a cooling issue at Equinix Ashburn F from 1815
until 1855; the start time corresponds with the
Chantilly/Dulles/Ashburn tornado being in the area of Equinix.

Another tenant at Ashburn F states that there were AC power
disturbances.  I can not speak to that; as far as I can tell (no
special instrumentation in my installations) my power was fine.

The reason that I bring this up is that I believe a report which
is posted two hours after the event and glosses over potentially
serious operational anomalies by stating that everything is cool (in
the present tense) does not serve anyone's best interests.  I
understand and accept the two hour delay from the start of the
incident, but I expect scrupulous honesty in after-action assessments,
not a marketing-driven assertion that everything is Just Fine.

I encourage the powers that be at Equinix to make public (or at least
send to its customers) a revised statement that truthfully reflects
what happened Friday night.

                                        ---Rob (KE4DJT, spotter FXN16)