North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Phone networks struggle in Hurricane Katrina's wake

  • From: Steve Gibbard
  • Date: Tue Aug 30 23:43:17 2005 
On Wed, 31 Aug 2005, Fergie (Paul Ferguson) wrote:


I'll file that comment where it belongs -- in file 13.

If a major catastrophe, albeit more human than network-related
(although lots of network-related issues here, too), isn't on-topic,
than I fail to see what is.
The danger here is that if real operational questions needed to be asked (like, "my router is under water, can somebody help get my network back online?" as a hypothetical example), they might get lost in the noise.

At the same time, there is plenty of information out there that makes it easier to operate networks, and it is useful if that information gets shared. And, humans experiencing an unfolding disaster, or even watching from a distance, may be under a lot of stress, and asking them not to reach out to whatever communities they're part of is probably pretty futile.

The key is striking the right balance, and that means the usual request to list members to please think before you post.

So, for those of you who have infrastructure in the affected areas, is there anything the rest of us can do to help?

-Steve