North American Network Operators Group

Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical

Re: LA power outage?

  • From: Michael.Dillon
  • Date: Wed Sep 14 10:35:58 2005

>    threat models for huricanes are different that earthquakes.
>    (or is that one of those "disaster+geography" equations?)

For one thing, if you use natural-gas powered gensets,
you are virtually guaranteed to go off-line after an
earthquake. For another, after an earthquake you will
have to be prepared to run without utilities for many weeks
unlike most hurricanes. New Orleans is not an exception
since the hurricane is not what caused the flooding. 
Another difference is that underground cabling is protected
from hurrican damage but is not protected from earthquake
damage.

I wonder if there are any resources that cover planning
for different disaster types. It is pretty clear that
telecom companies need to do their own planning, not rely
on government agencies.

--Michael Dillon