[EAS] {Spam?} Re: Earthquakes on EAS?

[Adrienne Abbott]

Two big problems we have since the digital TV conversion: 1) those analog
portable, battery powered TV's people probably have in their closets,
basements, attics, garages or disaster kits aren't going to work in any kind
of emergency; and 2) the head-end facility for the cable TV provider in
Northern Nevada has backup generators, but the facility itself was built on
a fault line, and it could be disabled by a significantly large earthquake.
And of course, there have been two recent cases of Internet outages and
while those were the result of "backhoe fade", they show how fragile the
fiber system is. That fiber system criss-crosses fault lines, gas pipelines,
electrical power lines, rivers, irrigation canals, railroad tracks, and
freeways as it hop-scotches across the state. That means if something
disrupts that infrastructure, the Internet and phone lines are gone as well.
It's happened already, I just don't know if the average person who thinks
the Internet and mobile phones are going to save them in a disaster,
realizes just how fragile all that technology is. Somebody here has already
said something about AM radio being the most basic, simple and inexpensive
way of communicating with people in a disaster.

Adrienne

"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN 


-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of JGabb at aol.com
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 8:20 AM
To: eas at radiolists.net
Subject: [EAS] {Spam?} Re: Earthquakes on EAS?

Our problem in the Bay Area during the Loma Prieta Quake was power was shut 
 off in SF proper for fear of gas leaks. The 2 providers of internet were 
ATT and  Comcast and they had almost no back up power. Land lines did work 
but were  totally overloaded.
 
Jim Gabbert
Chair CA SECC
 
 
In a message dated 2/24/2011 6:52:44 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
k7cr at blarg.net writes:

Interesting that you mentioned that - As I recall, the Internet was  alive 
and kicking, put all those telephones were not - All having to do  with 
their 
'concentration ratio'.     Also working with  conventional 2-way radio, ham 
radio and, for the most part, radio and TV  stations.

A funny item - Right after this Quake I was contacted by  AT&T - They 
wanted 
to lease space at our West Tiger Mt site for a 4  channel, 450, trunked 
radio 
system for use by their  technicians.   Apparently they had always thought 
that they'd  use Cellphones to dispatch techs to trouble spots.....That is 
until the  Nisqually Quake - The suddenly found out that everyone was 
trying 
to call  home, friends etc on the phone and the whole system crashed.   
Give  
this guy a real smile.

My experience in Nola was similar - The  Internet and other systems like 
this 
were amazingly robust.

With  all that being said - It appears that the Internet will indeed go 
down  
with major cable breaks during a quake.  However most of the failures  of 
it 
are due to back hoes etc.

cf


----- Original  Message ----- 
From: "Barry Mishkind" <barry at oldradio.com>
To:  "The EAS Forum - accurate & up-to-date EAS information"  
<eas at radiolists.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:27  PM
Subject: Re: [EAS] Earthquakes on EAS?


> At 12:06 PM  2/24/2011, k7cr wrote:
>>What you have after one of these is a rather  complete communications
>>meltdown.   Land line and  Cellular phones become instantly useless,
>>power outages are often  widespread and there is a citicial need to
>>get 'official ' info  into the hands of the citizens.
>
>        You  mean like asking the public to
>        check the  Internet for information?
>
>         <g>
>
>
>
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