Working in the terminal room, got dizzy, felt like the room was shaking, sat down.... hey! The room IS shaking, we're having a little earthqake. After a little while the shaking stops, I call the wife on the LANDLINE -- everything is cool, nothing broke, barely caused waves in the swimming pool.
Based on the rather mild shaking plus a respectable duration, I told Wendy it was quite a ways away, about a 5.5. She goes, oh no, much stronger. Checks the TV, a 5.6 in the Chino area. I'm GOOD!!
And you notice the emphasis on landline? I tried to use the cell phone, no network, network blocked, whatever. Then I thought about it a bit....
Earthquake hits. Nearly EVERYONE has their cell phone on them, and most are trying to call others about the earthquake. Network goes into immediate overload. Meanwhile, the copper network is still working just fine. I have told people before that they really ought to not give up the landline -- in the case of a minor disaster the cell network may go down, but it takes a LOT to knock out the wired network.
Today proved me, once again, to be right.
Posted by Paladin at July 29, 2008 12:07 PMIn some areas, the whole wirelees system went down completely!