The military tends to be more open about their activites than private companies. The Air Force public affairs office put out this report how they kept the National Military Command Center running during the crisis on September 11. http://www.af.mil/news/Sep2001/n20010918_1305.shtml The key thing to notice is the level of training and equipment available to the personnel. Although this involved the military, you will see similar level of training among operators of chemical plants and nuclear plants who need to stay at their posts while safely shutting down the plant. It is not common among Internet operators. In general untrained people should stay out of the way, or evacuate. It really isn't an issue of bravery, or volunteering to stay at the helm of a sinking ship. Untrained people are a risk to both themselves and to other people around them. If your aren't trained how to handle bombs, hazardous materials, etc you should evacuate. Evacuating your NOC, or colo or call center may be the best thing to do during a crisis (hurricane, bombing, anthrax, etc). But ISPs should pre-plan how they will keep their network running in a lights-out/unattended situation. In addition, you should pre-plan with your local emergency responders what they will do. Very few emergency responders have received training how to deal with an a typical telephone CO or Internet exchange point. I've talked to fire departments in the Bay Area, and several of them are worried about sending firefighters inside some Internet data centers in an emergency.