On 2017-10-01 23:09, Jason Baugher wrote:
The more I read about this, the more disturbed I get. On the one hand, we keep hearing that the trucks aren't moving because roads are impassable.
Note: media NEVER shows places that are up and running, only shows disaster zones, so one may not get full story by looking at media. Just saw a report on Al Jazeera. 2 sisters trying to get to their father who lives up in the hills. They show some main roads now open, but they get to a "road closed" by a huge landslide (with diggers working to clear it) and have to walk from there, including fording rivers. They eventially get to their dad who is still alive. If there are many cell towers on top of hills where the roads are blocked by landslides, trees, restoration would take a long time before ground crews get to clear those remote roads that might be considered low priority. (and it isn't clear that a helicopter could land there either).
Do FEMA and the National Guard have the authority to commandeer the trucks and deliver the containers themselves? The telcom companies aren't going to be able to do much by way of repairs without supplies.
Where telecom wiring is underground, it may be easier to light the links back up. But where it is aerial, they would have to wait for the electric utility to fix the poles before stringing new wiring. Not clear how much of aerial plant needs rebuild, or mere fixes. After Sandy, Verizon saw the state of corrosion in lower Manhattan and decided to not fix the copper and string fibre instead. If enough of the copper plant is destroyed, would Claro (or govt) consider stringing FTTH instead of stringing copper?