Main electric transmission towers collapsed--New Orleans at 11% Internet connectivity
Due to catastrophic electric transmission line failures. All of Orleans Parish is currently without power. Over 830,000 electric customers in 8 counties have lost power. Approximately 80% of customers in southern Louisiana have lost power. Internet connectivity is down to 11% of normal levels. In other news, Puerto Rico is still experiencing rolling blackouts due to slow electric grid and generation repairs after hurricane Maria in 2017. 110,000 customers in Puerto Rico are without power tonight. There is no storm tonight in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, and residents are U.S. citizens.
Statement from Entergy (regional electric power company): As a result of Hurricane Ida’s catastrophic intensity, all eight transmission lines that deliver power into the New Orleans area are currently out of service. When this occurred, it caused a load imbalance in the area and resulted in generation in the area coming offline. We are currently working to assess damage and identify a path forward to restore power, to those who can take it, in the area. We have provided back-up generation to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. Power will not be restored this evening, but we will continue work to remedy. https://www.entergynewsroom.com/storm-center/article/ida-knocks-out-transmis...
Unlike other utilities, I have not seen any outage reports directly from the major telecommunications companies serving Louisiana and New Orleans. 9-1-1 out of service in three parishes (Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany). 100% of power is out in 4 parishes, over 80% power out in 14 parishes. Many anedoctal reports of cell and telecommunications outages in southeastern Louisiana. Netblocks reports 89% network connectivity outage in New Orleans. IODA.CADA.ORG reports 66% network connectivity outage in Louisiana. BGP route annoucements is stable, which likely indicates major backbones are not damaged (or they don't have backbone infrastructure in the region). The major wireless providers have announced they are waiving the usual overage and billing charges for zip codes affected by Hurricane Ida. No direct outage details from telecommunications and cable providers yet. FCC activated DIRS over the weekend, so we should be seeing the initial FCC report late Monday afternoon.
My concern is what will happen with ILA sites that traverse through the Orleans parish and others that are going to be without electricity for many weeks to come. Eight transmission circuits went into cascading failure last eve. While not all physically damaged, it will time to assess and begin a controlled restoration to balance. In the meantime, fuel will deplete at remote sites causing them to fail. A lot of capacity that serves the south central and southwestern US traverses through Louisiana. J~
On Aug 30, 2021, at 10:13, Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
Unlike other utilities, I have not seen any outage reports directly from the major telecommunications companies serving Louisiana and New Orleans.
9-1-1 out of service in three parishes (Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany).
100% of power is out in 4 parishes, over 80% power out in 14 parishes.
Many anedoctal reports of cell and telecommunications outages in southeastern Louisiana.
Netblocks reports 89% network connectivity outage in New Orleans. IODA.CADA.ORG reports 66% network connectivity outage in Louisiana. BGP route annoucements is stable, which likely indicates major backbones are not damaged (or they don't have backbone infrastructure in the region).
The major wireless providers have announced they are waiving the usual overage and billing charges for zip codes affected by Hurricane Ida. No direct outage details from telecommunications and cable providers yet.
FCC activated DIRS over the weekend, so we should be seeing the initial FCC report late Monday afternoon.
Major wireless carriers have activated their open roaming agreements, allowing customers of competitors to connect to any working cell tower. As usual in disasters, text messaging may work even when voice and data connections don't. AT&T released the following statement: "Hurricane Ida has caused significant impacts to our network in Louisiana from the massive power outages and storm damage. Our Louisiana wireless network is operating at 60% of normal and we have significant outages in New Orleans and Baton Rouge due to power outages, flooding and storm damage. We had key network facilities go offline overnight, and while some have already been restored, some facilities remain down and are inaccessible due to flooding and storm damage." [...] https://about.att.com/pages/disaster_relief/storm_ida.html Still looking for statements from Verizon, T-Mobile, Cox (I think, I loose track of which merger covered which metro area). I expect, if they haven't already, WiFi providers and cable systems will also be announcing open service for users in affected areas where their networks are still operating.
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JASON BOTHE -
Sean Donelan