Floyd disrupts phones along Atlantic seaboard
Reuters Story - September 17, 1999 13:42
(reledes, adds AT&T, Bonomo comment on repair time)
NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Damage caused by Hurricane Floyd knocked out phone
service to thousands of customers as the storm swept north along the Atlantic seaboard, phone
companies said on Friday.
Bell Atlantic Corp. , the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic local telephone operator, said the storm
left about 45,000 of its customers without phone service from Maine to Virginia.
John Bonomo, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic, said the storm caused other disruptions
throughout the region ranging from static on the line to problems with receiving incoming calls.
Long distance leader AT&T Corp. said overnight flooding of the Saddle River in Rochelle
Park, N.J., damaged its equipment and forced technicians to shut off power, knocking out
wireless service in areas scattered throughout the New York Metropolitan area, including at
Newark International Airport.
Equipment repairs could not start until the floodwaters receded, but AT&T had managed to
restore some service by routing certain areas to different switches, AT&T spokesman Dave
Johnson said.
Bonomo said the flooding in Rochelle Park also knocked out some Bell Atlantic power
generators and their backups located in the basement of the AT&T building, leaving 35,000
customers with only local service.
The number of reported outages was expected to rise throughout the day as customers who
fled from the path of the storm returned to their homes and checked their phones, Bonomo
said.
Bonomo, who gave no time estimate on when service would be completely restored, said the
company had assigned all of its technicians, including ones who usually perform installations, to
repair crews.
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