Verizon Facilities Damaged in Trade Center Attack
Wednesday September 12 6:57 PM ET
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Local telephone company Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) said on Wednesday the World Trade Center attack damaged network facilities that serve the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) and other businesses in Manhattan.
The attack also destroyed 10 wireless transmitter sites, and disrupted service to an unknown number of customers, Verizon said.
``The extent of the work we have to do is just enormous,'' said Verizon Vice Chairman Larry Babbio. ``It could be a very long process'' to fully restore service.
The company did not know the exact number of customers who lacked service because most of the businesses and residences in Lower Manhattan had been vacated.
``All of our facilities go underground. The ground has taken the equivalent of small earthquakes, so much has been shaken (that) we don't have any idea yet how many of the connections from us to our customers have been disturbed. There's also water all over the place,'' Babbio said.
New York-based Verizon, the dominant local telephone company in the northeastern United States, said its network is seeing about 340 million calls -- about twice its normal traffic volume as customers rush to the telephone to call friends and family. Verizon has added extra telephone lines to Manhattan hospitals, police stations and emergency response centers to handle the crush of calls.
Although some facilities have been damaged, it has back-up systems in place for most areas. Emergency 911 calls are being processed ``as well as can be expected, pretty much close to normal.''
Verizon has 19 offices that serve about two million telephone lines in the area, which Babbio called ``the most telecommunications-intensive in the world.''
DAMAGE, FLOODING IN OFFICES THAT SERVE NYSE
The company has five offices in Southern Manhattan that serve 500,000 lines, as well as many private connections that link directly to businesses.
Its most heavily damaged facility located adjacent to World Trade Center Building Seven, which collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, provides no telephone service. Steel pieces of that destroyed building slammed through Verizon's office, and water used to fight the fires flooded five basement levels, soaking communications wires and equipment.
Service from that building, which contains four call-processing computers serving 200,000 telephone lines, and three million private data lines for the New York Stock Exchange and other clients, may be out for ``some time,'' he said.
``As we walk through the building, which is filled with smoke and dust, it is difficult to see, difficult to breathe. Equipment is covered with dirt and soot and all sorts of things,'' Babbio said. The West Street facility also lacks electricity, but the company aims to bring in generators as it works to restore operations there.
Verizon's Broad Street facility, which handles about 80 percent of the private lines connected to the NYSE, has only intermittent power, which has interrupted service. It said the NYSE had not yet tested its systems. Stock trading in the U.S. has been suspended for the past two days due to trade center destruction.
TECHNICIANS MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD
Verizon said its nearly 500 employees who worked in the building escaped unharmed. One Verizon employee, who was with several technicians from Genuity Inc. (Nasdaq:GENU - news), called his supervisor as he tried to find safety on the roof of the World Trade Center, a spokesman said.
``A number of employees who work for Genuity, which is associated with us, were in the building (and) called us on the way to the roof because they couldn't get out any other way,'' Babbio said. He said the workers were missing and presumed dead.
Internet network operator Genuity confirmed it has been unable to account for three technicians believed to be in the World Trade Center when it collapsed. The company has verified the whereabouts of its other 95 employees who work in the Manhattan area.
At the Pentagon (news - web sites), Babbio said Verizon's telephone network continued to operate ``as close to normal as possible. Obviously there are some services interrupted because part of the building is very damaged.''
Verizon wireless telephone affiliate, Verizon Wireless, lost 10 wireless transmitter sites in New York. It has replaced seven sites in the New York and New Jersey area, and added two in Washington and one in Pennsylvania where one of the four hijacked planes crashed
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...Prayers, condolences...God Bless America.... |
