Questions Surround Failure of 911 in Fairfax After Storm
911 crippled for three days following Friday storm.
Bobbi Bowman
http://fairfaxcity.patch.com/articles/questions-surround-failure-of-911-in-fairfax-after-storm

Northern Virginia officials are raising questions about how Verizon handled the loss of several 9-1-1 emergency systems, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Verizon operates the emergency service.

The director of Fairfax County’s emergency communications center said that it took Verizon roughly three hours to officially notify the county that 911 was down after the emergency line went out at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Post reported.

In addition to Fairfax County, Prince William County and Manassas Park officials are asking Verizon to conduct an internal investigation, Manassas Park Patch reported earlier this week.

The 911 problems in Arlington, Fairfax County, Prince William County and elsewhere started in the aftermath of Friday night's derecho and were not fully cleared up until Tuesday in some areas. The main culprit seems to have been a Verizon "trunk line" in Arlington, Patch reported Saturday. A trunk is a "communications path connecting two switching systems in a network" — a key element in routing calls, according to this Verizon glossary.

Manassas Park Mayor Frank Jones said earlier this week, " ... Personally, I am extremely concerned. We cannot have the critical link between the citizens and the city's emergency response capability compromised. The lack of information, the duration of the outage, and the clear lack of back-up/redundancy have created an unacceptable situation. I agree with (Fairfax County Supervisor) Sharon Bulova—an investigation is warranted."

9-1-1 emergency service was finally completely restored in Fairfax at around noon Tuesday.

"and the clear lack of back-up redundancy have created an
unacceptable situation."

Do the current contracts the counties have with Verizon clearly
call for back-up trunk lines? If not, why not? If so, where were
they? If the counties didn't include back-up in the contracts then
they have to blame themselves as well.

Do the counties have professional telecomm managers who oversee
the daily operations and understand the need for redundancy? If so,
do the managers participate in the contracting process and explain
the needs to County officials before they sign on the dotted line?

I'd say there's a need for an investigation alright but before
Sharon the others go off the deep end and start pointing fingers
I'd suggest they take a look at the contracts and the in-place
procedures and the network architectures.

"the lack of information"

Was this due to Verizon failing to notify government officials
of the outage or was it because the counties telcomm staff failed to
notify Verizon? Were established procedures followed?

Phone guy, there needs to be an investigation, and from what I'm hearing it's going to be 100% Verizon's fault.

I needed to let the police know I had no power



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2012 11:02AM by Priapus.

Vz dude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Phone guy, there needs to be an investigation, and
> from what I'm hearing it's going to be 100%
> Verizon's fault.

It will be interesting to see just how the county "investigates".
Maybe Sharon Bulova will take a page out of Obama's play book and
blame it on Gerry Connolly.

PhoneGuy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "and the clear lack of back-up redundancy have
> created an
> unacceptable situation."
>
> Do the current contracts the counties have with
> Verizon clearly
> call for back-up trunk lines? If not, why not? If
> so, where were
> they? If the counties didn't include back-up in
> the contracts then
> they have to blame themselves as well.
>
> Do the counties have professional telecomm
> managers who oversee
> the daily operations and understand the need for
> redundancy? If so,
> do the managers participate in the contracting
> process and explain
> the needs to County officials before they sign on
> the dotted line?
>
> I'd say there's a need for an investigation
> alright but before
> Sharon the others go off the deep end and start
> pointing fingers
> I'd suggest they take a look at the contracts and
> the in-place
> procedures and the network architectures.
>
> "the lack of information"
>
> Was this due to Verizon failing to notify
> government officials
> of the outage or was it because the counties
> telcomm staff failed to
> notify Verizon? Were established procedures
> followed?

It's the same old story that goes back years to 911, VA Tech, etc. The Federal, State, and Local Governments wanted additional infrasture to handle the load of calls. They provided incentives to Verizon and the other phone companies to do this. What happened? Verizon did improve infrastructure in some places, but not enough to make any difference (as evidenced by this recent storm). Verizon only invests in services that are going to make them money or that a customer is willing to pay for. Verizon is notorious for doing the least amount of work, but charging the customer hand-over-fist for services (sometimes as much as 150 to 200%). Verizon's motto should be..."The business of business is business".

If you're curious just google, "Verizon complaints", "Verizon rip off", etc.

Coming soon the Sharon Bulova 911 investigation tax............

I think it should be asked why there wasn't some type of backup system or why contingency plans weren't in place. Fairfax County just built a $120M communication center and it went to hell in a handbasket. Of course, Fairfax has a habit of throwing money out without thinking, but this is ridiculous.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2012 01:19PM by Highlander.

Coming soon the Sharon Bulova hell in a handbasket tax

Highlander Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think it should be asked why there wasn't some
> type of backup system or why contingency plans
> weren't in place. Fairfax County just built a
> $120M communication center and it went to hell in
> a handbasket. Of course, Fairfax has a habit and
> throwing money out without thinking, but this is
> ridiculous.

Verizon pockets the money on that. The Redundancy that the customer thinks they are purchasing are just "Groomed" over to easier to maintain facilities later on (usually without their knowledge). So for example, let's say you want two lines coming into your house. One is your primary and one is your backup. You want them both on separate facilities so that if one goes down you have the other. Verizon says, okay, but that will cost you extra. You agree to pay the extra and walla! In a few days you have the one line, and then a week or two later you get the 2nd line. The 2nd line came in later because you wanted it to be diverse from your primary line and that required a little extra work by the phone company. Depending on the ethics of the persons involved in the engineering and provisioning and installation of that 2nd line will be what determines if it really is diverse than your primary line. But for the sake of argument, let's say it was installed correctly. Later on, a group within the telephone company called the "Grooms" group (they exist in all phone companies) will do an analysis and reach the conclusion that your 2nd line is an "inefficient" waste of company materials and facilities. (Even though you're paying extra every month for it). They will then assign an engineer to reprovision the circuit and move it to more efficient facilities. (Which will probably be the same facilities your primary line was provisioned to, because it was the most efficient). The grooms groups are supposed to contact the account team and the customer to get permission and then setup a maintenance date and time when this work will happen. In reality no technician wants to talk to the acct team or the customer and will just skip this step, proceed with the changes, and hope for the best. Many, many times over the years, I've seen a grooms group do this, screw up the circuit and bring it out of service. The customer then calls the maintenance line and is unable to open a trouble ticket because guess what? The grooms group has a change order in the system that is usually sitting open because the tech that was doing the maintenance to move it, didn't bother to close it out.

In the end, you should NEVER ever trust the phone company. Having worked there for many years, they have figured out all the loop holes, all the ways to avoid legal action, and are total snakes.

@Verizon Guy.

"Verizon only invests in services that are going to make them money or that a customer is willing to pay for."

Verizon is not a public charity and I would expect them to make a profit.
That's what corporations are for. However, the telecomm staff at the
county level should be fully aware of the type of network architecture
needed and include that in the contract specs. There is a possibility
that additional trunks may have been recommended but sometimes things
are taken out at contract time due to cost considerations. I've been
disappointed myself a few times when my recommendations were carved out
by contract officers at the last minute so we'll have to take a wait-and-see approach. I'm sure Verizon will make it's own findings public if the
finger pointing is entirely at them.

PhoneGuy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Verizon Guy.
>
> "Verizon only invests in services that are going
> to make them money or that a customer is willing
> to pay for."
>
> Verizon is not a public charity and I would expect
> them to make a profit.
> That's what corporations are for. However, the
> telecomm staff at the
> county level should be fully aware of the type of
> network architecture
> needed and include that in the contract specs.
> There is a possibility
> that additional trunks may have been recommended
> but sometimes things
> are taken out at contract time due to cost
> considerations. I've been
> disappointed myself a few times when my
> recommendations were carved out
> by contract officers at the last minute so we'll
> have to take a wait-and-see approach. I'm sure
> Verizon will make it's own findings public if the
>
> finger pointing is entirely at them.

Read my post (prior to the one you quoted from). The Local, State, and Federal govt gave them incentives to build out that infrastructure and in some cases awarded them additional money for projects for infracture buildout. (Both prior to and now under the Obama Intiative). Verizon pocked that cash and did very little buildout except for FiOS.

Fairfax County Board assesses storm impact, urges regional task force to study 911 failure
By Fredrick Kunkle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/fairfax-county-board-assesses-storm-impact-urges-regional-task-force-to-study-911-failure/2012/07/10/gJQAOkDWbW_blog.html

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors spent much of Tuesday’s first regular meeting since the violent June 29 storm assessing damage and the county’s response, focusing particularly on the communications breakdowns and attempts by county staff to keep the public informed despite widespread power outages.

Chairman Sharon S. Bulova (D) urged the formation of a regional task force to examine the breakdown of its 911 emergency communications systems for more than three days following the storm. She plans to propose at Wednesday’s meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments that the regional body delve into the blackout of Verizon’s 911 emergency telephone service and find ways to avoid another one. Although the failure mostly affected Northern Virginia, she said the region’s governments should examine the outage because Verizon also serves the District and Maryland.

Supervisor John W. Foust (D-Dranesville), whose constituents in Great Falls and McLean were among the hardest hit, was also the most critical of the county’s handling of the crisis. He said county emergency staff did a poor job coordinating with supervisors who were out and about in their neighborhoods and hearing from constituents about the most pressing needs. He described his frustration trying to reach Dominion Power officials or senior county staff for help restoring power for a 100-unit assisted-living center and setting up a cooling center in McLean.

“Because we worked hard doesn’t mean we worked smart,” Foust said. He also faulted Dominion Power for not having sufficient resources in place to handle the outages.

Other supervisors said the county’s Office of Public Affairs had been too dependent on means of communication that relied on electric power, such as the county’s Web site and emergency center blog, and should have been more nimble in finding ways to keep the public informed despite the power outage. Others suggested bolstering the ranks of volunteers who would be prepared to help out during an emergency. Several criticized the buck-passing that sometimes occurred between utility companies and tree removal companies that hindered the removal of fallen trees and suggested that the county should find a way to override concerns about clearing debris from private property during emergencies.

County Executive Edward L. Long Jr. said staff performed admirably in light of a communications interruption that was beyond their control and the record-breaking heat wave that followed, but he also acknowledged lapses.

“I think ‘Team Fairfax’ can do better,” Long said.

Long, who is compiling a report on the county’s response to the storm, said a preliminary assessment suggests that the county’s facilities sustained only minimal damage, which he estimated cost no more than $200,000. But the county itself was walloped.

In a day-by-day review of the storm, Long said the number of 911 calls spiked 415 percent after the storm hit Friday night on June 29. More than 120 intersections were without traffic signals, 40 of the county’s 63 wastewater pumping stations lost utility service, and more than 100 homes sustained damage from falling trees, including 15 that required inspections afterward to determine whether they were still habitable. Utilities reported that more than 400,000 customers were without power.

Communications glitches complicated the response. Without 911 service, people had to call non-emergency numbers or even walk to fire or police stations to contact authorities, who then dispatched units using the county’s radio system. There were no fatalities linked to the outage, county officials said.

In the future, Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) said, the county should improve its coordination of emergency response for its most vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens. She also suggested strengthening ties to the faith community, which opened churches and other centers of worship to people who needed relief. Supervisor John C. Cook (R-Braddock) said the county should have been quicker to deploy portable, independently powered road signs to communicate with the public.

The brightest element of the aftermath was that many residents stepped up to help.

“It was sort of old-fashioned in a way: neighbors helping neighbors, neighbors helping out as best they could,” Long said. “That was one of the team-building effects with a disaster such as this.”

911 Failure: Bulova Proposes Task Force
Fairfax County Executive Ed Long gave a special report to supervisors Tuesday.
By William Callahan
July 10, 2012
http://vienna.patch.com/articles/derecho-storm-shows-need-for-fairfax-county-communications-improvements

In the four hours following the June 29 derecho, 911 calls received in Fairfax County increased 415 percent above normal. But in the early morning hours of June 30, 911 service failed. Officials want to know why.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova intends to propose a task force to investigate the 911 failure at a meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on Wednesday, she said during Tuesday's regular Board of Supervisors meeting.

The director of Fairfax County’s emergency communications center told the Washington Post it took Verizon roughly three hours to officially notify the county that 911 was down, after the emergency line went out at 6:30 a.m. on June 30, the Post reported.

The 911 problems in Arlington, Fairfax County, Prince William County and elsewhere started in the aftermath of the June 29 derecho, and were not fully cleared until July 3 in some areas. The main culprit seems to have been a Verizon "trunk line" in Arlington.

The rare storm resulted in the death of four Fairfax County residents and nine others in Virginia. It left more than a million people in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. without electricity during the hottest week of the year. More than 100 homes in Fairfax County were damaged by falling trees and debris, and more than 120 intersections were left without traffic lights, creating significant dangers for pedestrians and drivers.

Social Media, Text and In-Person Communications

Hunter Mill District Supervisors Catherine Hudgins was deeply concerned with the county’s communication problems in a time of such crisis, saying the county should be able to act as a 911 service if the emergency hotline is not available.

Mount Vernon District Supervisors Gerry Hyland urged county staff to come up with a system that communities and neighborhoods could enact — such as door-to-door contact — so they could help each other in the event they cannot reach county or public safety officials.

"I think we have to do that because when 911 went out, they can't call anyone," Hyland said. "Drilling down to the basic community level … is essential to make sure that we don't miss anyone."

Supervisor Pat Herrity called, again, for the implementation of a 911 text messaging service.

"We also have a whole new generation that thinks first to text rather than call. I know the ability to text 911 has been successfully implemented in other jurisdictions in the country. I believe with the Commonwealth’s review of our 911 services, now is a good time to look at the potential to add this service so that 911 can be reached in the periods of high usage that normally occur after significant events," Herrity said.

Herrity will be serving on the state's panel reviewing 911 performance.

In a preliminary version of a report being prepared by county staff, County Executive Ed Long said there had been some difficulties getting the word out to residents during the height of the crisis.

Hudgins worried social media, while current and useful, wasn't enough to reach constituents when there's no electricity.

But Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust was more concerned with what he saw as a glaring lack of resources.

"Recognizing the efforts of the resources that we have is not the same thing as saying we have adequate resources, because I honestly believe that we did not," he said.

Broadcasting Cooling Centers Information

Foust said the county information about "cooling opportunities," or places where residents could go to escape the heat and maybe charge their phones, should have been broadcast on the radio and made more widely available.

According to Long's report, all county facilities that had electricity were open to the public as cooling centers. But many county facilities were without power, a fact Supervisors didn't think was conveyed well to the public.

"I think we did have a failure with opening and advertising cooling centers," said Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity.

Although supervisors did have criticisms of how the situation was handled and recommendations for improvements, all agreed county staff and public safety officials worked hard and admirably in their response.

Sully District Supervisor John Frey called it "tremendous," adding: "There was no advanced warning. This was not a hurricane that we had followed or a snow storm that we had prepared for."

"We were successful in some areas, we were unsuccessful in other areas," Long said. "We can do better and we want to use this event to figure out we can do better so that when the next incident comes we can be better prepared."

My family had NO cellphone or landline (FIOS) service on Saturday, June 30. We all use Verizon and we were quite surprised that there was no Verizon service available at all.

Did others notice this too?

My family left Reston at 8 AM to drive to the OBX for our vacation - and none of our cellphones had service until we reached Stafford County, VA at the intersections of 95 and 123.

We had several phones between the six of us - iphones, droids, and a federally issued blackberry. All of the phones were Verizon, and none would register even a single bar or show the 3G signal.

In my opinion someone should be asking Verizon why there was no phone service available on Saturday. On our drive from Reston to Occoquan we passed through many dark intersections (no working traffic lights) on Fairfax County Parkway and 123. We could not communicate with our family members riding in separate cars for a long time and frankly we wished we had brought along walkie talkies. Walkie talkies would have worked.

Verizon should have double and triple redundancy built into its landlines and cell phone systems. The fact that even a government issued phone couldn't work is, I believe, evidence that Verizon did not fulfill the contracts that it made with its customers to provide phone service. Double and triple redundancy is typically the default requirement for government phone systems contracts.

I hope that our elected officials ask Verizon pointed questions about what happened to its phone service on Saturday June 30, 2012 and what plans Verizon is putting into place to ensure that this doesn't happen again. Just when you need your phone to work after an emergency - it does't.

Spoken like an Average Citizen.

First of all, you do realize that Wireless Phones haven't been around all that long, and there was a time not so long ago that we'd go on vacation as a family and not require our phones to entertain us?

Why was it necessary to have conversations with other family members in other cars while driving? Weren't you all going to the same place? Couldn't you just stop somewhere and discuss?

You were going on vacation man...many more were stuck here without power for days. You were driving to your big ass beach house. Perspective? STFU.

Also, for further reference you should not expect anyone to help or protect you in times of "crisis", no matter how minor. Not the local or federal governments, police, or your phone company. I would have figured you'd learned that after 9/11, earthquake, snowmageddon, etc. Cell phones aren't gonna work. You're still going to pay for the service. The price will go up.
Oh...and, you're on your own. Fend for yourself.

Learn how to do it or you'll be the first to go.

Congressmen Call on FCC to Prevent Future 911 Failures
Moran, Connolly, Wolf want the FCC to reconsider a regulation concerning backup power that the commission proposed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
By Jason Spencer
http://fallschurch.patch.com/articles/congressmen-call-on-fcc-to-prevent-future-911-failures

Northern Virginia's three congressmen called on the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday to take action that will prevent future outages to the region's 911 systems.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, U.S. Reps. Jim Moran, Gerry Connolly and Frank Wolf asked that the commission dust off a post-Hurricane Katrina regulation that would have required all telecommunications companies to provide at least eight hours of backup power for all cell phone towers.

The regulation was subsequently struck down on a technicality related to how the commission handled public comments, according to a news release.

“In the event of an emergency situation, whether it be a natural disaster or man-made threat, the public needs confidence that they can get through to 911 operators,” Moran stated in the release. “This storm exposed a weakness in our response system, and now that we know it exists, we must fix it.”

The failure included Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William counties, along with Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park.

An estimated 2.3 million people in Northern Virginia lost access to critical 911 services for up to four days following the late-June derecho, a powerful wind storm, according to The Washington Post.

Verizon, which operates the emergency systems, has blamed a malfunctioning "trunk line" in Arlington.

Verizon officials Wednesday said that one of two diesel-powered generators failed in the hours after the storm, exacerbating the problem — though a spokesman later called that only "one factor," according to the Post.

The loss of the system came at a terrible time, in the middle a days-long heat wave that saw dangerously high temperatures — particularly for the hundreds of thousands without power.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova has called for a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments task force to investigate the failure of the 911 systems. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors has called for a similar investigation.

Verizon is conducting its own internal investigation.

Some time after the regulations proposed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina failed, FCC staff developed the National Broadband Plan, which included its own set of recommendations — including those on backup power to critical communications infrastructure.

In April 2011, the FCC opened a notice of inquiry regarding the "reliability and continuity of communications networks…" and other topics that rolled together all previous recommendations. (See paragraphs 23 through 26 here.)

In it, the commission asks for comments on a long list of items — including what types of communications services should be prioritized, whether areas prone to natural disasters should be given more resources, and whether advances in backup power technology, including the use of solar power, will overtake more traditional batteries and generators — and, if so, what resources should be put forth to facilitate those advancements.

The commission also notes that telecommunications companies cited local zoning and environmental regulations that affect cell towers as impediments to implementing "certain" backup technologies.

The notice of inquiry remains open — that is, the FCC is still receiving comments — and will continue to be open until the commission determines it has enough information to proceed. Then, either commission staff will formulate recommendations or the matter will be handed off to an advisory committee.

FCC representatives would not comment Thursday on the congressmen's request. They sent the following statement, attributed to the commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau chief, David S. Turetsky:

"We plan to meet with a number of carriers in the coming weeks to explore the cause of service issues to 911 service centers, overall lessons learned, and other issues to ensure that the public received the best communications service possible and is able to communicate effectively and in a way that safeguards public safety in these situations."

The "eight-hour" regulation cited by Moran, Connolly and Wolf might not be good enough — some Northern Virginia residents were unable to access the 911 system for up to four days.

Still, the congressmen expect a response from the FCC.

"I'm optimistic about this. I think we'll have a good resolution," said Anne Hughes, a Moran spokeswoman. "Because this can't happen again."

Crews from West Virginia and North Carolina helped repair power lines following the powerful derecho that hit Northern Virginia in late June.Credit Patch file/Susan Larson
Attachments:

It is not okay for Verizon's phone service to fail - just when paying customers need it the most.

We were horrified that we couldn't let our family know to be extra careful at some of the dark intersections. They were not from our area and we weren't sure how they would treat a dark traffic light.

The size of the beach house that we were driving to has no bearing on the fact that Verizon service totally sucked after the storm. Verizon has already been rated a fail for the 911 lines that were out of service - my point was that Verizon regular phone service - landline and cell phone - was also out of commission. That is unacceptable.

If you are okay with that then good for you - but I still have the right to complain about it. That's what this forum is all about, right?

"We were horrified that we couldn't let our family know to be extra careful at some of the dark intersections. They were not from our area and we weren't sure how they would treat a dark traffic light."

Damn, what do they do in their home town when the lights go out. Well do the same thing here. Are they that bad at driving they have to be told to slow down and be careful during a blackout?

Stop being such a baby. What did you do before cell phones or 911. BTW you could still call the cops just couldnt use 911. But I guess calling the regular number would have caused too much effort on the pampered lazy people of Fairfax.

Nothing personal but this country has become such a nation of candy asses.

This whole thing was a wake up call for me. If a thunderstorm could cause all this havoc, what would happen in a real emergency? I think we would be on our own.

As a single female, I would be almost helpless. For sure I will be buying a gun, I'm thinking maybe a pump shotgun like a Model 870 (my daddy had one). Where could I learn to handle the thing? Are there courses you can take? I really don't care what it costs because it could be life or death,

I have an AT&T cell phone and Sprint cell phone. Both worked during the storm and after. Never lost any signal on my AT&T phone. My wife and I called each other several times. The Sprint phone had some issues with Email but not sure if it was the cell phone or the email server.

I know calling 911 would have been useless but I find it interesting/funny that people's Verizon Cell phones were worthless.

Average Citizen needs to realize that the derecho disrupted the routines of hundreds of thousands of people in the MD-DC-NoVA area, and Average Citizen's inconvenience of not having vehicle to vehicle communications during their trip to the beach doesn't even move the needle of the pain-o-meter or danger-meter. Sure, he/she can use this forum to complain or vent, but at the risk of being viewed as a total wuss, who also apparently lacks the most basic understanding that without electricity, some stuff just isn't going to work. Period.

In terms of prioritization of public safety needs, the failure of 911 service is pretty high on the list, Average Citizen's home Fios service (landline, ha!) and Verizon cell service, not so much. And Average Citizen's "federally issued Blackberry" ... unless it's on a separate (from the commercial market) and secured priority network, you shouldn't expect any higher service levels than anyone else. And unless your job requires it, the tax payers shouldn't be floating the bill for "double or triple redundancy" so that you can call your family members while driving to OBX.

The derecho and subsequent power outage will hopefully serve as a wakeup call for many of us, reminding us that our modern technologies, while they are wonderful when they work, they are dependent on many supporting technologies and services.

Hopefully this minor disruption to Average Citizen's trip to the beach has served as a teachable moment (I really hate that phrase, btw). Next time, be a good scout and "Be Prepared". Oh, and also don't be such a whiner about it either!

sf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This whole thing was a wake up call for me. If a
> thunderstorm could cause all this havoc, what
> would happen in a real emergency? I think we
> would be on our own.
>
> As a single female, I would be almost helpless.
> For sure I will be buying a gun, I'm thinking
> maybe a pump shotgun like a Model 870 (my daddy
> had one). Where could I learn to handle the
> thing? Are there courses you can take? I really
> don't care what it costs because it could be life
> or death,


You are on your own anyway. There is approximatly one cop for every eight hundred people in Fairfax. Figuring in the ones on day off or assigned elsewhere there may be one for every three thousand people at any given time.

Too many people depend on the government. You have seen how f'ed up the government is, they cannot even plow a street of snow or pave a road without messing it up. Do you really want to totally depend on them for your life?

The power and phones were out! Thank God Abraham Lincoln was there to save us from those vampires!

My husband thinks I am crazy but we have a reserve to last us till we could drive out west.

Mostly I have ten grand in our hidden home safe.

We have several cars which I keep gassed up too.

Crank radio, batteries, canned food and many bottles of wine.

Oh, don't forget your handgun.

Ready!

Now if a tree fell on me I am fucked.

Can't outrun nature.

To Whom It May Concern,

If you are still experiencing problems with your Verizon Service, please feel free to bend over and *Cough*. Yes, that's because you've been screwed over.

Regards,

Verizon Customer Support

They will pay and pass it on to us. No 911 service so could save a few bucks I guess you are like every major company in the US. You love to screw over US citizens.

Thanks assholes!

Verizon is fucked Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They will pay and pass it on to us. No 911 service
> so could save a few bucks I guess you are like
> every major company in the US. You love to screw
> over US citizens.
>
> Thanks assholes!

To Whom It May Concern,

You are correct. Please enjoy your new higher rates, unreliable service, and shitty billing. Thanks so much for fucking yourself. Have a great day!

Regards,

Verizon Customer Support

Can we all agree that Average Citizen is a selfish, dependent, Whiny bitch? The shame is that really is the "average" citizen around here.

Also, did someone really just post on a public forum that they have $10k in a safe in their house??? That's so stupid on so many levels...good thing you're "prepared"...

Why would you be helpless? That's some serious victim thinking if you're assuming you'd be screwed simply because there's no dude with you.

As far as guns, I can help...;)

Really?

Locked and loaded and a have a huge dog too.

Please. So many of us are really ready.

Jealous much?

I know! It is Scott. He is talking to himself again. Yikes!

@Avg Cit- "intersection of 95 and 123" is Prince William County not Stafford. FYI

Okay, so the moral of the story is to just pay for landline/cell service and don't question it when it goes out, right?

One shouldn't ask for details about what happened to the landline or cell service during an emergency and how the monopoly / public utility that is Verizon could be better prepared next time.

Apparently asking questions about the service that we all pay for is whining.

It is okay to ask these questions of PEPCO and Dominion Power - but Verizon gets a free pass.

Thanks, got it.

"Dominion Power - but Verizon gets a free pass."

Dominion Power gets a free pass too

Can DP ask for rate increase to pay for el derecho repair costs?

GFR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have an AT&T cell phone and Sprint cell phone.
> Both worked during the storm and after. Never lost
> any signal on my AT&T phone. My wife and I called
> each other several times. The Sprint phone had
> some issues with Email but not sure if it was the
> cell phone or the email server.
>
> I know calling 911 would have been useless but I
> find it interesting/funny that people's Verizon
> Cell phones were worthless.


AT&T did not work near Reston, specifically the town center. Tmobile had coverage the entire time in that area.

@Average Citizen - I don't think anyone said that you aren't entitled to ask questions if you are so inclined, but the overall tone of your original post was pathetic given the degree to which you were apparently inconvenienced, and you came across as incredibly selfish.

Some of your assumptions about what you should expect during a major utility outage that affected hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions - were an illustration of your overall ignorance and apparent me-first perspective.

I don't think that anyone is giving Verizon a free pass, particularly on the 911 service failure. We're just not all about to get our panties in a wad because you couldn't establish vehicle-to-vehicle communications until you were 45 minutes into your trip to the beach. As I said before, that just doesn't move the needle on the pain-o-meter.

I was without power (and all phone service) for approx. 20 hours and compared to several friends across the metropolitan area, I was minimally impacted. Some customers sweltered for days without power, cooling, etc. Now that's something to complain about, even whining is understandable.

Most of us have better things to do than to demand better residential and consumer cell service during the relatively-rare and extended wide-area power outage. Oh ... and once again, please be a good scout and "Be Prepared".

I made it Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "We were horrified that we couldn't let our family
> know to be extra careful at some of the dark
> intersections. They were not from our area and we
> weren't sure how they would treat a dark traffic
> light."
>
> Damn, what do they do in their home town when the
> lights go out. Well do the same thing here. Are
> they that bad at driving they have to be told to
> slow down and be careful during a blackout?
>
> Stop being such a baby. What did you do before
> cell phones or 911. BTW you could still call the
> cops just couldnt use 911. But I guess calling the
> regular number would have caused too much effort
> on the pampered lazy people of Fairfax.
>
> Nothing personal but this country has become such
> a nation of candy asses.


Actually, no - no land line for days either, so couldn't call the cops, as you stated. But not surprised you didn't know that, since Verizon seems to have a crack PR staff. Even the WaPo didn't highlight that, just 911 outage. The power cos report on the radio how many don't have power, and when they expect them to be back up, but not Verizon. You can call Verizon, assuming you can get through on a cell (another carrier) but they won't give you a window for when you can expect service to be restored.

.......
Attachments:

Verizon reviews causes of 911 system failure
Two backup generators failed to start after June 29 storm
by Kali Schumitz Staff writer
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20120815/NEWS/708159400/1117/verizon-reviews-causes-of-911-system-failure&template=fairfaxTimes

Telecommunications company Verizon detailed a series of equipment failures that shutdown regional 911 emergency call centers following the June 29 storm.

Two backup generators failed to start, causing the initial service outage, and a combination of communication issues and other system failures compounded the problem, according to the report. The report outlines the steps Verizon is taking to prevent future outages.

The 911 systems in Fairfax and Prince William counties and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park did not receive calls for several hours during the weekend of June 30 and, once they did get calls again, the system was not working as robustly as normal. For example, calls were not always accompanied by location information from the callers.

“Verizon understands the fear and frustration of people who were unable to reach 911 after the June 29 devastating storm that hit the region,” said company spokesman Harry Mitchell. “We’re disappointed with our performance, and our comprehensive investigation has helped us understand what happened, why it happened, and what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again.”

Verizon has both a battery backup system and two generators at the two facilities in question, in Fairfax and Arlington. One generator at each of the locations failed to start automatically, as designed. The generators have since been repaired, according to the report.

The outage at the Arlington facility affected Verizon employees’ ability to monitor its network in the region, which made it harder for them to detect problems and to restore service.

In addition to investigating ways to improve the redundancy of its system, Verizon’s report indicates the company will work with local officials to begin conducting semi-annual drills to model potential and actual 911 outages so its employees are better prepared to address future problems.
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