Another Quake

[Trek420]

Thanks for that thought... ;-)

Trek, typing from over the Hayward Fault

Still I'd rather face the prospect of Quakes than "Hurricane Season" and "Tornado Season" each and every year.

Seriously folks those of us in the Bay Area and Kaleefornia in general it's not "if" we'll have a major quake (8.0+) but "when". So do check sites like USGS, Red Cross and formulate a safety plan such as;

http://www.redcross.org/services/dis...0_568_,00.html

now...one of the things mentioned there is that after a quake or natural disaster *stay off the ever lovin' freakin' phone* and that means you.

A word about that, gonna "out myself" here as a phone co. worker.

Dial tone was never meant to work for everyone at once. Your Central Office which is where your dial tone comes from (and yes folks that includes your internet access) is an amazing peice of work and simply phenominal technology but it can't handle when everyone in a local service area picks up the phone at once ..... or calls in at once. So the system is designed to "protect itself" will shut down if overloaded that way. This is why for example if you leave your phone off the hook for a long time you loose your dial tone.

Am I right Spazz "technology goddess" Dog?

So as part of your disaster plan establish a phone tree.

Pick someone in your family waaaay outside any effected area. Tell them that *when* (not if) the big one hits you will try to call them and that they can notify everyone else and everyone else can call them, not you.

You may have to wait 48-72 hours to get a call out. When you feel it's ok if you pick up the phone and there is slow dial tone or no dial tone *stay on the line* don't hang up and try again. Repeated attempts slow the system for all. Make your call to the outside world and then get back to whatever.

Trek "safety first" 420