BellSouth, Rural LECs Face Power Loss, Flooding in Wake of Katrina

BellSouth La. Regional Dir. Merlin Villa said BellSouth had contingency plans for dealing with storm damage: “Our first priority after the hurricane has passed will be hooking up generators to the offices and critical distribution facilities that don’t have commercial power. It’s the most efficient way of preventing the loss of service to the majority of our customers.” He said loss of commercial power is BellSouth’s main problem in maintaining and restoring service during major storms like Katrina. In previous storms, the network has begun going down after about 8 hours without electricity.

Officials with La. electric utility Entergy said 215,000 customers in New Orleans and 410,000 in adjoining suburbs were without power, plus about 120,000 customers in Baton Rouge. Entergy said it’s also lost power to at least 53,000 customers in Miss. The utility said flooding could delay full electric restoration a month or more. The storm killed 911 service in St. Mary’s Parish, which BellSouth made a top priority. But 7-digit direct numbers to police and fire departments. mostly remained in service.

BellSouth had hundreds of portable diesel generators ready for transport to affected areas, Villa said. Repair crews standing by throughout the BellSouth region soon were to be dispatched, once it was safe to travel and work. News reports from storm-struck areas indicated widespread electric and phone outages, with damage unlikely to be assessed until sundown Mon., with recovery efforts hindered by widespread flooding and downed trees and live power lines.

Lafourche Telephone, a rural LEC serving Grand Isle, La., the barrier island where Katrina made landfall, was still operating Mon., although at the firm’s mainland hq in Larose, La., alarm lights were lit all across the board. Most of those lights signaled generators kicking on due to power failures, said Call Center Supervisor Alan Knight. Most Lafourche operations were functioning, but the company didn’t know if there was structural damage to switching centers in Grand Isle and other coastal areas, he said. Grand Isle was evacuated over the weekend and high winds and roadblocks kept telephone personnel from checking their equipment Mon. “You can go about 25 miles before you're stopped by a shut off bridge,” Knight said. About 98% of Lafourche’s 15,000 access lines are underground. Its Larose central office (CO), north of Grand Isle, was built to handle the worst hurricanes, category 5. “I guess we've now tested that” construction, said Knight. Call center operations, which handle repair and dispatch plus traditional answering service, were moved from a separate facility to the hardened CO over the weekend, he said.

“They do build for hurricanes in Louisiana,” said Julia Lindsay, an official at Northeast Louisiana Telephone near the Ark. line -- outside the hurricane’s path. After hurricanes like Hugo, many local La. telcos began putting their lines underground, she said.

Several small LECs were hit hard. A call to Reserve Telephone, Reserve, La., near New Orleans, was greeted with a recording: “Due to the hurricane, your call cannot be completed.” Reserve likely is flooded because it’s along the Mississippi River, said Lindsay. A call to Bay Springs Telephone, Bay Springs, Miss., was intercepted by a recording saying the number “is not available.” Delta Telephone in Louise, Miss., told callers: “Due to inclement weather, our offices are closed.” East Ascension Telephone, Gonzales, La., used a recorded message: “With the state of emergency, EATel personnel are not available for installation or repairs.” The company asked callers to press one for outages but otherwise to call back today (Tues.). Gonzales is between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Many carriers saw a hindsight blessing in storms that rocked central Fla. last year. Last summer’s experience taught carriers valuable lessons about readiness, they said. Loss of electricity and landline connectivity are the biggest problems from the storm, a Sprint Nextel spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman said the company spent “millions” as part of a broader effort to cut response time after last year’s storms. Another company spokeswoman said the wireless carrier is waiting for public safety officials “to give the go-ahead” for firms to make repairs.

AT&T reported some blockages of residential and business calling due to flooding of generators. The company’s frame and ATM networks for data, however, remained unimpeded, an AT&T spokesman said, adding he was impressed by the extent to which voice service stayed up. While not giving an exact figure for the firm’s investment in storm readiness, he said 2,000 gallons of gasoline, 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 6,000 gallons of water were hauled into the region in portable containers, a costly proposition, “with fuel prices being what they are.” Verizon Wireless managed a major fuel delivery to Fla. pre-storm, a spokesman said. The utility of prearranging fuel access was a lesson “unfortunately” learned last year, he added.

Advance warning let T-Mobile do its standard disaster preparation rather than scramble to patch networks together after the fact, a spokesman said. The spokesman said T-Mobile stressed readiness after 2004’s storms, which left “widespread outages primarily due to wind and water damages.”