[sf-lug] Why I'm not a huge Comcast fan (2015 incident)

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> People in the large areas of California affected by the recent
> fire-safety power shutdown found a couple of discomfiting things:
[...]
> 3.  And only the relative few still having a hard landline and an 
> old-style no-wall-power-needed voice telephone could even in theory call
> 911, or a neighbour, or anyone at all.

_or_ to be called, either.

One of the things that happened in the Paradise, CA Camp Fire was that 
emergency notification of residents mostly didn't work for several
reasons that included fire damage to cellular telephone towers.  So,
many people who _could_ have escaped if warned early enough never knew
of the danger until too late.

Mind you, analogue telephone lines aren't invulnerable, either, but 
that's a chance you don't get without a landline.  And what a town like
that _really_ needed was ability for the town to put out a really loud
voice alert from a tall tower -- something that Menlo Park next door to
us now has following the Camp Fire.