Yes, we have a coordinated physical disconnect from the power grid (and pull the fuse on the batteries. We have utilize locals to help on the non-commercial towers (and a few of the commercial ones… sssshh) .
We advise customers to unplug all their gear and that we will be doing the coordinated shutdown, etc. So, in theory after the storm, it starts with re-alignments of tower BHs’s from the inside outwards and dealing with any wind damage. Praying we don’t have actual towers down. So, yes, those are great suggestions that we have implemented since the first major hurricane we had in 2004. Customers are pretty understanding. But, we will of course, have a lot of customers with misc. issues, from dead radios / routers because they didn’t unplug it, or misalignments or wire damage where something came loose and rubbed on something else for hours, or enough for water to get in. Those kind of things take a lot of the recovery effort. Its just a lot to cover with normal staff. Everyone’s Internet has become soooo important (in most cases legitimately) that after 3 or 4 days customers start being very vocal, some wanting to cancel etc. Paul From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Cameron Crum Sent: Wednesday, September 6, 2017 9:30 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Storm recovery in Florida Wondering if you shut off to all your equipment and physically remove the power from the grid where possible if it will help? Obviously there is the wind damage, but I would think minimizing any strikes or power surges could save a lot of headache after. Let your customers a couple hours before landfall, the network will start going offline from south to north and then come up in that direction as soon as the storm is over. I know it is a lot of area to cover, but it might save your ass. On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 6:29 AM, Paul McCall <pa...@pdmnet.net<mailto:pa...@pdmnet.net>> wrote: I know I speak for myself and Gino, that we both will likely need extra personnel to recovery from Irma after the storm passes. We have 38 towers across 4 counties in SouthEast Florida, and have prepared as best we can. We have been down this road before and it is not fun. It looks like regardless of the direct track of the storm, our customers will be significantly impacted. If there is anyone who can spare a good employee for a week or two afterwards, it would be greatly appreciated they will be welcomed warmly and treated very well. Paul Paul McCall, President PDMNet, Inc. / Florida Broadband, Inc. 658 Old Dixie Highway Vero Beach, FL 32962 772-564-6800<tel:(772)%20564-6800> pa...@pdmnet.net<mailto:pa...@pdmnet.net> www.pdmnet.com<http://www.pdmnet.com> www.floridabroadband.com<http://www.floridabroadband.com>
