Canada has snowshoe phones.

Or Maxwell Smart.

Not too far from me there are two pay phones together in one location.

Every OPP station has one.

How about emergency call boxes rather than payphones? I'm a younger guy here, but I still remember them along the highway when I was a kid.

So at a minimum, cell phone users should have at least 3 days worth of standby battery power since in most cases, the cell phone networks will either continue to run, or be up and running a few hours after an event; unless the equipment is physically destroyed.

reminds me of CAT Rental Power (one of our clients)...handy units...you can set up a small "field" of these units (the fixed ones can even run on NG or possibly Methane too) to create a quick "power station" often to supply areas off the beaten path where running permanent fixed line systems are either not possible or prohibitively expensive.

And when will you get your ticket? :huh:

Uh, generators had nothing to do with the 99 outage at the Simcoe st CO... The dead short in the switchgear, caused be electricians working unsafely; and the water from the firefighters caused the issue.

And yes, I was there. I was with Nortel at the time, and we went in to assist with recovery work.

This is why cell phones are absolutely useless in a disaster and why hard wired phones are gold.

My own CO in this city has a large generator in the back and batteries in the basement.

The last thing that will remain operation in a real life situation is ham radio gears

There wasn't exactly a generator per CO - what they did, and what the plans still call for - is truck and trailer mounted generators to go site to site, recharge the batteries, and then relocate... Wash, rinse, and repeat. Also, as utility providers, they have priority access to fuel; as well as having contracts in place with providers and local, regional, and national levels.

They also brought in generators from other territories (during the blackout in '03 - my company flew or drove/towed generators from other regions into Ontario) for coverage.

If you remember the "Ice Storm"... yes that ice storm...Bell...bless their hearts put a lot of effort into making sure each CO had a generator and fuel shipped in.

As the likelihood of a major long lasting power interruption is pretty good, if not guaranteed, in our lifetime it will be interesting to see if they could or would sustain that effort next time.

The real issue is the lack of redundancy and scaling in cellular systems. There's no point in investing in technology that almost no one uses, the money is better spent on technology that is being used.

Do you want them badly enough to pay for them?

How about emergency call boxes rather than payphones? I'm a younger guy here, but I still remember them along the highway when I was a kid.

If there's a generator onsite, it will have between 24 and 72 hours of fuel at a minimum, depending on the classification of the site; and sometimes much more.

Some of my offices maintain as much as 14 days of fuel; although most are 48-72 hours.

The first precaution to take is to get out of dodge. I cannot comprehend why people stayed in coastal beach areas surrounded by ocean and rivers etc with a Hurricane and high tide and storm surge coming. I would be have tempted to charge them all with stupidity or at least for the emergency services they used. Of course there are some that could not leave (no transport, too old, unable to drive, no family support etc), but those people were lost in the weeds of all the selfish ones that did not go. The number of 911 calls were staggering.

The idea of having Pay phones for when cell networks go down, is fine, in theory. But at what cost, and who pays?

Ham radio emergency system are better implemented than one would think.

In Canada you have CFARS, RAC and RAQI that coordinate Emergency system with public emergency service.

Surprising to hear that, given that in this area, moisture is a serious issue. The water table in sections of the city is about two feet below grade. Many houses in the centre of town can't have basements of any depth.

Not true. The central offices of Bell Canada have large batteries and generators to recharge them. They can go for days.

In the air, on the site of the road, underground in duct structure. You're right, it's not likely - it's a fact. It still out there.

As for the water-proof-ness (is that a word?) - many cables still rely on air-dryers - air is pumped into the cable from the CO, and remotes, to keep positive pressure in the cable, and prevent water infiltration. If the power to the air compressor fails, the cable will go wet, sometimes in very short order, depending on the region.

emergency services aren't really equipped to interface with ham radio operators. Even with the ARES training done by many ham radio groups they're lucky to get even token support from their local emergency services. It really is a shame that such resources aren't better integrated or even acknowledged.

Most copper is much newer than that, having been rebuilt in the 1950's and 60's as part of national defense response capability. And it is plastic-encased, not paper.