Storm weathers phones

Published in Long Beach City College's Viking newspaper in 2005.


LBCC, the Long Beach area, southeastern Los Angeles County and western Orange County were affected by a massive failure to Verizon phone lines, including the 911 emergency system, Tuesday, Oct. 18.
According to an article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the disruption occurred around 2 a.m. after software failed inside routing equipment at the central office in Long Beach. Operational phone service returned to most of those affected by 2 p.m.
"I was at the mall and tried to use my ATM card, but the connection took forever," student Robert Fernandez said. "I wasn't affected otherwise. My cell phone worked fine."
Another LBCC student, Toni Duesing, expressed how she wasn't affected at all: "I didn't notice a difference."
Mario Valente, executive director of academic computing and information technology, released a statement regarding emergency situations on campus: "In the event there is an emergency on campus while the phone systems are down, from cell phones call 938-4807 for the campus police who will take the information and relay it to the fire department or to the police officers in the field."