Interruption of Service

[Richard Gillespie]

With Saw Mill Creek being based in the Yorktown/Hampton Roads, VA area, do you anticipate any problems with interruption of service with Isabelle coming to town?

[Ken Frantz]

What ever happen,they need to get their behinds out of there!!!!! They can rebuild the "IP" but if they are not around to do it, it can't be done.

So you guys there, pick up and go!!!!!

KEN

[David Rose]

Richard, I imagine we will be the first to know once a decision is made.

Lord bless you all in the path of this thing. Don't wait too long.

David

[Keith Outten]

Yesterday we made the decision to stay and ride out the storm. Ray Koehl, Jackie and I moved/relocated all of the servers, battery backups, routers, etc in our office to allow for minor flooding. We did a total backup of every machine and moved all of our business files to my shop in Gloucester County. We're ready for the storm.

We may experience a power outage, our battery backups will keep our servers up for about 4 hours. We do have a generator but our office is about 15 miles from my home so it is likely that we will not be able to bring our network up under auxillery power untill the storm passes and the roads are open.

Dominion Power has an additional 7000 linesmen who have volunteered from as far away as Texas so they are ready to respond and restore power as quickly as humanly possible. Flooding is bound to happen, most of our local area is just a couple of feet above sea level. The ground is saturated here, we have just been through the wettest summer on record and the trees will most likely topple over in high winds. This in turn will cause major power outages everywhere.

The good news is that last night they were projecting wind speeds of 60 to 75 mph and a lower storm surge of 4 to 6 feet. The storm is weakening and will hit North Carolina, then pass across Virginia. Traditionally hurricanes will decrease in intensity when they hit the coastline, we hope that since we will not see the first hit the flooding will be less than expected two days ago.

I still have lots of work to do this morning, my worksop has to be prepared by moving as much of my equipment up off the floor as possible. If the storm takes 20 hours to pass through our area I expect to see 12" of water in my workshop. Fortunately my shop foundation includes two rows of block and all of my electrical wiring/receptacles are high on the walls so I don't expect to see any major damage.

Unfortunately my home is very old and the foundation pillers do not have footings that are in compliance with current building codes. I expect major flooding will cause additional settling of the house and some interior damage. The good news is that my workshop has a second story apartment that I use for my shop office so we have an alternative living space.

This morning the winds have already started increasing but very little rain as yet. Whenever I can I will post updates.

[Richard Gillespie]

Keith

Living about 150 miles NW of you the rain has just started here at about 12 noon. I feel for you in all the work you have to do as well as the potential problems you face with both your house and work.

I wish you the best and hope that you and the guys working with you don't experience any problems whatsoever.