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Web outage caused a plethora of problems [Lewiston Tribune, Idaho :: ](Lewiston Morning Tribune (ID) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 18--Jeff Sayre could turn on cable TV from his hospital bed at Tri-State Memorial Hospital in Clarkston one night this week. But if he needed help, he rang a metal bell. The staff recorded his vital statistics on paper, not computerized devices. "I didn't (experience) a decrease in service," Sayre said. "The nurses did their jobs." Sayre's experience at the hospital recovering from a partial knee replacement was typical of what happened to many residents in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley Wednesday in the aftermath of a Lewiston accident. A partially raised box on a dump truck inadvertently snagged fiber-optic cables, cutting service to lines operated by telecommunications and Internet service provider XO Communications. It's not clear how widespread the difficulties were, though the incident also disrupted Inland Cellular phone and data service for several hours. XO Communications has declined to describe the effects of the outage. "It was kind of a shock a dump truck could cause all these problems," said Stephanie Field, a spokeswoman for Tri-State. Some businesses, like Cable One, were left untouched by the outage. Other places, including Tri-State and Clearwater Paper in Lewiston, enacted contingency plans created for such situations. Tri-State had the bells on hand for the outage, Field said, which lasted about 12 hours and ended at 1:22 a.m. Thursday. Even though electronic medical records were down, hospital staff had other ways of accessing important information such as when patients needed medications, Vice President of Patient Care Services Rhonda Mason wrote in an email. "We strive to be as innovative as possible in the event that something like this happens," Field said. Across the river in Lewiston, the information technology team shifted into high gear at Clearwater Paper, Lewiston's largest employer. Company spokesman Matt Van Vleet in Spokane said some of Cleawater Paper's systems couldn't be accessed for as long as two hours and were running at reduced capacity when they returned. "We had backup systems that would get us across the gap while the repairs were being done," Van Vleet said. "For something that was that significant, we actually fared very well due to good planning and really sharp people." Cable One Lewiston General Manager Frankie Paffile said correcting the vulnerability Wednesday's incident exposed would be so expensive it will likely never happen. "In order for us to be completely redundant, we'd all have to have multiple lines going to the same area," Paffile said. "I don't think we could manage our business." Cable One has lines in the vicinity of the accident, but was not affected by the outage. "It happens to all of us," Paffile said. "It could have just as easily been our line that got hit with a truck." Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261. ___ (c)2014 the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) Visit the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) at www.lmtribune.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |