Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) reported on Tuesday morning that the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy has caused flooding in a number of its central offices (COs) in three of its New York locations: Lower Manhattan, Queens and Long Island.
The flooding has caused power failures and rendered backup power systems at these sites inoperable.
Even though all of these CO sites are on battery backup power, Verizon said the loss of commercial power requires all equipment at these sites to be shut down to prevent any damage.
Any customer that's served by these COs will not be able to access any services, including FiOS (voice, video and data), DSL Internet and traditional phone service. In addition, other customers might get busy signals if they try to dial 311 services for non-emergency calls.
"We are aware of, and are working on two critical switching centers in Manhattan, that were severely affected due to flooding and power outage issues," said Bill Kula, director of media relations, Verizon Communications, in an e-mail to FierceTelecom.
FierceTelecom will provide updates on the condition of Verizon and other affected New York City service provider facilities as they come in.
For more:
- here's Verizon's storm update site
Special Coverage: Hurricane Sandy's aftermath
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