Hunt Telecom Gustav Blog

September 2, 2008

More Gustav Updates

We continue to work on getting telephone and internet service to our customers that have power. If you evacuated and want to know the status of your services please contact support@hunttelecom.com or call 888-649-8229 and we will check in our monitoring systems.

Thanks,

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Gustav Repair Update

As of 11:30 central time ATT repaired one of our Fiber routes around the lake to New Orleans and we have been able to resume both voice and data services to our northshore customers. We are now focusing on individual customers that we know have power and need communication services. If you are a Hunt Telecom, Hunt Brothers or IDSNO customer and you have power but no communication services please call us at 1-888-649-8229.

Thanks,

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September 1, 2008

Loss of our 504 and 985 Tandem's

We have lost our 504 and 985 switch trunking. our lafayette and baton rouge trunks are up and working. we are on conf call right now working on the problem. expect to have it backup soon

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Update for Team Members that Evacuated

I wanted to send out an update to those of you that evacuated. So far most of the Northshore still has power and even cable tv is still up.

New Orleans has some outages over a very limited part of the city and no flooding as of right now.

We are starting to get multiple down alerts from our customers south of New Orleans and to the west.

If you live on the Northshore you may want to try and start home today so you can beat the other 1.8 million people that are going to try and come back tomorrow.

If you live on the Southshore and evacuated you are welcome to come to our Hammond or Franklinton offices and stay overnight and then continue to New Orleans after.

I will send out another update around lunch today.

For those of you that did not evacuate, if you still have power tomorrow and your home was not damaged we will be working normal business hours.

If your home/property did sustain damage then please let us know how to help.

Thanks,

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August 31, 2008

Gustave Prelanding Update

Well it is the night before Gustav is supposed to make landfall and we are as ready as we can get. All essential engineers are in there security bunkers/data centers. All generators have been tested and retested, backups completed and moved off-site, food and water is stocked up. All other engineers have evacuated to safety and are working remotely on issues as they come up. We have setup SIP trunks to other phone companies around US, thanks to all of you that have helped or offered your help. As far as the Government response, it does not even compare to katrina. Evacuations wen pretty smoothly other than a few traffic jams, communication between feds, state and local goverment also seems to be going well. The last 4 days have been pretty much nonstop so i am hoping our Team gets a Good nights rest before the actual storm starts affecting us. We are going to need it.

I will try and update the blog thru out tomorrow as the storm comes over us. I will also be posting updates on information i receive concerning how the City of New Orleans and other South La areas are being affected by the storm.

thanks,

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August 29, 2008

Hurricane Gustav

As of the 4 pm central update Gustav is an official hurricane. The different computer models are showing a more West track than earlier. We will continue to monitor the storm over the weekend. Our 24/7 support number is 1-888-649-8229. You can also contact us via e-mail at support@hunttelecom.com E-mail is the fastest method as it goes out to all support staff.

Thanks,

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August 28, 2008

Gustav Update and Links

Current Update to Gustav Preparations:
Hunt Telecom Management is still preparing for Gustav. We have fueled all generator tanks, arranged fuel deliveries if needed after the storm, arranged backup generators at critical network infrastructure points if we happen to lose a generator due to malfunction, stocked up on food and other items needed for our engineers to ride out the storm at our NOC and at our different collocation sites. All data files have been backed up, checked and have multiple copies stored at multiple locations. All employees have completed contact forms so we know where everyone is and how to get in contact with them. We have had several calls from customers concerning how they should prepare there office equipment. There is a lot of work that goes into preparing for a storm but here are the most important ones that you should have time to perform.

Make good backups of all your data, and insure you have offsite copies of these backups.

Check the backups to make sure they are complete.

Unplug your computers and servers from electrical outlets making sure to label any cables if you do not know where to plug them back in.

If your office is in an area prone to flooding get the computers and servers off the floor.

I am also posting a list of important phone numbers and web links below containing everything from traffic information, traffic webcams, to Red Cross and State Police contact information.

Google Maps showing Traffic Flow on Interstates around New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=new+orleans,+la&ie=UTF8&layer=t&ll=30.311246,-90.348816&spn=1.19977,2.680664&z=9

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Gustav Preparations

Dear Valued Customers:
With the threat of Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf of Mexico, Hunt Telecom would like to remind you that business continuity planning remains in the forefront of our minds. We will continue to conduct operations before, during and after any storm to ensure that disruptions from Hurricane Gustav or any other undesirable events translate into minimal interruptions in service to our customers.

In the event that Hurricane Gustav does continue to track towards our service area, all official updates from Hunt Telecom can be found on this blog.

Sincerely,
Hunt Telecom Management

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