What is projected to be a massive 3-day spring blizzard is now affecting Internet access and power to the City of Duluth, Minnesota (AIMCLEAR‘s home). At least one large regional ISP has been taken down by the outage which is city and region-wide.
Over 10,000 electric customers and thousands of Internet users (including websites) are without service at this time. Weather conditions are so serious that one ISP, with over 20,000 customers, was down for over an hour in the pre-dawn light whilst crews hacked accumulated ice from an outdoor generator enclosure for proper exhausting.
The blizzard continues to rage with wind gusts of 50-55 MPH, restricted visibility down to a 1/8 mile and violent thunderstorm cells moving through the area. Lightning is flashing outside intermittently. At this writing city plows have been pulled from the road due to extreme conditions. There is no power or Internet to my home and we have personal Internet access only because Sprint is still providing EVDO service at this time. At least one television station has been knocked off the air.
AIMCLEAR will keep clients informed to the extent that my laptop batteries and then Blackberry will sustain communication. Clients expecting to meet with me in Minneapolis today: I will not be making the trip until the roads are passable and power/Internet is restored here.
