AN URBAN LEGEND AMONG POLICY WONKS is that the push for federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEEA 1968-1982) funding was response to the crime and violence experienced by elected representatives and their staff while in Washington DC.
It will be interesting to see what yesterday’s digital meltdown will bring.
METRO
At 2:45 am there was a power failure that crashed the WMATA data center computer that serves the subway and bus service.
Approximately one dozen communication functions associated with transit service have been returning to normal throughout the day since an early-morning power failure resulted in the loss of services ranging from NextBus and e-Alerts to debit card use and rail station public address announcements. (Metro press release)
MONTGOMERY COUNTY (MD) TRAFFIC SIGNALS
About the same time, a thirty year old computer system that handles 750 traffic signals failed, snarling traffic since yesterday morning. This morning’s message from the county:
Despite the best efforts of traffic engineers working throughout the night, Montgomery County’s central traffic signal computer is still not operating. Work continues on the problem, but we do not anticipate it will be corrected for rush hour this morning.
All traffic signals continue to operate safely and automatically on regular, non-rush hour timing and pedestrian crossing signals are unaffected by the computer problem. (website)
Ashley Halsey III writes about the problem in today’s Washington Post.
J. J. Green, reporting for WTOP, ponders the larger picture HERE.
NO WORLD SERIES IN FAIRFAX
If you escaped across the river to northern Virginia, another crisis loomed. Cox, the cable provider, lost service at 5:40 pm.
Clarence Williams, writing for the Washington Post, obtained this quote:
“Our technicians, working with our engineers, are still trying to identify the problem and restore service. They are working as quickly as they can. We just don’t know yet,” Sparks said shortly before 10 p.m. “We regret the inconvience to our customers.” (Post article HERE)
Unlike WMATA and Montgomery County, Cox was not as effective in informing the hundreds of thousands customers affected by this six hour outage.
A 10 pm canned response was posted on a community forum:
Thank you for contacting our Cox Northern Virginia Online Customer Care Team.
We apologize for the disturbance in service; we’re experiencing technical difficulties with our cable television services. At this time, we are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. At this time, we’ve restored majority of the stations at this time, there is no estimated time of repair for the remaining stations, please be assured it will also be restored shortly.
If you need additional information on other Cox products or services on our fiber optic network, please visit our web site at [www.cox.com] . We hope that we have been able to provide you with the information you requested. If we have not, or if we can be of any additional service to you, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Sincerely,
The Cox Northern Virginia Online Customer Care Team”
The response was received with digital hoots, some x-rated (HERE).
Wonder what all of those affected policy wonks will do?
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
