Crews Work to Restore Twin Falls Internet Service

I noticed at home just before noon.  Then I had a message that our FM signal for our talk radio station was down.  The transmitter is on Jerome Butte and is fed by an Internet line.  Then I had a text message explaining the service was out throughout my north side neighborhood.  A couple of hours later, a message arrived explaining someone had accidentally cut a fiber optic cable.  My first thought was that someone decided to excavate without checking what’s buried beneath the ground.  Like that never happened before!

This is a Long Crash

Another message explained that a crew had been dispatched to make repairs.  In a cold and driving rain.  I’m writing this just before 5:00 on Thursday morning at the office.  There’s service on the south end of the city.  Things to the north are still crippled.  Coincidentally, we had technical issues beginning yesterday morning, and those were related to tech platforms outside our building.  I wondered if some hacker was having a good April Fools’ Day.

A Reminder  We Live on the Edge

I was getting dressed this morning and realized I’m celebrating 40 years in broadcasting.  When I started, we hadn’t heard of the Internet, had turntables, and reel-to-reel tape.  There are a lot of things the ‘Net has made easier, but we don’t have much backup.  Tape became obsolete, and the old machines took up valuable space.

The President said last night that he could turn out the lights in Iran.  Cuba is struggling with blackouts, and gas is four dollars a gallon.  Events of the last few weeks remind us just how precarious civilization is, and how reliant we’ve become on technology.  Then, when it's gone, well, I pray for us.