The US Geological Survey has revised the magnitude to 7.0.
Due to structural damage in the air traffic control tower the SeaTac
airport has been closed down. All railroad traffic at standstill
until tracks have been inspected.
Cell phones in the area are very congested, and people report difficulty
making phone calls in and out of the area. I have not heard if any phone
companies have imposed network management controls on voice traffic.
Folks have reported in from the Westin Building, the main Internet hub
in the seattle area, that no substantional damage to the building.
Approximately 11,000 electrical customers are without power.
Cell phones in the area are very congested, and people report difficulty
making phone calls in and out of the area. I have not heard if any phone
companies have imposed network management controls on voice traffic.
I have a Sprint PCS phone, all calls dialed left me with a fast busy
(when I could get carrier) until about about 30 minutes ago.
Now it rings but I get disconnected when the call tries to connect.
Land lines are still working fine, from my perspective. I just spoke
with my brother in Lacy, WA (about 15 miles from epicenter) in a different
area code, so that looks good.
I was also on the phone with someone in San Franciso during the event,
and the line stayed on.
Folks have reported in from the Westin Building, the main Internet hub
in the seattle area, that no substantional damage to the building.
We have circuits to UUNet, C&W and Zocalo. We did not see any outage
during the event, and packets are still flowing fine.
If anything ever happens to the Westin, or at least the 19th
floor of the Westin, believe me, we will ALL know it very quickly,
as any traceroutes into the Seattle area will be quick to star out.
