By Jim Pilgrim

There are a lot of places underwater in our country this spring and it sounds like it won’t dry out any time soon. My thoughts and prayers to all the families affected by the flooding this year

I had a meeting with one of my customers today and they told me about one of their Telco clients that has some major flooding in one of their exchanges.

The Missouri River has swallowed up a whole lot of land including some of their PON cabinets. Some techs were going out to pull one off a hand hole that only had 4 inches sticking out above the water. All but one home that cabinet was serving were also underwater. While checking with that single customer that was on a bluff overlooking the swollen river, high above any danger of being flooded, they discovered he still had service.

One single customer out of a possible 288 served by that cabinet was high and dry. The cabinet was nearly completely submerged and service was still up and working. The techs decided to leave it.

Our cabinets are built to withstand wind-driven rain, shotgun blasts, a grass fire and other environmental hazards, but not submersion. I can’t guarantee how long service will stay up for that one customer. But it does make me happy to know the unexpected can still happen. And proud to know our 288 PON cabinet is still serving that one sole survivor.