Internet Blackouts

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/17/ike.internet.outage.ap/index.html Published September 17, 2008....CNN.com
Loss of Internet Power
The blackouts across the gulf coast, caused by power outages from Hurricane Ike, has affected the Internet service of millions of Americans. On over four hundred networks there was service interruption in a way that put individuals apart from reality. Internet connections in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania were the hardest hit. But the storm also caused outages in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana. Surrounding states had scattered outages as well. Apparently, this outage was the largest blackout or Internet shortage since the Northeast blackout of two thousand three. The information for the number of blackouts was computed by the number of networks who lost power for at least an hour. A network can consist of one neighborhood, a University, or an individual Internet service provider. On Wednesday, September 17 NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas was still having Internet and power issues; this was several days after the impact of the hurricane.
The idea of entire schools or communities being with out the Internet is intense and possibly devastating to the typical Internet user, who depends on the Internet for everything. In today’s day and age we as a society have become so dependent on the Internet for all of our daily information. We use the Internet for everything from the news to music, and for even watching movies or our favorite television shows. I think the Internet is a good thing but we should not be so dependent on it for our daily activities.