Power outage lessons learned?

[Mario Obejas <obejas@phylum.rsc.raytheon.com>]

This is aimed at my Northern California brethren who have experienced 
the recent unannounced 90 minute blackouts. How were you affected? How 
were your contingency plans tested?

What lessons have you learned?
e.g., Backup generators do/don't start in sufficient time

What assumptions did you make that proved to be true/false?
e.g., we thought we could communicate via cell phones, 
      they were/were not usable.

Whate were the good and bad surprises?
Obviously our insurance is our backup media. Our tapes are immediately 
heading to safes, and we're still debating what's the best time (i.e., 
how soon) to send the recent backups offsite. 

Some of our suppliers are now starting to be affected. The high 
electricity cost is forcing some shutdowns, e.g., Liquid Nitrogen 
suppliers, which affect how long some of the production lines run.

In Southern California, we're trying to prepare for our turn. Obviously, 
we don't want to get caught with our pants down. I'm urging anybody who 
has lived through it and has been affected by it to please tell us what 
you've learned.
   
Mario Obejas
Engineering Automation & Computing
Raytheon Electronic Systems
310-334-7201 (Voice)
310-366-4867 (Pager)