Sep 16, 2005 : Gulf Coast Networks Relocate

📅 September 16, 2005 - Internet analysts Netcraft (netcraft.com) reported this week that more than 100 data networks on the US Gulf Coast were knocked offline by Hurricane Katrina and have relocated their operations to backup sites outside the disaster zone, according to a recent Renesys report that analyzed the disaster's impact on infrastructure.


"It is surprising to note how few of the networks in the region saw any service restored through disaster recovery services," the analysis noted. "Many networks in the affected region, especially those in Louisiana, have been unreachable for a prolonged period of time. These networks may not see service restored for some time to come, unless they can be brought back online at disaster recovery sites outside of the region."

The local outages did not have a significant impact on the Internet since New Orleans is not a major hub for Internet connectivity. A fiber route from Atlanta to Houston that travels north of the city experienced only minor problems during Katrina, while a Qwest route through New Orleans serving Internet2 ran into more significant outages.

Some New Orleans providers, including domain registrar DirectNIC, managed to stay online using generators. Meanwhile, Biloxi, Mississippi-based hosting provider Datasync was offline for more than 24 hours on September 1 and 2, but eventually came back online and has remained available.