Cox Cable out of service, but AEP SWEPCO power is OK and ATT phone line OK at 1:24 a.m.

It's 1:15 a.m. Sunday September 14, 2008, and Hurricane Ike has arrived in Fayetteville. The wind is strong, giving us an idea of what life along the Gulf Coast has been like for many days this summer and summers past. My electricity didn't go out but Cable television went out suddenly during a replay of the September 2, 2008, meeting of the Fayetteville City Council.
It just happened that I was the speaker at that moment, talking about my visit to a house on East Center Street slated to be razed and removed.
Not a good omen for the future of that lot and the badly deteriorated house on it. Not a good omen for the owner of that property. Not a good omen for the several large, healthy trees on the lot. I hope our area doesn't suffer any major damage because of this storm. But we will lose some big trees!
This wind is powerful and the heavy rain for the past hour has been softening the soil around the trees and and manmade structures.
Telemarketing people for COX and AT&T have asked why we don't get all our services combined on either Cox or AT& T and the situation tonight gives the answer. Cable is out, electricity is on. The phone line is on. At least two out of three ways of getting information into this home continue to function despite a powerful storm. The outage could easily be reversed. Cable and electricity could be on but the phone line could be out.
1:28 a.m. Sunday, September 14, 2008: After no picture and no sound from channel 16, I realized I was hearing sound from upstairs. It turns out that the PEG Center, the point of origin for Channel 16 and 18 (government and public-access TV) were offline but that other stations were running on Cox Cable. Sounds like a question for Thursday's Telecom Board meeting. Why were the official city access channels off but not the rest?
Was it a weakness in the equipment or the lack of a human being on duty in the building to restart the cablecast? Do we need a generator that automatically continues powering the station? What was the difference?
Well, listening to the wind battering the vegetation around the house, I might believe anything was possible right now. What a wonderful time to be alive with windows open and the pets all accounted for!