Take charge of your safety

Last week's adventures with the phones highlighted how dependent we've become on cellular phones for our communication, and what can happen when the connection fails.

According to our sources, an attempt by AT&T to upgrade their line to fiber optic resulted in an outage that lasted about three hours.

During that time cell phones could contact cell phones, and land lines could call land lines locally, but there was no long distance service for Douglas, Alpine and Lyon counties.

We suspect a lot of the traffic on Tuesday morning was from people trying their phones to see if they worked.

Fortunately 911 still worked in all three counties, since Douglas handles Alpine's calls and Lyon shifted their calls to Carson City.

There were only a few emergency calls during the morning, despite an impending storm, so all's well that ends well.

But we must all recognize the vulnerability we have when something really goes wrong.

Cell phones provide us with great convenience and even comfort of knowing someone's just a call away.

But, cell phone towers rely on electricity, as do most of our modern means of communication.

And if the power is out for a serious reason, such as a flood or earthquake, traffic can quickly overwhelm surviving cell towers. That's why we suggest residents visit Web sites like www.ready.gov before something happens, and prepare an emergency kit. The safety you preserve may be your own.