> I still get a fast busy calling the cell numbers of various NYC friends,
> though.
Actually most of the phones never went down, even most of the cell phones. But lots of them got overloaded and wouldn't let calls through and gave messages that didn't make that clear.
Amusingly, the local Verizon (ex-baby bell) system didn't seem to go down at all -- but since most people have phones you have to plug in, their phones went dead and they couldn't access it. If you had an old AT&T battle tank you could. Or a laptop (if you had an ISP that was working).
And last but not least, pay phones. Thank goodness for calling cards. In the old days, even in minor emergencies, the pay phones would quickly get so full of quarters none of them worked.
Michael