How AT&T got service back after Sandy

The task was unlike any AT&T's workers had seen before.

Restoring service to a critical cell site on top of a 22-story building with no power in a flood zone presented a big problem: Building codes prevented on-site generators from being installed on the roof, and there was no hope of getting power restored anytime soon. But 2 Wall Street in New York's financial district, whose cell site serves the New York Stock Exchange, needed to be brought back online quickly after Superstorm Sandy knocked out power everywhere in Manhattan below 39th Street.

"We could prepare for almost every possible situation, but this was unique," said Tom DeVito, AT&T's general manager of the New York and New Jersey region.