New York scrambles to reconnect

Since Oct 29’s electricity outage, the telecoms companies who keep their systems at New York’s two main technology hubs, 60 Hudson Street and 111 Eighth Avenue, two giant art deco brick buildings, have been scrambling to keep power flowing into the city’s vital telecommunications nerve centers.

“This is where all the transatlantic cables come into,” said Jock Percy, chief executive of Perseus Telecom outside of 60 Hudson Street. “This and 111 Eighth Avenue are the two most important buildings in the US. They’re probably the busiest now too.” Outside the brick and brass façade of 60 Hudson Street, a series of gas companies ferry emergency supplies to the building. For the first two days after the storm, workers carried buckets of gasoline up the stairs by hand to hungry power generators. Now that one of the building’s elevators is working, they move barrels of gas to the building’s upper floors, then take the stairs back down to conserve power.