Hehe, Cell phone reception is almost parallel to power. Almost none of those towers have generators. When whatever site has the tower gets power back, the cell comes back to life. Most backhaul is using microwave at this point. The exception being At&T. T1's were part of our problem during Katrina and if you had AT&T, were again for Gustav. For Katrina, the main Bellsouth switch for the 504 area code was under water. That was our real problem. Even after we got cell signal, you still couldn't make calls. Someone had the bright idea to try a SIM from a phone that was based in a different area code. Guess what? They all worked. This year, we had a box of 10 Atlanta-based cell phones delivered, but we never actually had to use them, as most of our cell phones worked. I was primarily using the state-wide radio system though, so I really didn't care much if they worked or not. I even got a GETS card, but never had to use it.