[quote=Susan]It will be interesting to see what happens on the west coast after a major earthquake.
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After the 1994 Northridge quake, our electricity was out for a day. We are about 45 miles from the epicenter. The only phone in our office that worked was a plain no frills landline that connected to our regional office in San Francisco. Everyone in the office got admin leave - after all, computers and phones were down. What could you do? I was on San Miguel Island where life was relatively normal.

Cell phones were not in common use then, but I would not expect them to work very well. If the system survived the shock, they would probably be overloaded.