We still have our landline and several non-wireless phones around. However for a week after hurricane Ike the landlines in our neighborhood were not available. FEMA had taken over these landlines for their own use. I don't know if they did this for all of Houston, but at least 800 house around me did NOT have access to their landline telephone service.

During that time cell phones were very spotty, and even text messages could take over 24 hours to send. This taught me not to expect any phone service to be available in a big disaster.

-Blast