There doesn't have to be anything especially sinister about this. In the Northridge quake of 1994, we lost power throughout our )for at least 24 hours. No computers, electronically involved telephones, and definitely no cell phones. One could see the transformers on the power poles pop as the shock wave rolled through...

In our office we had exactly one POTS (plain old telephone service) device that connected us with the rest of the world. Overloading the cell phone system seems to be a regular occurrence in every emergency of any size.