Superstorm Sandy Knocks Out Data Centers, Websites

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Superstorm Sandy has left millions of people and businesses on the East Coast without power, including some data centers in New York that host popular websites. Gawker, Buzzfeed, and the Huffington Post all experienced downtime as a result.

Tuesday morning, SlashGear’s Craig Lloyd reported, “The Gawker Media network consists of eight websites, such as Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and Kotaku, and all eight of them were taken down last night, and as of this writing, they’re still down. Buzzfeed also reported on Twitter last night that the website was experiencing some technical difficulties, but it seems to be back up and running as of this morning. The Huffington Post is partially back up, but the main website still seems to be down. The company has been tweeting the news, as well as posting on a temporary blog.”

“Power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy show why it’s good to have a duplicate Web server located somewhere far away from New York City right now,” observed CNET’s Declan McCullagh. “The local power company, Consolidated Edison shut down power to portions of lower Manhattan this evening in an effort to prevent damage to underground equipment.”

Some websites took efforts to make it easier for people to stay informed about the storm, noted PCMag’s Chloe Albanesius. “As the storm approached, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal dropped their paywalls so readers could remain up to date about Sandy’s path. Google also launched a special interactive map site containing vital emergency information about Sandy.”

Sharon Gaudin from Computerworld added, “People also have been posting on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, to let friends and family if they’re OK and ready to bear the brunt of the storm. Social network users also are acting as weather journalists, posting photos and video of giant waves crashing into the shore, flooded streets and empty shelves in their grocery stores. News services, airlines and government agencies also are using social networks to get out information about storm-related news.”