Hurricane Sandy starts to hit IT providers

Hurricane Sandy's knock-on effects have begun as IT support staff on the Eastern seaboard of the US are evacuated.

Hosting provider 1&1 has had to close down its Dedicated Server support team in Pennsylvania as storm warnings have evacuated areas of the Eastern seaboard and shuttered New York stock exchanges.

A Reg reader in the UK reported having trouble getting support for a server, but 1&1 said that the slack was being picked up by teams in Kansas and Germany.

"Whilst the Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania office is closed, dedicated server support continues to be offered fully, but with the potential for increased wait times, by our numerous other locations worldwide, including Kansas and in Germany," the firm told The Reg. "At present, call queues for UK dedicated server customers are running at completely normal levels."

While staff have been affected by the hurricane, none of 1&1's actual servers are located in the area, it added.

Hurricane Sandy has already forced Google to cancel an Android event that was widely expected to be the launch of the next Nexus phone by LG and/or Samsung's 10-inch Nexus tablet. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ have also shut down. ®

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