Salinas, CA -- City phones and computer networks are back online after an outage that started late last Thursday afternoon. Phones and most network services were back online by 10:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, with the remainder addressed over the weekend.

The cause of the outage, which affected all City staff, turned out to be a rare coincidence: several parts of the City's network experienced trouble at the same time. That compounded the severity of the failure while also greatly increasing the troubleshooting challenge.

"It's comparable to getting a flat tire while refilling your gas tank," said City Information Systems Manager Sean Eisner. "The fuel tank and tires are on the same vehicle, but getting gas doesn't usually cause a flat tire."

City IT staff worked around the clock from Thursday at 4:45 p.m., when the outage began, throughout the weekend. Today they're advising City staff who have any remaining issues or questions.

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