If you have been trying to access CHS this week and run into a blank page — or worse! — sorry for the disruption. We’ve experienced several outages in the past 48 hours due to repercussions from superstorm Sandy.

For several reasons ranging from technical to support to our original technology relationships here in Seattle, we serve our site through a New York City-based datacenter. When the water rose in Manhattan, electricity was shut off, back-up generators failed when fuel pumps were inundated and sites across the country went blank. It’s a small part of the toll of the storm and, of course, pales in comparison to the lives lost and homes destroyed by the disaster.

Given the improvements in conditions in New York, we believe we’re through the worst of it and aren’t expecting further outages. Of course, we also only partly expected the first round of trouble.

When this kind of thing happens — and it will again, assuredly at some future date — we’ll continue to bring you news and information through as many effective channels as we can access. Keep these sources in mind:

• The CHS Facebook page was utilized as our temporary home base during the outages https://www.facebook.com/capitolhillseattleblog
• The CHS jseattle Twitter account is always active https://twitter.com/jseattle
• The CHS RSS feed will retain an archive of recent coverage http://feeds.feedburner.com/capitolhillseattle
• And, heck, if it comes to it, you can always call or txt us at (206) 399-5959 and we’ll read you the news! Can’t stop CHS :)

Thanks for sticking with us and helping us make the best of it. Happy Halloween.

Want to help clean up?

• Donate to the Red Cross here or txt Red Cross to 90999 to donate $10
• Give blood: Search mobile drives here