Is High Tech Fragile?

Today one news was about a fire in New Brunswick. It was a small fire; when the fire fighters came, it had been put out by the technicians. But because one cable was on fire, the communication of that city was interrupted: More than 100,000 residential phone were cut, and the 911 was not function either.

Update: The news was heard from TV. Now after I searched the Google News, it turns out the fire was in St. John, NewFoundland. The outrage lasted for four hours. Even the Internet, bank machines and ATM machines were interrupted in that four hours.

Why the backup system was not successfully started to replace the damage system? The company will investigate this problem on Monday. But this is truely frustrating. If a back up system can not take over the system, we have no reason to pay big money in the back up system. Expence of a back up system includes the hardware, software, labour to back up everyday, or the bandwidth for real-time backup.

It is such a small file, that even a technician can put it out. How can it cause trouble to the whole island for four hours? Is high tech that fragile?