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City manager reports regional AT&T outage that disrupted 911; updates on 350 Bridal interim shelter outreach
Summary
City Manager reported a Jan. 4 flood at AT&T’s Shaver Street facility that disabled telecommunications equipment countywide and degraded 911 service; the city and county are pressing AT&T, CPUC and legislators for fixes. The manager also summarized outreach and capacity details for the 350 Bridal interim shelter.
City Manager Christine Lilevich briefed the San Rafael City Council on Jan. 20 about a regional telecommunications failure after flooding at AT&T’s Shaver Street central office on Jan. 4.
Lilevich said approximately two feet of water entered a below‑grade server room, disabling critical equipment and affecting 51 cell sites and multiple providers, including AT&T, Verizon, T‑Mobile, and some landline services. She said telephone and 911 services began restoring about 1 a.m. on Jan. 5 but that the outage exposed single points of failure in privately run network infrastructure. The county has asked cities to document delayed emergency responses so the region can demonstrate real‑world impacts to AT&T and regulators.
The city said AT&T reported steps including separating electrical circuits for pumps and alarms, acquiring high‑capacity pumps for regional staging and exploring pump standardization; Marin County is elevating the issue to AT&T executives, CPUC regulators and state and federal legislators.
On shelter operations, staff reported that a Jan. 14 community meeting about the 350 Bridal interim shelter drew more than 50 residents. Staff presented a conceptual site plan, a code of conduct and a good‑neighbor policy; the interim shelter was described as having capacity for 65 individuals and a county agreement that allows participation by up to 70 unique individuals. Staff committed to additional neighborhood meetings and ongoing outreach in the spring and summer and posted a project page for comments on the city website.
