Push alerts are informational emails or texts. The GFA board chair has talked about the Board’s website as a platform for alerts but really websites are for information NOT real-time alerts – small sounding distinction but really different purposes. I have a page for local social media links. The GFA Facebook page is pretty useless since you can’t post a question that other users immediately see.
Newcomb and NY state alert systems (Roads, flooding Amber etc.)
For the Newcomb residents alert system register via – https://www.newcombny.com/alerts-and-notifications. I’ve seen updates for roads, weather and service outages, the numbers of alerts are reasonable.
For NY State push-information on various topic try https://alert.ny.gov/. This covers things like road, public health, weather, and air-quality alerts. You need to sign up via the NY Gov portal. You definitely have to edit the opt ins/outs for NY alerts, don’t take every option! – recently I’ve been trying to set this one for just road alerts covering counties around I87 Albany to Newcomb, along with weather stuff for Essex and Albany counties.
Newcomb electrical supplier (NYSEG)
You can access NYSEG options online by registering for push alerts, you can call in outages 800.572.1131 also you can use an online form without registering.
For updates on NYSEG (electric supply) outages you can check their outage maps. If you see numbers around 300 that’s probably just the Goodnow Flow subdivision, if its up to 600 then its likely pan-Newcomb and a thousand plus probably extends out toward Long Lake. Check your breakers if power goes out, prior to trying to call it in – there are warnings on the NYSEG about fees if teams come out but its not a supplier issue. I pretty much ignore the estimated time to restoration that is included in NYSEG email updates – Usually they mean something like ‘we’ve sent out a crew to look at things’ and this is one case where the online world meets the reality of them putting ‘boots on the ground’ or up the pole.
Wired phone, TV and internet services (SLIC & Frontier)
For problems with SLIC fiberoptic ‘cable’ internet and phones check-in on their Facebook page. (not so much a push notification but you can follow and get any updates from their FB page). You can contact them about outages using the SLIC online outage form or call their support number 877-754-2266 (they are accessible, at least during the standard work day).
I’ve used Frontier for neither phones nor DSL internet for the past several years but this looks to be the Frontier outage portal. Their phone number for technical support is 1-800-921-8106.
SLIC/Frontier may tell you to reboot their router if you call in a problem and they can’t see an issue. I dislike rebooting my SLIC router because the connector from their UPS to the router is hard to detach, and it takes a while for everything to re-establish after a router reboot. A handy utility for monitoring iffy ‘cable’ connections on PCs is ‘netuptime monitor’ which repetitively pings three websites (google and more) to check the quality of internet connections. There is a free version that runs for a limited time each session, and a full version that costs $10 and can run forever. The netuptime log files, along with a speed test can be handy if you want to control a conversation about a poor feed (as distinct from no feed in an unambiguous outage).
General stuff for service outages and more
I’m based in Albany most of the time, if my services are down then I’ll post at Goodnow Updating on Facebook though it’s a judgement call for me to distinguish power and internet outages. SLIC cable modems have long duration UPS backup, my devices fail in sets if power goes out because they are on several distinct UPS which last for differing amounts of time. If you lose SLIC internet and phone its most likely a line break somewhere.
I don’t know anything about calling in cell phone outages, I think the base stations at the water tower have backup generators.
I have a page about Newcomb area services if you are looking to set things up rather than fix them. That page does include information on emergency services (clinic, hospitals, Rangers and similar). A bunch of the services probably have phone Apps but there is limit to how many apps I want on a phone screen/desktop. It helps to have a printed list of account numbers and phone contacts.