What Happens When a Hurricane Hits the Web

On October 31, 2012, Hurricane Sandy impacted several data centers across the United States, including those of CloudFlare in Newark, NJ (EWR) and Ashburn, VA (IAD). Despite the storm's severity, CloudFlare's network remained operational throughout due to its design for disaster resilience. The EWR facility experienced a brief generator failure but was able to switch back to grid power when it became available. Other data centers and networks faced issues during the hurricane, with some experiencing outages that affected their customers' websites. CloudFlare's Always Online functionality ensured that static versions of impacted sites were served until their origin servers were restored. Traffic to EWR and IAD data centers dropped less than 1% compared to a regular Monday night, possibly due to increased surfing among those with internet access during the storm.