They chalked up their problems in the New York area to devastating flooding that, in addition to knocking out power, disabled backup generators and disrupted the underground cables that carry calls, texts and Web searches from cell towers back to the main networks.

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Meanwhile, crews restored backup power, but problems keeping the reactors cool forced plant officials to take the drastic step of flooding them with seawater.

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As a former nuclear submarine officer, he once awoke to alarms and flooding, which shorted out most circuits and caused the reactor to shut down (the backup diesel generators were offline for maintenance).

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