The Story of Two Outages

Over two days, Cloudflare observed two events affecting global internet traffic levels. On September 5th, Togo's government restricted internet access due to political protests, joining other countries like Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Libya that have limited or revoked internet access in the past. The second event occurred on September 6th when a category 5 hurricane hit the Caribbean islands, affecting Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, and U.S. Virgin Islands. The storm caused significant damage to internet infrastructure on these islands, reducing traffic and connectivity. Internet access is crucial during natural disasters for communication and finding shelter, food, and clean water.