Many places do not know how to take credit cards when the power is off, or when they can not get them authorized because their machine won't access the service center when the power is off somewhere else. The same thing would seem to apply when communications service was interrupted.
We were once in a restaurant in Dallas when the power went off: the cause later shown on TV was that a car hit a pole a couple of blocks south of the restaurant, which was visible from the restaurant parking lot.
We were trying to check out, and the server said they "couldn't" take credit cards with the power off. I offered to write a check, but the manager said it was against company policy, and finally decided to comp the charge.
Seemed to us it would make more sense to take the check and maybe get some money vs. making sure you would get no money.
Another time we were in a restaurant in Oklahoma City where the staff was pretty tired - they had spent all morning inputting the charges they had from the night before when the power was off.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com snipped-for-privacy@aol.com