Mt Rainier Paradise Webcams Back Online

Nice to find that the four webcams at the new visitor center at Paradise were back online this morning after a 3-week-plus outage (since Jan 4 for two of them and Jan 6 for the other two):

mms.nps.gov/mora/cam/mountain.jpg
mms.nps.gov/mora/cam/east.jpg
mms.nps.gov/mora/cam/tatoosh.jpg
mms.nps.gov/mora/cam/west.jpg

The East cam shows that the 11" of new snow has been plowed from the parking lot, even though the road remains closed to the public.

Does anyone know why the cameras were down for so long? Anything to do with the road washout, did it break power or telephone lines to Paradise? The MRNP home page has the following cryptic statement which provides no info whatsoever:

Paradise Web Cameras

01/15/09 - The web cameras are currently not available for viewing due to circumstances beyond the park's control.

The air quality webcam (looking SW from the ski dorm) has been back online for a few days, at least since Jan 22, so if there was a power or communication issue it must have been fixed by then:
www.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/moracam/moracam.cfm

The other webcam looking from the Guide House towards the new JVC has been dead since Nov 28, 2008:
mms.nps.gov/mora/cam/gh.jpg

sweet - thanks Amar

Does anyone know why the cameras were down for so long? Anything to do with the road washout, did it break power or telephone lines to Paradise?

I concur with Robie's sharp observation that this slide was related to the power & phone that were buried in the middle of the uphill lane some years ago.  You can see the asphalt patch on both undamaged approaches line up with the slide scarp.

BTW, MRNP was not closed today; stealth opening about 1-1:30, caught me by surprise becuz I had checked the telephone msg, the website, and the adventure guys ... no hint it would be open; just the opposite, firm statment it would be closed. I worked around the house and mid-afternoon decided to go do a XC tour on West-side Road in the mixed rain and snow, to find out at the Nisqually entrance that the road to Paradise had been open for 1-2 hours ...

Great! Now we can see what we're missing. Nice work MRNP.

Great!  Now we can see what we're missing.  Nice work MRNP.