PORTLAND, Maine — What did we do before the internet?
That's the question many of us asked this weekend with outages statewide.
While it was an inconvenience for some, for others, it meant they had to close up shop.
"I'm sure business chaos for everyone in the state of Maine," Alec Altman said, the owner of Bingas Wingas which has three locations.
Two of those restaurants had to close Friday night when the internet and power went out.
"I got the call from the first restaurant, we lost the internet. I got the call from the second restaurant, we lost the internet."
Friday nights are usually the busiest for Binga's Wingas, especially when there's a Mariner's game just across the street. Every seat in the restaurant is pretty much full. But for all that business it was back to basics. There was no internet.
"Our back-up plan is to operate the way restaurants did in the 80s," said Altman. "Write things down, encourage cash."
"It's a pain," said Jenn Adams, who doesn't carry cash.
She said it was an issue at a local bakery over the weekend until she asked if she could leave a message and come back to pay when the internet returned.
"[The cashier] said 'you know what? There are five people who have done that already so go ahead' and I was like, 'that's the joy of Maine!'"
With outages statewide, many turned to, well, the internet for answers.
Spectrum tweeted in part, "We understand how important your services are and will have them restored as soon as possible. We appreciate your continued patience."
Then just after 11 p.m. Friday night, Spectrum tweeted again that the fiber break had "been resolved."
The chaos concluded for customers and business owners but all the while some places hardly noticed, like Marcy's Diner.
There, there is no internet so there was no problem.
Aside from the internet, tens of thousands of Central Maine Power customers lost power Friday. According to CMP crews from Connecticut came up to help restore power to about 51,000 customers.