The wind storms at the weekend have heightened fears for people who live in and around Bilpin. While fires burnt just across the mountains, they lost power and they lost phone coverage and, in the early hours of the morning, the backup batteries for the mobile phone tower died. So there was a group of people who had no communication whatsoever for more than 14 hours. As the Bilpin Rural Fire Brigade wrote to me, even more concerning was the fact that the SOS function wasn't available. Residents were unable to contact emergency services or access the SMS aler