More news...

It appears the outage occurred at a site in Utah, and that site is not affiliated with the SoftLayer network.

Interesting reading may be found here:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=928683

http://forums.westhost.com/showthread.php?t=14067

http://www.westhost.com/docs/ConsonusSouthDataCenterIncident-2010-02-23.pdf (NOTE: This link requires Adobe Reader.)

Incidentally...I sent WestHost an email asking why they could not have a backup at another site. No repsonse as of yet.