There are a load of ways NY might have contributed to this, but it may not be a direct cause. What's more likely, Slack forgetting to scale their deployment back up after too much mulled wine, or a number of people on holiday meaning a simple failure has developed into something more serious?

It could be anything really- my post was more about how situations like this can happen to even the most prepared. The assumption it has something to do with NY tends to assume very trivial, silly mistakes. Especially with no information, that seems a bit uncharitable.