Rain and broadband

Can rain effect your broadband connection? Reason i ask is i was in my local town the other day and noticed the Openreach van and they were doing some work near a local cabinet. They had dug a giant hole which i presume was to access the cables, and had left it there open with just barriers around it. No workmen on site (was lunch time), but it was throwing it down with rain and surprised me that they didnt cover the hole up. The cables were nearly submerged in water, and thought although shielded that cant be very good for them can it?

The cables are waterproof! And any junctions/joints will also normally be sealed.

You should have seen them working on the mini chamber outside my house, one bailing out water as fast as he could while the other was making good the connections. When I commented on it replied "if it gets any worse we'll have to get a pump"

Obviously very nice people. Many would have used just two words .

Just singing and dancing in the rain...

There where a few words said before that which attracted my attention to the fact something was going on outside the house.

As MHC and others have indicated, generally that underground cabling etc is sealed in its own right, ie not dependent on the duct etc keeping water out.

But overhead wiring is much more likely to be affected, both by the ingress of water, particularly to the joints; but also with the mechanical damage caused by winds and ultra-violet breakdown of the insulation, allowing simple short circuiting and also the further ingress of rain water.