If we have a serious pandemic, will the internet meltdown?

The Government Accountability Office gave itself what you might think is an esoteric question: 

If a global pandemic like the H1N1 flu forces a whole pile of to stay home and telecommute 

using our home Internet services, could the Internet handle the extra traffic and, more 

importantly, could financial markets continue to function given their dependency on the 

availability of plenty of bandwidth?

The answer: No and yes.

The GAO report is available at this link as PDF in both Highlights & Full Report (77 pages).

Influenza Pandemic: Key Securities Market Participants Are Making Progress, but Agencies Could Do More to Address Potential Internet Congestion and Encourage Readiness

GAO-10-8 October 26, 2009