Sounds like we live in different countries. If the network is out here (Australia), your only option is cash - card/touch are both going to be offline. The terminals need to authorise the transactions with the banks; it's an online transaction.

Magnetic stripes, haven't seen for ages. Cheques are not ever in use for normal shopping.

Call me old fashioned but I always carry cash, both because I don’t want to get stranded like that and because of the privacy it affords.

Apple Pay et al work without signal. If the payment network is down then cards will also be declined.

Increasingly we’re seeing contactless ATMs (in Europe) too so that’s a last resort.

Yep. I can get cash out from ATMs if I need to with a cardless pin system.

If the network is out, noone using card payments will have any luck.

That has happened to me literally once in the past 20 years.