[CentOS] Yum issues with EPEL

Folks

After years of working just-fine, I have an automated script that manages yum for me at initial install time. Sometime within the last 48 hours, I get the error message

http://mirror.nexcess.net/epel/6/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno -1] repomd.xml does not match metalink for epel Trying other mirror.

And this message repeats through all the mirrors, causing the load of the repomd to fail, and then the yum to fail. The resultant system becomes unusable because I need stuff from epel.

I find it difficult to believe that ALL mirrors are bad, unless it's the base epel system that's failed. Does anyone have some clue?

Clueless David in San Francisco