Cut line causes wide-spread outage
Crystal NelsonArticle Photos
A damaged Verizon Wireless fiber optic cable in Lachine affected 911 services along with several businesses and many residents of Alpena, Alcona, Montmorency and Presque Isle counties Wednesday.
Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said the problem was reported around 9:40 a.m. A Verizon crew repaired the cable at approximately 2 p.m. and service was restored to the four counties shortly thereafter.
Gierczynski said a contractor hit the cable while doing some work.
"We tried to respond as quickly as we could," he said.
Gierczynski said he wasn't sure how the damaged cable impacted other communication companies and their customers.
Alpena Deputy Fire Chief Ken Hubbard said good planning by the city was able to keep the department working throughout the day. The department kept a backup analog line it was able to use and Hubbard said everything that got to 911, got to the city.
"Actually, the day went pretty well," Hubbard said. "The situation was handled pretty quickly and we're lucky we were able to handle any emergencies that came in to us."
Alpena County Emergency Services Coordinator Mike Szor said officials communicated via radio and the telephone lines posted by the media during the time.
"We've been operating plan B, and plan B is effective," he said while the line was down. "Everything is working smoothly."
Szor said central dispatch contacted all the agencies it works with including the Alpena Regional Medical Center, Medical Control and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. Dispatch had all the communication it needed with the organizations, should they have needed to utilize their services.
In addition to the 911 services being down, cell phones, ATMs and some land lines were affected. Szor said the line seemed to affect a lot of people, but sporadically.
Alltel Store Manager Doug Perenchio said when the cable was damaged, it cut communications to the towers affecting customers in areas like Grand Lake, Hillman, Ossineke and Lincoln. The store's servers also were down, as well as the in-store computers.
Perenchio said the store stayed opened and tried to troubleshoot with the things they could control. He was thankful for customers' patience while the store worked to get things back up.
Bank of Alpena Senior Vice President Ken Lauer said with the exception of the ATM being down, the bank operated as usual.
"We do have back up procedures," Lauer said, and explained that the bank can run off-line. The bank periodically tests its back up procedures, which they were able to successfully use.
The line also caused the Alpena Coast Guard to take extra precautions in case of emergencies.
Rick Houchin, chief of the Alpena Coast Guard Station, said its high site tower in Spruce also was down Wednesday. Calls to the Coast Guard are generally received through the tower via telephone.
As a precaution, the Coast Guard asked guard members and volunteers listening in the area to man the radios in Presque Isle and Sturgeon Point as backup. The Coast Guard was able to maintain radio communication.
Crystal Nelson can be reached via e-mail at cnelson@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693.
