Cut cable leads to phone outage

A cut fiber optic cable in Mio temporarily disabled long-distance telephone and Internet service to approximately 21,000 customers in four counties for nearly six hours on Monday.

Service was interrupted at 10:02 a.m. after DTE Energy crews accidentally cut the cable while using a backhoe to install lines at the corner of 10th Street and Vine Street in Mio. Miss Dig Systems Inc. had been contacted prior to the work, but the marked spot indicating where Verizon's fiber optic line is located was incorrect.

"We do an investigation at that time to find out why the marking was done in the wrong spot. It's possible there's another fiber optic line down there that was owned by someone else," said John VanWyck, Verizon director of external communications.

Customers in Arenac, Ogemaw, Oscoda and southwest Alcona counties were without Internet and long-distance telephone service until it was restored at approximately 3:40 p.m. Verizon crews didn't report diminished cellular phone coverage in the area they were making repairs, VanWyck said.

VanWyck said repairs such as these typically take about eight hours because crews have to dig and locate the two ends of a cut cable. A new piece of cable is then fused to the two ends. This was considered a quicker repair because it was done in less than six hours.

The downed service affected customers' ability to contact Oscoda County Central Dispatch for emergency services. Sheriff Kevin Grace said after service was interrupted, Tim London, emergency services coordinator for Alcona and Oscoda counties, sent e-mails to alert various media outlets and the emergency alert system was activated.

"We manned each one of our EMS and fire stations in case there was an issue. The people could go directly to those stations and use a radio to contact someone," he said. "It was a little burdensome but I don't think we had any calls."

Alcona County residents within the 848 exchange area were among the affected customers. The Curran fire station was manned and residents were directed to call there if there were any emergencies, London said.

London said the situation has occurred enough times that emergency crews have a good idea of how to react. Emergency personnel communicated with each other through radios while the service was down.

"Fortunately it doesn't appear anything detrimental happened as a result of the phone outage," he said.

Patty Ramus can be reached via e-mail at pramus@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.