Fort Wayne, IN
HuntingtonDaily.com has also confirmed the time of the break was 9:27 AM. The fiber optic line and phone lines were repaired and service returned at around 2:45 to 3:00 PM, although work continued to finalize the repairs even as this is written. Also, HuntingtonDaily.com has learned that the outage was larger than earlier reported and affected cities as far away as Kendallville, Auburn, Bluffton, Jay County and elsewhere.
- Repairs being done to the Fiber Optic and phone lines on Lamont Rd.
- Broken Fiber Optic and Phone Lines
At around 11:30 today, Duke Energy cut a fiber optic and phone line cable on West Lamont Road in Huntington while running power lines to a pole barn. The cut cables have affected cell phones, Internet access, 911 communications as well as land line phones in most of Huntington as well as Bluffton and other areas. A member of Huntington County Emergency Management said that 911 calls will still go through, but they transfer automatically to what they call the next ring down. In this case that next ring down is in Bluffton, which is down also, so at this time calls are being answered in Decatur.
- Duke Energy Workers and Huntington Emergency Managment Asses the Situation
Because of the outages, all emergency communications from Decatur is by radio. Huntington Emergency Management asked that any people calling 911 to make sure you let the operators know that you are in Huntington, Indiana when giving locations.
SM&P, an underground Utility Locating Service whose slogan is “Our Mark is Our Word. Period.”, was on site and an employee from the company said that there wasn’t a “tub” (HuntingtonDaily isn’t sure if the term was heard correctly) to connect to so there was no way to locate the fiber optic cable and phone lines.
At 11:45 when HuntingtonDaily.com reporter Seth Anderson was on site, there was not estimated time as to when service would be restored. Although an AT&T employee was on site, no repairmen were yet on site. Seth will be returning to the site later, to determine if a time is available.
- Lamont Road pole barn that power was being ran to when the Cables were cut
At 12:06 HuntingtonDaily.com (located on Lamont Rd.) saw AT&T repair vehicles pass by heading to the site. Details on this outage will be updated as they become available.
This happened a lot earlier than you are reporting by all indications. Closer to 9 AM. If trucks are just now getting to the scene at noon, that is outrageous.
jrwskw,
Thank you for the update. When I asked the people at the scene when the break occured they told me “Just a little bit ago” and that was at about 11:50. I am receiving reports that you are correct that it did happen much earlier than 11:30. I am going to head back to the site here shortly to get an update and will report the findings.
Seth
Sounds like the “people at the scene” may have been in cya mode.
Back up around 3 PM.
wow. great job with the coverage. Are you planning on carrying a tablet, video camera, camera, and a pencil 24/7 now? I think the most important is a plug for your phone to post direct to the website.
Chris,
Where do you think I wrote this article (OK, so I didn’t write it, but I did update from my phone and although it’s a little slow, I can post direct from my phone.)
Did you see the images that Indiana News Center used for their story? I sent them my images for a HuntingtonDaily.com plug.
Check out their online story: http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/27608199.html
Seth
I was on the phone talking to Tec-Hackett at work in Bluffton when at or around 10 am this morning all I heard was “click, crackle, crackle……tone…….” I tried my cell phone soon after, and it was dead as well. Bluffton was totally out of it for awhile this morning but phone service was restore very quickly. I think I went out to lunch and came back around 1pm and Bluffton phones where back online.