The Official Word on the Outage
Posted November 6, 2013 at 2:00 pm by Tim Dustrude
This just came in from the SJ County Sheriff’s Office and the SJ DEM:
A 911 and phone service outage is well into the second day in the San Juan Islands as local residents and responders continue to cope with the challenges of the phone outage. Centurylink has reported that there is a break in the fiber optic cable between Lopez and San Juan Islands causing the service disruption. The break in the cable is limiting phone calls to the island of their origin. Residents of each island are able to call numbers on their island only. 911 emergency calls on San Juan Island are being routed to the local 911 center. In case of an emergency, residents on Lopez Island are instructed to call Lopez Fire district at 360-468-2991 from a wired phone or go to the main station at 2228 Fisherman Bay Rd. in Lopez Village. Residents on Orcas Island should call the Orcas Island Fire District at 360-376-2331 from a wired phone or go to the fire station located at 45 Lavender Lane, Eastsound.
Fire Department members are standing by at the Lopez Village and Eastsound Fire stations to answer incoming calls and initiate emergency response.
There are reports that cell phone calls to the mainland from Orcas and Lopez islands have been completed using Verizon cell phones. The break in the fiber optic cable has put Verizon cell phone towers out of service on San Juan Island, and this has caused occasional overloads on the Mt. Constitution cell tower. Most internet connectivity remains in service on Lopez and Orcas islands but most internet service is out on San Juan Island.
Centurylink is working to resolve the problem as soon as possible, and local officials expect to receive more information about repairing the break and service restoration Wednesday afternoon. In the meantime, islanders are being creative in finding ways to both spread the word about the outage and remain in contact with friends or family on the mainland.
You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.
Categories: Around Here
2 comments:
2 comments...
The San Juan Island Library is a WiFi hotspot. Today we doubled our bandwith to serve islanders who otherwise would not have internet service. You can bring your own laptop or device to the library or you may use one of our computers. Library staff are on hand to help you make a reservation if the computers are busy, and wait times are not long. WiFi is also available in the library parking lot.
When all else fails, Amateur Radio always works. How many islanders have their Ham Licenses? It’s an easy hop to the mainland… Try 146.550 MHz and someone will answer you!
By submitting a comment you grant the San Juan Update a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate, irrelevant and contentious comments may not be published at an admin's discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.