Rama Fire died in a moped accident November 2 on Maui. No one else was injured. Rama was an island resident from his birth until 1997, when he moved to Seattle. Survivors include his mom and dad, Jeannie Turner and Steve Schramm; brother, Leon Fire; half-sister, Emerald Fire; and large and loving extended families, including  Continue Reading

Here’s the story from Stan Matthews: Meeting in special session today, the San Juan County Council unanimously voted to declare “A State of Emergency within San Juan County, Washington.” The declaration came on the fourth day since the failure of an underwater communications cable disrupted cell and landline telephone connections with the mainland. It is  Continue Reading

11/7/13 @ 4:30 p.m. – Eastsound: CenturyLink has restored access to 911 and local inter-island phone services in San Juan County through a bypass created by splicing CenturyLink’s central office connection into OPALCO’s fiber and microwave repeaters. Internet services (DSL) are still down on San Juan Island; county-wide long distance (off island) phone service solutions  Continue Reading

Dana Lyons returns to Friday Harbor. He’ll play at the library Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 PM.

Here’s this month’s little bit of history, Part III in our series from the San Juan Historical Museum… November reminds us of family traditions, like a Thanksgiving dish that must be on the table because “it was Grandma’s recipe and we’ve always had it.” Passed down family stories are often about food or our ancestors’  Continue Reading

Here’s the latest from CenturyLink: CenturyLink crews restored 911 and local phone service between Lopez and San Juan Island last night at 11:59 P.M. 911 has been rerouted to the San Juan County Sheriff’s office in Friday Harbor. As of 4:00 P.M. this afternoon, CenturyLink crews have restored 911 and local phone service between Orcas  Continue Reading

San Juan County Phones Still Don’t Connect to Mainland 911 Service to Orcas Island Still Offline. November 7, 2013 The San Juan County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that 911 emergency dispatch service is again working for residents of Lopez and Shaw Islands, however residents of Orcas Island must still route emergency calls through the Orcas  Continue Reading

Kira at the Auditor’s Office sends over this note with another internet access option for you… Hi there. I’m writing to let you know that the conference room next to the council chambers has been set up as a free internet/phone center. Anyone can come in and use the two computers that are set up  Continue Reading

CenturyLink is working with Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO) to provide a temporary solution that would restore local voice and 911 services for customers on San Juan Island, Orcas and Lopez. We will use OPALCO’s fiber cable and microwave system to connect our customers with service while we work to repair our severed cable.  Continue Reading

From the Update mailbag:  One observant Update reader says “The InterNOT is working just as the name implies…”