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Cable problem cuts phones, internet

A car crash and a blown down tree in Kitwanga late Thursday night (Nov. 16) severed a fibre optic cable which serves the islands, leaving islanders with no telephone or internet connection to the rest of the world for almost 13 hours. The connection was restored Friday afternoon around 1 pm. Telus spokesperson Shawn Hall said crews had to wait for BC Hydro to finish its work, as its power lines were also affected by the fallen tree and motor vehicle accident. "We restored service as quickly as we could," he said. "We had technicians on site shortly after the outage occurred... But we had to wait for Hydro crews to get out of the area." Islanders could phone each other, but attempts to call off-island were met with an "all circuits are busy" recording. Internet, fax, bank card and credit card services on the islands did not work. Kitwanga is located east of Terrace. The severed lines reduced phone capacity for customers all over northwestern BC, Mr. Hall said.