Unreported cut line results in lengthy delay in restoring Internet, phones

By Louie Graves

and 

Terrica Hendrix

News-Leader staff

Nashville and Murfreesboro area residents spent about 30 hours Sunday and Monday without Internet, or ‘land line’ and cell phone service.

Apparently the culprit was a severed ‘fiber optic’ cable, rumored to be somewhere in northern Hempstead County. The only problem is that neither the Hempstead County Judge’s office, nor that county’s Emergency Management Office knew about the service loss. In Howard County, the judge’s office also said they had no knowledge about where the service line was cut.

Neither did ‘Arkansas 811,’ the state agency which responds to cut underground water, electrical and communication lines. A spokesman at the agency told the ‘News-Leader’ that they had received no tickets to respond to cut services in either Howard or Hempstead counties, Sunday.

The services were interrupted from approximately mid-morning Sunday to early Monday evening. Cell phone customers could drive a few miles from Nashville and find service.

An unofficial AT&T spokesperson told the newspaper Tuesday morning that the cut occurred near the Clow community in Hempstead County about six miles from Nashville. The spokesperson said that the cut was never reported, and that the search for the cut delayed the restoration of service. An AT&T employee found the cut.

Once the cut was found, it took only about 90 minutes to repair.

The cut reportedly occurred off the road where someone was removing tree stumps.

Internet outage causes

local business

lost revenue

Businesses and restaurants such as Dollar Tree, Pizza Hut, and Starz Family Restaurant noticed a halt in business due to the outage yesterday. Dollar Tree posted signs on the storefront Monday afternoon stating that the business had to close due to the outage. Pizza Hut could only accept walk-in customers. The businesses weren’t able to accept debit/credit cards, checks, or make and receive some phone calls.  Starz remained in business and could only accept cash and checks.

Pharmacies such as Fred’s Pharmacy and Power Pharmacy rely solely on Internet communications. Fred’s Pharmacy posted a sign that said they could only accept cash for medications and even had to tell customers that their medicines may not be filled that day due to the outage