The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Residents of the Touchet Valley and across southeast Washington lost phone and Internet service for several hours on Friday when a CenturyLink fiber line was reportedly cut.

Columbia County residents lost the ability to call 911 for over two hours, until the Columbia County Public Safety Communications Center was able to get 911 calls rerouted to an emergency call center in Everett, according to Columbia County Emergency Manager Lisa Caldwell.

The outage began at approximately 2 p.m., and 911 lines were not back to normal operations until 10:18 p.m., Caldwell reported. Administrative lines into the center and the sheriff’s office were not restored until Monday.

A backhoe operator near Lewis Road in Pasco cut through a major fiber optic cable resulting in numerous communication failures in Walla Walla, Franklin, Garfield, Columbia and Umatilla counties, according to a CenturyLink spokesperson.

Cell phone and Internet coverage was intermittent throughout the county, depending on network providers or location of the user, Caldwell said.

“An attempt was made to contact Garfield County in order to switch 911 service to their center, but that attempt failed,” she said. Within the hour, Caldwell activated the county’s CodeRed system to send out phone, email and text messages countywide notifying the public of the problem. Other messages went out over TV, radio stations, and the local public safety radio system, Caldwell said.

Columbia County received one 911 call for aid during the time the lines were switched to Everett; deputies, fire and medical personnel were dispatched to render aid to the accident victims without incident, Caldwell said.

Everett communication center personnel were able to relay information to dispatchers in Columbia County by calling in to a dedicated cellphone that is located in the center at all times for such an event, Caldwell said.