Backhoe Cuts Service to Wrightwood and Tri-Community

[Matt of the Mountain]

I know, if the phones and DSL are down none of you can read this anyway.......but have any of you off-the-hill forum users heard from your on-the-hill counterparts back at home that the phones & DSL are down? Snwbnny says no phone at our house, and no DSL. 

[Laughlinguy]

What a light show in Laughlin!  Where did this come from?  Power went out around 1710, till just now (1755ish) Monsoon season is BACK!

[Wildman]

A water company backhoe down below severed the fiber optic cable that serves Wrightwood and the Tri-Community at about 4PM.  No cell phone service for most customers...no internet DSL and for most folks, no land line phones.  There are phone company repairmen working to restore service.  There is no estimate on when service will be restored but a reasonable estimate might be 24 hours.

There are Ham Radio Operators in direct contact with the Fire Station (through a Ham stationed with the Fire Captain).  The Wrightwood Cert Team has been activated and you might see them in your neighborhood.  They have radio contact with the Fire Station.  The San Bernardino County Emergency Operations Center has Zack Mullenix talking with area Disaster Team members directly via Ham radio and will be passing along dispatches to the station as pagers are also not working. 

Some phones in the Wrightwood area will be able to dial locally and some will not.  If you have an emergency that would require the services of the fire department or Sheriff's Department, try calling 249-3206 or you will have to drive to the Station on Elm and Hwy 2.

The Ham radios are working very well and messages are being passed back and forth to the EOC.

Again...phone fiber optic cable was cut this afternoon.  No estimate on when phone service will be restored.   

[campstertim]

Funny you mention this, Wildman.  I just tried to get access around 7:30.  Thought it was my computer and a software upgrade I did this morning.

At any rate, it's 7:55, and I'm up now.

[Wrightwood]

Phone service has been restored.

[Wrightwood]

Today's phone outage was an inconvenience to many but provided an opportunity for ham radio operators and CERT members to hone their skills.

Since 911 service was completely down, Captain Roeber activated the Wrightwood CERT group and ham radio operators were used to pass traffic.

[ForestGal]

I listened all afternoon to this on my brand new radio, well, at least until the main battery died.  Then I had to figure out how to switch over to the AA battery pack, which took longer than it should have.  Electronic genius at work here.    Anyway, I heard most of the transmissions, and it was fascinating to learn what goes on in this circumstance.  Since I'm a brand new ham, and know so little, I figured it would behoove me to just sit back and listen.  And I think I learned a lot.  Thank goodness for ham radio on an afternoon like today.   

[ForestGal]

P.S., I just printed out a list of local ham call signs.  I was jotting down names like crazy during the actual net.  My ink cartridges need to be replaced, and not all the hams are on one complete list.  Can this be fixed?  I know, you don't have anything else to do.....   

[kew]

Go to web page :
http://www.qrz.com/i/name-search.html

In the box where it says "Enter name" put your zip code and click "search"

[Kaikapu]

This is just a quick 'Note of Thanks' to the Cert Team on this side of town.
 
While at Jensen's, around 4 pm (first time out in over a week), everyone was talking about the lack of cell phone service; the Card scanner wasn't working either.  When I got home, the land line worked for calls on the mountain but not anywhere else, and my internet went off line.

I can't say how much time had passed but I glanced out my front window and there was Patrick in front of my home and his wife Virginia was at my door.  They are part of the Cert Team, she heads up this section.  It appeared that they were doing Communication Checks and checking on some of the neighbors in the area.  Although I was in no danger, it sure was comforting to know that this team is there to make sure our neighborhood and it's residents are safe.

Thanks for the concern and the efforts.

[Wrightwood]

[ChrisLynnet]

What a great town! I missed all of the (unfortunate) excitement because I was away on a business trip. I was pretty shocked to find out that not only power but phone lines and 911 were down. It's great that there is a self-organized group of amazing people out there to help. I appreciate it so much.

[Nolena]