[IP] Washington phone outage: cable cut intentionally

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

> USA Today
> Washington phone outage: cable cut intentionally
> 9/5/2003
>
> BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) A fiber optic cable failure that disrupted 
> telephone service to more than 60,000 customers was caused by at least one 
> of the lines being severed.
>
> "We conducted a preliminary investigation and it's been determined that 
> someone cut this cable intentionally," Qwest spokesman Michael Dunne said 
> Thursday.
>
> Dunne could not provide additional details. The line was cut Wednesday in 
> Stanwood, about 60 miles south of here in Snohomish County.
>
> He said his company, which last year replaced mechanical locks with 
> electronic devices at the building that houses the cables, now plans to 
> install video cameras as an added security measure.
>
> The company also plans a redundancy system to maintain full phone service 
> in the event of similar damage in the future. That work should be 
> completed by the end of the year, Dunne said.
>
> Ray Lauer, spokesman for the FBI's office in Seattle, said his agency is 
> investigating, but would not discuss details.
>
> "We're not talking about it," he said.
>
> The Wednesday morning failure most affected Qwest customers in Bellingham, 
> with scattered outages reported by Verizon customers elsewhere in Whatcom 
> County before service was restored about five hours later. (Related story: 
> <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-09-04-fiber-fails_x.htm>Cut cables 
> shut down phone service in Wyoming, Washington)
>
> A system of cables along the Interstate 5 corridor links Bellingham's 
> long-distance lines to a switch in Seattle.
>
> During the outage, "the vast majority of Qwest customers in Bellingham 
> could not call outside their local calling area," Dunne said. "They could 
> call their neighbors, but they could not call Seattle, for example, or 911."
>
> Police officers were asked to report for duty and police vehicles were 
> stationed at major intersections. Firefighters across the county were 
> asked to relay emergency needs to county dispatchers.
>
> There were at least two calls to dispatch that originated from citizens 
> going to fire halls for help, county emergency officials told The 
> Bellingham Herald.
>
> Service in the rest of the county was intermittent, said Melissa Barran, 
> spokesperson for Verizon, which provides much of the phone service in the 
> county outside of Bellingham.
>
> Cellular phone service was disrupted throughout Whatcom County and in the 
> San Juan Islands, said Georgia Taylor, a Verizon Wireless spokesperson.
>
> Fiber optic phone lines in Snohomish County were severed for unexplained 
> reasons twice in two days in September 2001. Those outages, limited to 
> Whatcom County, caused phone blackouts that underscored the vulnerability 
> of the county's 911 dispatch system.
>
> When asked whether the latest outage was related to the disruption two 
> years earlier, Jim Powers, an FBI agent in Bellingham, replied, "That is 
> of the utmost concern to us."

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