FORKS — Phone customers in Forks, Seiku, Clallam Bay, Neah Bay and many other Western Washington communities were cut off from other areas for about seven hours Tuesday.
A CenturyLink fiber-optic line was cut by a construction crew in Castle Rock at about 11 a.m., CenturyLink representative Jan Kampbell said.
Kampbell said repairs were to be completed by 7 p.m. Phones were working again soon after 6 p.m., West End residents said.
The fiber-optic line that goes through Castle Rock, which is about 100 miles south of Forks, is a main trunk line that connects the region.
Kampbell did not know the full extent of the phone outage Tuesday evening.
Forks residents reported by email that cellphones, ATMs, credit card machines and some other communications were not working.
Only local calls would work on land line telephones.
Emergency services were not affected.
Line break
“CenturyLink called us at about 1 [p.m.] or 2 p.m. They told us there was a fiber-optic line break in Castle Rock,” said Karl Hatton, supervisor of the Peninsula Communications 9-1-1 Center, on Tuesday afternoon.
A series of tests performed by the dispatch center, which serves emergency agencies throughout Clallam County, determined that 9-1-1 emergency phone service was working in the Forks area, Hatton said.
“It was 800 numbers, long distance and cellphone service that was out,” he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.