When communications technology is interrupted, the San Juans are thrust into uncertainty. After a CenturyLink underwater cable was severed on Nov. 5, islanders experienced that unnerving feeling for nearly a week. Telephone, 911 and internet service was interrupted for many citizens until a temporary fix was put in place with the aid of OPALCO.

“We don’t believe we will ever know what exactly happened,” said CenturyLink Regional President Brian Stading, who led a public forum at the Orcas Senior Center on Nov. 14.  “There are no anchor drag marks and it is very unlikely a current would be able to cause it.”

Early reports indicated that an earthquake caused the break, but Stading says it now seems unlikely due to lack of evidence.

On Nov. 15, crews installing a five-foot splice onto the severed cable. By 9:30 a.m., services were fully restored. The line will continue to be monitored.

The outage

The San Juan County Council unanimously declared “A State of Emergency within San Juan County, Washington” due to the outage’s severity.

The severed cable was originally laid in 1999. Located at a depth of 280 feet approximately 5,000 feet from Lopez Island, the fiber was suspended along a rock face south of where it was first placed.

CenturyLink deployed resources from across the state to assist in the repair of the fiber cable, which is more than two miles in length. The company brought in international experts who initially helped deploy the fiber to the islands to help pinpoint the issue. It also had a team of divers, three tug boats, two remote operating vessels and two barges. The barges, which were between the coast of Pear Point off of San Juan Island and Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez Island, had cranes and splicing equipment.

“Our team did a tremendous job of locating the cable,” Stading said. “There were 35 people on any given day working on this project.”

In regards to billing, Stading said the company is looking at customer discounts for the lost service times.

“Our policy is to do the most fair and appropriate thing,” he said.

What’s next

Stading said there will be an “extensive” review of the infrastructure and redundancy that is in place for future outages. When asked about piggy backing onto OPALCO or Rock Island’s technology, he couldn’t comment.

“Across the country we are building redundancies that help with back up,” Stading said. “It’s a constant evolution.”

Marla Johns, director of the Orcas Senior Center, spoke about the outage’s impact on the older residents.

“A woman had to lie on her floor for three days because her lifeline didn’t work,” Johns said. “Please look at this not from a monetary or public relations perspective but from a human perspective.”

Stading said CenturyLink is “not taking this issue lightly.”

Orcas Councilman Rick Hughes told the audience that the county will be looking at a viable, long-term solution.

“The onus isn’t all on CenturyLink,” he said. “It’s on all the county resources. This is our chance to see where we have a problem and to create a back-up plan. Within the next six months to a year, we will solve it.”