Incommunicado
Qwest loses fiber-optic line, leaves area without communications

Anthony Dimas, Director of McKinley County Emergency Management , works with other representatives for law enforcement at the Gallup Emergency Operations Management Center responding to a communications black-out. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Adron Gardner

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake and Helen Davis
Staff writers

Emergency 911 service as well as Internet and long-distance phone service were knocked out in much of west-central New Mexico on Tuesday when the driver of a tractor-trailer failed to clear an aerial fiber optic cable.

Residents in the Gallup area lost the ability to make long-distance phone calls for several hours Tuesday, as well as Internet service. Cell phone coverage was spotty until services returned about 6:30 p.m. The outage affected local ATMs and all local businesses, including Safeway that accept EBT benefit payments, which are governed from an office in Albuquerque.

New Mexico Department of Public Safety spokesman Peter Olson says emergency calls for all of Cibola and McKinley counties and part of Catron County were being rerouted with the help of other counties and ham radio operators.

Olson says everything but local phone service was knocked out when the cable east of Grants was damaged.

Qwest Communications spokesman Mark Molzen says crews were on the scene and the company’s priority was to restore 911 service.

Emergency 911 calls were routed to Albuquerque and Valencia County, which then contacted authorities in Gallup using local numbers. At about 4 p.m., McKinley County Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Anthony Dimas installed an Emergency Management Operations Center at Metro Dispatch. Officers with New Mexico State Police, Gallup Police Department, Gallup Fire Department and EMS gathered at the EOC in order to ensure communications between departments.

“It’s a unified command center,” Dimas said about 4:30 p.m.

“So everyone can collaborate and communicate ... we will stay until this clears up.”

In Grants, citizens and emergency services were left in a sea of uncertainty when Internet connections, long distance phone lines, regional dispatch services, ATMs and cell phones just went dead.

The adjacent counties became an island cut off from even their money for several hours.

Media, emergency services and citizens were unable to determine just why they were disconnected at around 2 p.m. because no one could just “look online” or call Qwest repair, which is a long distance call from the Grants area. If no one in the neighborhood knew the answer, there was no answer for most people.

Inquires to the New Mexico State Police in Gallup turned up more questions. “We are trying to find out,” NMSP dispatch representative could say in the mid-afternoon.

The Cibola County Regional Dispatch Center in Grants lost emergency communications to law enforcement and rescue units, as well. The center provided the local numbers to those calling for assistance and provided alternative numbers to be broadcast on local radio until the outage was fixed.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.