9,000 Phones Temporarily Disconnected in Antelope Valley

A construction firm digging trenches for new phone cables damaged existing phone lines in Palmdale Friday, disrupting service to about 9,000 customers in the Littlerock and Lake Los Angeles communities of the eastern Antelope Valley.

The outage began about 10 a.m. and affected phones with the 261 and 264 prefixes in the Lake Los Angeles area and the 944 prefix in Littlerock, officials said.

Customers did not lose complete service, but were unable to call outside of those prefix areas or receive calls from outside those areas, Pacific Bell spokeswoman Charlene Baldwin said. Pacific Bell repair crews had restored 90% service by 4 p.m., Baldwin said.

Emergency calls to 911 were rerouted to a switching station, where a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy stood by with a radio to handle emergency calls. The deputy had received only one 911 call as of 4:30 p.m., sheriff’s officials said, and no other problems resulting from the outage had been reported.

Baldwin refused to identify the private construction company whose workers caused the outage at 47th Street and Palmdale Boulevard in Palmdale, saying the telephone company would investigate the incident.

“They were doing excavation in order to lay conduit for new underground cables,” she said. “They hit our cable and severed part of it.”

A crew of about 15 was working to repair the damage, she said. Although she predicted full restoration of service by early evening Friday, Baldwin said there might be temporary service disruptions after that before all repairs are completed.