LAGUNA BEACH : Cave-In Cuts Phone Service to 25,000

Things went from bad to worse this week at Prime Financial Securities, a four-broker securities firm on Ocean Avenue.

First, the stock market on Monday began its 93-point dive to its lowest level in nearly 10 months. Then, about 10 a.m., all the phones in Laguna Beach went out.

“Things came to a screeching halt around here,” said broker George Abrahamsen. “It was almost as bad as ‘87, but in ’87 we had phones and no buyers.”

Abrahamsen was experiencing the same problem that 25,000 General Telephone customers in Laguna Beach had to contend with Monday and Tuesday. Because a phone cable was damaged during a cave-in on Coast Highway, they could call within the three Laguna Beach prefixes but nowhere else.

Even the mayor of Irvine was put out.

“Everybody is mad at me,” said Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan, who Monday evening tried to return her calls from her beach home, a trailer in Laguna Beach’s El Morro Trailer Park. “All I could get was a busy signal.”

The cave-in injured two workers installing a sewer pipe and sheared a cable carrying 400 phone lines, said Linda Bonniksen, a spokesman for Pacific Bell. It was a Pacific Bell cable, but it cut out service to General Telephone customers in Laguna Beach, Bonniksen said.

The outage also cut all emergency 911 calls to the Laguna Beach Police and Fire departments, according to Fire Chief Rich Dewberry. But he said all 911 calls were quickly rerouted through the San Clemente Police Department.

“If there was an emergency we missed, we don’t know about it yet,” Dewberry said.

Seven truckloads of Pacific Bell employees worked until 4 a.m. Tuesday to repair the cable.

“It is a very, very difficult task,” she said. “They had to take 400 pieces of copper wire and match them to their mates, all in the dark.”

All service was restored by Tuesday noon.

Bonniksen said an investigation will determine who is liable for the damage. Preliminary reports indicate the cable was cut when workers were forced to shore up a ditch to help the trapped men.

She could not put a monetary value on damages, nor could Abrahamsen estimate what it cost his company.

Bonniksen said Pacific Bell would reimburse its customers only for one-thirtieth of the monthly service--and only if they ask for it.

“We don’t reimburse for any perceived lost business,” she said. “The Public Utilities Commission protects us in accidents like this.”