EL TORO : Telephone Outage Should End Today
Phone service for about 1,500 South County residents should be restored today following two days’ work by a crew repairing underground cables that were damaged during installation of a traffic signal, Pacific Bell officials said.
Although the crew worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday, the damaged cables still needed additional repairs, Bell spokeswoman Linda Bonniksen said. Phone service, however, was restored to about 3,500 customers, she said.
The phone lines originally were scheduled to be repaired by Wednesday morning, but the cables were too difficult to repair because the lines were torn in different areas and there was some water damage, Bonniksen said.
About 5,000 homes and businesses in El Toro, Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills originally lost phone service Tuesday when the cables were cut by an employee from Macadee Electrical Construction of Chino Hills. A crew was drilling a hole to install a traffic signal at the intersection of Jeronimo Road and Cherry Avenue.
The drill cut several lines and missed others, causing telephone service to be interrupted for some residents and businesses but not for others.
By Tuesday night, the repair crew had restored power to 40% of the customers.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
