By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer

Telephone service was knocked out for several hours in five Gorge counties after a main cable was severed at a road crossing in Mosier.

Mary Gumm, public affairs manager for Embarq, the local service provider, said 21,831 customers lost the ability to make calls on either a landline or cell phone. They were also unable to access the Internet.

According to reports, Embarq’s buried cable was cut about 9:45 a.m. on April 23 by a backhoe driver with Mountain State Construction Company. The Sunnyside, Wash., firm had been hired by the City of Mosier to refurbish its wastewater treatment plant.

Gumm said individuals and businesses lost service in Hood River, Wasco, Skamania and the western sector of Sherman County until about 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Communication systems were not up and running in Klickitat County until 4:20 p.m.

“The fact of the matter is that when somebody cuts our cable it’s going to be a problem. But accidents happen in the best of situations,” said Gumm.

John Grim, Mosier’s city engineer, said MSCC requested a site visit by the Embarq engineer prior to excavation but that did not occur. He said the contractor was concerned about digging without knowing the exact whereabouts of the cable. He said Embarq told MSCC via a telephone call that the cable was buried almost 4 feet deep; but, in reality, it was located 18 inches underground.

“The phone line was a direct bury with no conduit, warning tape, or bedding material,” stated Grim in a written statement on Friday.

“Large boulders were located on all sides of the phone line. These characteristics of the phone line installation made it nearly impossible to avoid damage to the line during excavation.

“The city is satisfied with the contractor’s preventative steps prior and during excavation.”

Gumm declined to comment on Grim’s statement until Embarq had completed a thorough “post-event analysis.”

She said 9-1-1 calls were blocked in the Gorge during the outage but there did not appear to be any unhandled emergencies. Hood River County dispatchers confirmed on Thursday that they were unaware of any medical or criminal crises that went unanswered the previous day.

“The bottom line is that people really need to be careful when working around our facilities,” said Gumm.

She said Embarq is authorized to recoup financial losses from the outage. But she is unsure whether any monetary request will be made of MSCC or Mosier officials.