Tree takes out network, power, car
January 5, 2009
By Staff
This tree, which stood on Second Avenue Northwest between Northwest Holly and Northwest Juniper streets, fell Dec. 29. By Comcast
A tree that fell in Issaquah Dec. 29 took out power and communications cables and crushed a car on Second Avenue Northwest.
The incident occurred just before 4 p.m., said Comcast spokesman Steve Kipp. But because power lines were knocked out, too, the Comcast repair crew had to wait for Puget Sound Energy to restore electricity before it could fix Comcast’s fiber optic line.
That line carried telephone and Internet traffic for Issaquah and the Snoqualmie Valley, Kipp said. But, oddly, the falling tree did not sever every single strand of fiber. Some remained intact, and, therefore, some customers had service while others did not.
“In the beginning, it impacted Issaquah primarily,” Kipp said. However, when the repair crews finally began work at 8 p.m., they had to cut the line entirely and splice it back together. That knocked out service to more customers.
“Then, as soon as you start getting fibers fixed, service starts coming on piece by piece,” Kipp said. “Some customers got it quickly. Others were restored later.”
Everyone was back online by 2 a.m. the next day.
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