Severed line knocks out telephone/Internet to thousands from Placerville to Tahoe

Vandals attempting to steal copper from a telecommunications line near Kyburz were responsible for a massive outage that knocked out phone, Internet, e-mail, fax and some wireless services to customers from Placerville to South Lake Tahoe, authorities and AT&T officials say.

The outage happened at around 8:20 p.m. on Monday, and as of press time had not been fully restored. Sporadic telephone use was reported throughout South Lake Tahoe on Tuesday, but law enforcement, government offices and businesses reported they were still unable to use basic devices such as ATM and fax machines, e-mail, or log onto the Internet with their personal computers.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in business may have been lost because of the outage, say merchants and the South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce.

By noon Tuesday, AT&T reported more than 400,000 phone calls were lost.

The emergency dispatch call center in South Lake Tahoe began diverting telephone calls at about 11 p.m. Monday so that police, sheriff's and fire calls to 911 could be answered.

A fiber and cable line cut multiple times was discovered by telecom crews about 18 miles east of Placerville near Kyburz, about 600 feet north of Highway 50. About 2,000 feet of line was left on the ground south of the American River.

"It was an act of vandalism," AT&T spokeswoman Vanessa Smith said.

The cut line was replaced with about 1,000 feet on Tuesday.

Authorities said the nature of the cut line leads them to believe it was severed with the intent to sell the copper. The scrap metal is worth $1.10 a pound and is thought to be "pretty heavy," El Dorado County Sheriff's Lt. Dale Spear said. Those who steal the metal usually have it melted down and taken to the salvage yard. The Reno Salvage Yard estimated copper goes for about 3 pounds per foot.

A similar case occurred last week near Grass Valley east of Route 20, where thieves took 1,500 feet of copper line. The vandalism knocked out power to the small town of Washington and parts of Nevada City. Another case of copper theft was reported in Elk Grove.

With a white-collar war going on over telecom control, the authorities haven't ruled out competitive sabotage. The case may be investigated by the FBI because of laws guarding emergency services.

"It's a pretty good whodunit," Spear said.

AT&T has offered a $5,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the individuals responsible in both cases, call (925) 543-8000.

Meanwhile, authorities were tested with their own emergency services. County offices based in Placerville were primarily cut off in communicating with Lake Tahoe workers.

When South Lake Tahoe dispatch discovered its 911 services were down and phone lines made it difficult to dial out, supervisor Leona Allen said calls had to be diverted until 11:08 p.m. The main concern was not "knowing who couldn't get through," she said.

When computing the lost time and money in business and credit card transactions, sales and employee down time, the outage could wind up costing South Lake Tahoe businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Duane Wallace, executive director of the South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce.

"One guy I spoke with today said he lost $4,000 today. Now, he may get that back tomorrow but still," Wallace said. "Right now there is no way to gauge it to the dollar, but if you look at the mudslides on Highway 50, we've estimated that it cost business about $1 million a day."

Bill Chancer, a manager at Raley's at the Village Center, reported no disruption in its operation. However, telephones within the store did not work.

"We did get some calls that had to try a few times to get through," Chancer said.

Chancer said the telecom outage shows how dependent Americans are on their technology.

"Look at when we went from stoves to the microwave," he said.

AT&T/SBC indicated it would be open to fielding inquiries regarding the loss of compensation and hardships on a case-by-case basis. Residents may call (800) 310-2355. Businesses may make their claim at (800) 750-2355.