A local construction company accidentally cut a Verizon-owned fiber cable in Topanga Canyon, which interrupted telephone service to north county areas Tuesday afternoon. Cities affected by the outage were Camarillo, Malibu, Oxnard, Santa Monica, Topanga, Thousand Oaks and Ventura. Telephone service was cut off at approximately 1:40 p.m. At approximately 4:30 p.m. service was partially restored to Thousand Oaks and around 7:15 p.m. service was restored to most Phone service disruption alarms residentsareas.
Also affected were Internet connections.
While some calls could be made locally with prefixes of 456 and 317, calls to 911 and the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station could not go through. Verizon officials on radio broadcasts suggested in case of an emergency, if possible, people should drive to the hospital or local sheriff’s station.
Several Malibu residents called The Malibu Times, worried it might have been the work of another terrorist attack. One caller, who turned on a television to try to get a news report on the matter, said they thought it could be a terrorist attack on the communications systems, which left news organizations unable to receive calls and therefore unable to alert the public.
More than just phone service was affected. Asked if bank operations were in full service, a Bank of America official said: “Absolutely not.” The bank was taking only straight deposits, giving out a handwritten receipt. Cash could not be withdrawn, checks could not be cashed, and ATMs were out of service. However, at Ralph’s market in the Malibu Colony shopping center, customers could use their ATM cards to shop, but phones were not working.
Cellular phone service was also affected, as the circuits for cellular service runs through cable sometimes.
In what may be a fluke, West Los Angeles also suffered a power outage with a cable line cut near Bundy Drive and Wilshire Boulevard.
Concern about not being able to contact the sheriff’s station in case of an emergency was brought up by Ryan Embree, Public Safety Commission chair.